Hynix and SanDisk Announce Patent Cross License Agreement.Plan to Form Joint Venture for x4 Technology SEOUL, South Korea & MILIPITAS, Calif. -- Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :SNDK) announced today that they have reached an agreement for a patent cross license covering the Flash memory components of both companies and an agreement for product supply. Concurrently, the companies signed a memorandum of understanding A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is a legal document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action and may not imply a legal commitment. that outlines a joint venture contemplated between the two companies which will manufacture memory components and sell NAND (Not AND) A Boolean logic operation that is true if any single input is false. Two-input NAND gates are often used as the sole logic element on gate array chips, because all Boolean operations can be created from NAND gates. See flash memory. memory system solutions. Details of the joint venture will involve equal capital investments by both companies in dedicated production capacity at Hynix. The parties' x4 technology cooperation was started between msystems Ltd. and Hynix before the acquisition of msystems by SanDisk. Other terms of the agreement are confidential to the parties. O.C. Kwon, Senior Vice President of Hynix Semiconductor Inc., said, "We are very pleased to successfully conclude negotiations with SanDisk in a way that will benefit the customers and shareholders of both companies. With the patent cross license behind us, we are able to put aside distractions and turn our attention to a very promising relationship in the development of x4 technology. We look forward to building on this relationship to our companies' mutual benefit." Eli Harari, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of SanDisk, said, "This cross license agreement resolves all IP issues between Hynix and SanDisk, and allows each company to focus on maximizing its opportunities. Hynix has done an outstanding job in NAND flash See flash memory. manufacturing in the past few years, and I look forward to cooperating with Hynix through the joint venture planned between our two companies." About Hynix Semiconductor Inc. Hynix Semiconductor Inc. of Icheon, Korea, is the world's top tier memory semiconductor supplier offering various Dynamic Random Access Memory Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is a type of random access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor within an integrated circuit. Since real capacitors leak charge, the information eventually fades unless the capacitor charge is refreshed periodically. chips ("DRAMs") and Flash memory chips to a wide range of established international customers. The Company's shares are traded on the Korea Stock Exchange Korea Stock Exchange The major securities market of Korea. , and the Global Depository The place where a deposit is placed and kept, e.g., a bank, savings and loan institution, credit union, or trust company. A place where something is deposited or stored as for safekeeping or convenience, e.g., a safety deposit box. shares are listed on the Luxemburg Stock Exchange. Further information about Hynix is available at www.hynix.com. About SanDisk SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world's largest supplier of flash data storage card products using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Milpitas, CA and has operations worldwide with more than half its sales outside the U.S. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the proposed joint venture that are based on the companies' current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate and may significantly and adversely affect the companies' business, financial condition and results of operations. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others: the companies being unable to agree on the definitive terms of a joint venture, slower than expected growth in market demand for the joint venture's products or a slower adoption rate for these products in current and new markets than the companies currently expect, future selling price erosion may be more severe than the companies' expectations due to decreased demand or excess industry capacity of flash memory, interruptions of or delay in supply from any of the semiconductor manufacturing or subcontracting facilities, including test and assembly facilities that supply products to the joint venture, slower than expected expansion of SanDisk's global sales channels, fluctuations in operating results, unexpected yield variances, inability to make geometry conversions in a timely manner, less than expected growth in the average megabyte One million bytes, or more precisely 1,048,576 bytes. Also MB, Mbyte and M-byte. See mega and space/time. (unit) megabyte - (MB, colloquially "meg") 2^20 = 1,048,576 bytes = 1024 kilobytes. 1024 megabytes are one gigabyte. capacity per finished good, higher than expected operating expenses Operating expenses The amount paid for asset maintenance or the cost of doing business, excluding depreciation. Earnings are distributed after operating expenses are deducted. , higher than anticipated capital equipment expenditures, adverse global economic and geo-political conditions, including adverse currency exchange rates and acts of terror and war, the timely development, internal qualification and customer acceptance of new products that are based on smaller geometry NAND and x4 technology, fluctuations in license and royalty revenues, business interruption due to earthquakes, hurricanes, pandemics, power outages This is a list of famous wide-scale power outages. 1965
A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. . Future results may differ materially from those previously reported. The companies do not intend to update the information contained in this release. |
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