SANDISK ANNOUNCES FOURTH QUARTER AND 2012 YEAR-END RESULTS

Delivers fourth quarter revenue of $1.54 billion with record SSD & Embedded sales
Gross margin improvements drive substantial sequential earnings growth
MILPITAS, Calif., January 23, 2013 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, announced today results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 30, 2012. Total fourth quarter revenue of $1.54 billion decreased 2% on a year-over-year basis and increased 21% on a sequential basis. Total revenue for fiscal 2012 of $5.05 billion decreased 11% from $5.66 billion in fiscal 2011.

On a GAAP(1) basis, fourth quarter net income was $214 million, or $0.87 per diluted share, compared to net income of $281 million, or $1.14 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 and $77 million, or $0.31 per diluted share, in the third quarter of fiscal 2012. Net income for fiscal 2012 was $417 million, or $1.70 per diluted share compared to $987 million, or $4.04 per diluted share in fiscal 2011.

On a non-GAAP(2) basis, fourth quarter net income was $257 million, or $1.05 per diluted share, compared to net income of $317 million, or $1.29 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 and net income of $118 million, or $0.48 per diluted share, in the third quarter of fiscal 2012. Net income for fiscal 2012 was $582 million, or $2.38 per diluted share compared to $1.14 billion, or $4.65 per diluted share in fiscal 2011. For reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP results, see accompanying financial tables and footnotes.

"SanDisk ended 2012 with strong momentum in our SSD business, which contributed 10% of our Q4 revenue. We are now supplying client SSDs to ten leading PC OEMs and our enterprise SSDs are qualified at a fourth storage OEM," said Sanjay Mehrotra, president and chief executive officer of SanDisk. "We drove solid sequential growth in our embedded mobile products and continued to execute well in our retail business. We believe that our broadening customer engagements and expanding product portfolio position us well for strong profitability in 2013."

FOURTH QUARTER 2012 KEY FINANCIAL METRICS
Metric
in millions of US$, except %
GAAP
Non - GAAP
Q412 Q411 Q312 Q412 Q411 Q312
Revenue $1,542 $1,577 $1,273 $1,542 $1,577 $1,273
Gross Profit
% of revenue $603
39.1% $662
42.0% $383
30.1% $615
39.9% $676
42.9% $395
31.0%
Operating Income
% of revenue $336
21.8% $416
26.4% $132
10.4% $368
23.9% $449
28.5% $164
12.9%
At the end of the fourth quarter, SanDisk's cash and short and long-term marketable investments totaled $5.71 billion.


CONFERENCE CALL
SanDisk's fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 conference call is scheduled for 2:00 P.M., Pacific Time, Wednesday, January 23, 2013. The conference call will be webcast and can be accessed live, and throughout the quarter, at SanDisk's website at www.sandisk.com/IR. To participate in the call via telephone, the dial-in number is             719-457-2679       and the dial-in password is 5242141. A copy of this press release will be furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission on a current report on Form 8-K and will be posted to our website prior to the conference call.

ABOUT SANDISK
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, from research and development, product design and manufacturing to branding and distribution for OEM and retail channels. Since 1988, SanDisk's innovations in flash memory and storage system technologies have provided customers with new and transformational digital experiences. SanDisk's diverse product portfolio includes flash memory cards and embedded solutions used in smart phones, tablets, digital cameras, camcorders, digital media players and other consumer electronic devices, as well as USB flash drives and solid-state drives (SSD) for the computing market. SanDisk's products are used by consumers and enterprise customers around the world.

SanDisk is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 and Fortune 500 company, with more than half its sales outside the United States. For more information, visit www.sandisk.com.