Eighteen months ago, Sandisk (SNDK) was a newly independent company with a lot to prove. It had just split from Western Digital (WDC) and operated in an extremely cyclical industry. Moreover, investors saw its core product, the NAND flash chip, as a low-value commodity.
CEO David Goeckeler still remembers the warnings. At Sandisk's August 13 Investor Day, he recalled investors pulling him aside to ask why he took the job at all.