Flash me that cash! If I was SanDisk, this could very well be my current mindset right now. As things stand, this is a pretty decent meal ticket for them right now.

SanDisk (Quote, Chart) today agreed to purchase msystems Ltd. (Quote, Chart) for $1.55 billion in stock, a deal that would add another big fish to the shrinking pool of Flash memory technology.

Both vendors make USB drives and Flash memory (define) cards, coveted by makers of mobile phones, MP3 players and digital cameras, because the data is retained even when the power is cut off.

There are two main types of Flash memory: NAND (define) and NOR (define).

NOR Flash memory has traditionally been used to store relatively small amounts of executable code for embedded computing devices such as PDAs and cell phones.

NAND Flash memory has become the preferred format for storing larger quantities of data on devices such as USB Flash drives, digital cameras and MP3 players.

SanDisk and msystems specialize in NAND; SanDisk sells to retail outlets while msystems keeps the lower profile, selling products that fit in mobile phones to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Kingston and Memorex… Source: InternetNews