Head of SanDisk Taiwan announces unexpected resignation

The ex-MSystems Asia president and head of SanDisk Taiwan following the merger of the companies, recently announced his unexpected resignation. According to industry speculation, the step down was called for after the regional division incurred heavy losses from TwinMOS Technologies' account with the company.

Industry sources indicated that Wei-Shiun Yang failed to recognize an account receivable worth NT$800 million-1 billion (US$26.4-32.9 million) from TwinMOS which is said to be the major cause of the sudden resignation.

TwinMOS had long been one of SanDisk's distributors in China, mainly focusing on the distribution of bundled small-form-factor memory cards for use in handset. This business tie was inherited from the established relationship between TwinMOS and MSystems on USB drives, the sources said.

TwinMOS used to have about NT$200-300 million of its monthly sales contributed by SanDisk. But during late 2007 to early 2008, SanDisk relaxed its open account limit to TwinMOS, resulting a higher-than-expected losses after TwinMOS suspended operations, the sources explained.

The sources indicated that SanDisk has been consistently trimming its head-count globally since May 2008. The number of employees at SanDisk Taiwan is currently less than half the number during the early stages of the MSystems merger, they noted.