RP and all, >Managing Director Susan Billat investigates capacity concerns, the move to .18 microns, the difficulties small firms face trying to attract contracts from global companies and the sector's turnaround since October '98. Billat declares, ''One of my favorites right now for front-end-wafer-processing is Applied Materials, a true industry leader. One of the hallmarks of Applied is taking market share during downturn. During downturns, the chip industry tends to evaluate its suppliers and make decisions for its next generation of tooling. When the upturn comes, engineers are so busy adding capacity, they are much less likely to change suppliers. So one of the key indicators to determine who the winners are is who gained market share during the last downturn, and Applied did that in spades. So did Novellus, and they're another favorite of mine -- as well as Lam Research, which is really a comeback story, a company that had a very difficult time.''<
The above is an excerpt from The Wall Street Transcript,
FWIW.
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