Brooks posts flat revenues, but sees bottom of fab investment down cycle
Semiconductor Business News
(01/24/02 09:12 a.m. EST)
CHELMSFORD, Mass.--Brooks Automation Inc. here reported sequentially flat revenues at $61.5 million in the company's fiscal first quarter, ended Dec. 31. The supplier of wafer fab automation systems said sales were 45% below $111.4 million in the quarter a year ago.
Including restructuring charges and costs for acquisitions, Brooks posted a net loss of $7.73 million in the just-ended quarter. Without those items, the company said its net loss was $5.3 million, or $0.27 per share. Included in the results are the partial-quarter contributions of its three recent acquisitions: General Precision Inc., Tec-Sem AG, and the Automation Systems Group of Zygo Corp.
"As the worldwide semiconductor capital equipment market approaches the bottom of its down cycle, Brooks saw its business remaining essentially flat from the previous quarter," said Robert J. Therrien, president and CEO Brooks in Chelmsford. "Continued reductions in semiconductor capital spending adversely affected our OEM-driven tool automation division, while both our factory software and factory hardware divisions were up slightly sequentially," he said, adding that this business segment was "resisting the downward pressures of the market."
The chief executive officer said his company has been encouraged by 300-mm wafer fab activities at chip makers. "In the first quarter, approximately 39% of Brooks' revenues were from 300-mm customers, compared to 21% for the first quarter of fiscal 2001," he added.
For the current quarter, which ends in March, the automation supplier expects to post sequentially flat revenues, plus or minus 5%, Therrien said. He estimated that the company would report a loss of $0.40-to-$0.50 per share for the current quarter.
Brooks is now in the middle of a major merger with PRI Automation Inc. of Billerica, Mass., which has agreed to be acquired by the Chelmsford company to create the world's largest supplier of fab automation systems. The transaction is now under review by U.S. agencies and expected to result in a new combined company, called Brooks-PRI Automation Inc., with annual revenues of about $700 million (see Oct. 24 story). |
