Here's an interesting piece that I think is wrongly titled....
Applied polishes off rivals in CMP market
By Mark LaPedus
Semiconductor Business News
(04/16/03 09:33 p.m. EST)
SAN JOSE -- Applied Materials Inc. dominated the equipment market for chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) applications in 2002, with Ebara Corp. and Novellus Systems Inc. nipping at its heels, according to new figures from Dataquest Inc.
Applied lost share in a bad market. In total, the CMP equipment market dropped from $1 billion in 2001, to $734.3 million in 2002, according to the San Jose-based research firm.
Applied's CMP equipment share fell from 62.1 percent in 2001, to 61.3 percent in 2002, according to Dataquest. Its CMP equipment sales went from $632.5 million in 2001, to $450.3 million in 2002.
Japan's Ebara remained in second place, as its CMP equipment share went from 23 percent in 2001, to 22 percent in 2002. Its sales in the sector fell from $234.8 million in 2001, to $161.3 million in 2002, the report said.
Steven Pelayo, an analyst with Morgan Stanley in San Francisco, said Novellus is the company to watch in 2002. Novellus jumped to third place with $64.4 million in CMP equipment sales last year, or 8.8 percent of the CMP equipment market. Last year, the company entered the market following its acquisition of SpeedFam-IPEC Inc., a supplier of CMP systems, in a stock deal estimated to be worth approximately $220 million.
In 2001, SpeedFam-IPEC had $78.9 million in CMP equipment sales, with 7.7 percent of the market. Also in 2001, Lam Research had 3.1 percent, Peter Wolters had 2.6 percent, Strasbaugh had 1 percent and Okamoto had 0.3 percent.
Rounding out the rankings for CMP equipment in 2002 were Lam Research (6.3 percent), Peter Wolters (1.3 percent), Strasbaugh (0.2 percent), and Okamoto (0.1 percent). |
