Kulicke & Soffa Reaches Agreement to Sell Saws and Hard Material Blades Businesses
Monday August 4, 2:26 pm ET
WILLOW GROVE, PA--(MARKET WIRE)--Aug 4, 2003 -- Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. (NasdaqNM:KLIC - News) today announced that the Company has signed an Agreement of Sale for the assets associated with the Company's sawing equipment and hard material blades operations. The agreement includes fixed assets, inventories, and intellectual property for the K&S sawing equipment business, located in Haifa, Israel, and the Micro-Swiss hard material blades business, located in Yokneam, Israel. Completion of the sale is subject to certain conditions including approval of the K&S Board of Directors, completion of an IT transition support agreement, approval of Israeli government agencies, and the consent of various third parties. The Company does not intend to sell its Semitec brand, IC dicing blades business, located in Santa Clara, California.
C. Scott Kulicke, chairman and chief executive officer, commented, "While sawing is a critical process in semiconductor manufacturing, there are very few interactions with the wire bonding process, which represents our core technology. Therefore, the saws business has not benefited from the process development synergies that have been developed among our other businesses."
He continued, "These businesses represent approximately 2% of the Company's revenue for the first three fiscal quarters, so our shareholders will not see a significant shift in revenue going forward, as a result of the sale. However, the Company expects to realize further cost reductions as a result of this sale."
About Kulicke & Soffa
Kulicke & Soffa (NasdaqNM:KLIC - News) is the world's leading supplier of wire bonding equipment in the semiconductor assembly market. K&S is the only equipment supplier that also develops and manufactures the products that touch a semiconductor chip's wire bonding pad surfaces, starting with electrical testing and ending with specially formed wire interconnections that remain as a part of the chip's package. These products include: test probes; bonding wire; and capillaries, which provide an all-inclusive interconnect process when used with the company's wire bonding equipment. In addition, the company offers Flip Chip wafer bumping services and technology. Chip scale and wafer level packaging solutions include Ultra CSP® technology. Test interconnect products include standard and vertical probe cards, ATE interface assemblies and ATE boards for wafer testing, as well as test sockets and contactors for all types of packages. Kulicke & Soffa's web site address is www.kns.com.
Caution Concerning Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are found in various places throughout the press release. While these forward-looking statements represent our judgments and future expectations concerning the development of our business, a number of risks, uncertainties and other important factors could cause actual developments and results to differ materially from our expectations. These factors include, but are not limited to, those listed or discussed in Kulicke & Soffa Industries' 2002 Annual Report on Form 10-K and: the risk of failure to successfully manage our operations; the risk that anticipated orders may not materialize or that orders received may be postponed or canceled, generally without charges; the risk that anticipated cost savings will not be achieved; the volatility in the demand for semiconductors and our products and services; acts of terrorism and violence; overall global economic conditions; risks, such as changes in trade regulations, currency fluctuations, political instability and war, associated with a substantial foreign customer and supplier base and substantial foreign manufacturing operations; potential instability in foreign capital markets; and other key factors that could adversely affect our businesses and financial performance contained in past and future filings and reports, including those with the SEC. Kulicke & Soffa Industries is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaims any obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. |
