Kulicke & Soffa Sells Saws and Hard Material Blades Businesses to Advanced Dicing Technologies, Ltd.
Friday August 22, 11:14 am ET
WILLOW GROVE, PA--(MARKET WIRE)--Aug 22, 2003 -- Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. (NasdaqNM:KLIC - News) today announced that the Company has sold the assets associated with its sawing equipment and hard material blades operations to Advanced Dicing Technologies, Ltd., for a combination of $1.2 million in cash and the assumption of $3.5 million of liabilities. The sale included 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. Advanced Dicing Technologies (ADT) is a new company located in Israel, with a management team that has a long history in the dicing business.
Source: Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc.
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New: 7100 Series Dicing Saws
C. Scott Kulicke, chairman and chief executive officer of K&S stated, "We have taken great care to find the right buyer and then structure the agreement of sale in order to provide a seamless transition for our current customers. We believe this transaction certainly meets that goal."
He continued, "These businesses represented a little over 2% of the Company's revenue for the first three quarters. Going forward, we anticipate the sale of these businesses will be cash positive for K&S, but will result in asset write-offs of approximately $5.5 million."
Asher Brockmann, chairman of Advanced Dicing Technologies (ADT) added, "We expect to retain most of the current K&S employees, including the worldwide sales, service, and support staff involved in the dicing businesses. In addition, most of our company's new management have their roots in K&S. So we bring our knowledge and experience for continuity in the marketplace, combined with a new focus on the future of the company. We are extremely excited about the future of this business, which is dedicated to dicing solutions."
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.
For further information, please contact Michael Sheaffer of Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc., +1-215-784-6411, or msheaffer@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.
Contact:
Contact: Michael Sheaffer
Company: Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc.
Voice: 215-784-6411
Email: msheaffer@kns.com
Source: Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. |
