*AV*--I have reprinted the link below for everyone's information.
Asyst/PRI Automation seems like a terrific combination.
This has been talked about many times before. They seem to be the natural competitors in the automation segment. I don't think any other combination makes sense for Asyst, as it would be more difficult to OEM if they were owned by one of the tool makers.
If PRI and Asyst merged, they would have an essential monopoly in one of the fastest growing segments of the semi-cap market. I think it would preserve profits and lead to greater shareholder value for both firms.
And, given that Asyst is weathering the current cycle better than PRIA, this would be a great time for the merger if you are an Asyst shareholder.
JMHO (I don't know of anything in the works0
This individual makes a great deal of sense. The merger actually makes a great deal of sense. For the most part they are not fierce competitors and a merger would produce very little overlap. From this viewpoint is makes a great deal of sense. ASYT should be weathering this storm a little bit better since all of its business is not tied into new equipment purchases. Their OEM business is growing and is affected by the downturn HOWEVER, a nice portion of its business is both retrofit and new fab construction which is very cost effective. In these lean times more companies are using the minienvironment approach allowing them to improve yields, low costs and maybe even run a more advanced technology. With this comes its "robotic" units that are retrofitted into the existing equipment.
PRIA, on the other hand, is more tightly tied to the new equipment purchases and new fab construction. Even though it has a great potential in the retrofit arena of existing fabs, it is my opinion that this type of upgrade is being viewed as non essential during these troubled times. The retrofits by PRIA are more likely to be justified as a yield enhancement due to a decrease in misprocessing errors caused by human manual operation of the diffusion systems. These types of yield issues can be addressed at no cost by improving training and attention to detail. I do not mean to pur PRIA down at all with this comment. It is just the PRIA retrofit is more of a convenience for ease of operation (automating the process) with a benefit of reducing misprocess thereby improving line yield. The defect reduction yield benefits are still there but are not as pronounced as with an ASYT retrofit program.
Therefore, in lean times, given you may have to choose one over the other, ASYT would win hands down, IMO.
The comments made by this individual in the original message makes a great deal of sense. I would be extremely pleased to see a marriage of these two companies. It would definitely benefit both companies and would dramtically increase the speed at which these types of programs are adopted by the industry. I find it quite amusing that some of my fellow engineers are starting to believe that there will be no way you could process 12 inch wafers in batch processes through the diffusion areas without the use of PRIA automation unless you start hiring ex-NFL linemaen to perform the heavy transfer functions. They also seem to agree that at sub 0.18u coupled with the cost of a 12" substrate, you are virutally guaranteed that most of these new fabs will require SMIF Pods and Electronic Tags, at a minimum, to ensure proper processing and contamination control. With these two items there will be a need for either the integrated indexers or WIP staging units to handle these pods. In other words, I get the distinct feeling that ASYT automation and minienvironments may be a "given" at 12" (300mm) and sub 0.18u feature sizes. With that said, it is only a matter of time not a matter of if ASYT will be successful.
IDTI-I gotta think that now is the time to pull the trigger on IDTI. But to be safe, I would watch closely and make sure I do not let it rise above 8.75 before loading up. As long as the price is at this level there is no great rush to buy the stock today. At $8 it is a good price and even if it runs to $9 (a 16% gain), I would still wait it out and try to catch it on the upswing. There is alot of room for profits between the $9 and $15 levels if you miss the absolute low. So yes, it is trigger pulling time but you may have some time to take better aim.
Andrew
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