The Motley Fool's Market Movers (Heroes)
The Motley Fool - August 17, 1998 18:27
August 17, 1998/FOOLWIRE/ -- Spyglass (Nasdaq: SPYG), a
developer of Internet software and technologies for TV set-top boxes,
network computers, and cellular phones, rose $1 3/8 to $11 1/4 after
disclosing a licensing agreement with Motorola (NYSE: MOT) in a federal
filing on Friday. According to the filing, Spyglass agreed in June to
license versions of its Mosaic and MicroServer software and its ThinGUI
graphics library to Motorola for an unspecified product. Spyglass CEO
Douglas Colbeth told several news outlets that the agreement is worth
"multiple millions" of dollars over an unspecified time frame, making it
the largest deal for the company since it entered the Internet devices
market in fiscal 1997. Investors are hoping Spyglass will benefit as
Internet users transition to non-PC access devices, such as screenphones
and smart handheld devices. The Motorola deal validates that strategy
somewhat and also provides Spyglass with some much needed visibility of
its future prospects.
Shares of semiconductor capital equipment companies took off today after
automated test equipment and electronic equipment backplane manufacturer
Teradyne (NYSE: TER) announced that semiconductor fabrication company
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) has purchased "multiple"
Catalyst test systems. As back-end test equipment is usually the first
capital equipment to be added to a fabrication facility (fab) to
increase output, this news and news of another order for Teradyne from
another Taiwan merchant fab were greeted warmly by other semiconductor
capital equipment manufacturers. Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT)
climbed $2 3/16 to $33 5/16 and Novellus (Nasdaq: NVLS) added $3 5/16 to
$39 11/16. Today's news follows last week's large order for other types
of assembly equipment from Kulicke & Soffa (Nasdaq: KLIC), which usually
acts as one of the better barometers for the semiconductor and
semiconductor capital equipment industry. Also moving today was
KLA-Tencor (Nasdaq: KLAC), the leader in yield enhancement and process
control equipment for the semiconductor industry. SoundView started
coverage of the company with a "long-term buy" rating, estimating fiscal
2000 EPS of $1.74, well above the current IBES estimate of $1.58.
Vascular radiation devices maker Novoste Corp. (Nasdaq: NOVT) gained $4
1/16 to $15 1/16 after saying 78 of 85 patients in a trial group of its
Beta-Cath system reported a 50% reduction in their restenosis rate
compared to a control group after receiving radiation treatment with the
device. Restenosis refers to the renarrowing of the arteries following
treatment with balloon angioplasty. After an angioplasty, healthcare
workers can use the Beta-Cath to keep the arteries open, increasing the
effectiveness of the less-invasive angioplasty procedure vis-a-vis the
longer-lasting but more expensive and strenuous coronary artery bypass
graft surgery. Novoste is hoping the system, which may be approved for
limited use in Europe by the end of the year, will either become a
stand-alone treatment for restenosis or will be used in conjunction with
coronary stents made by firms such as Guidant (NYSE: GDT) and Boston
Scientific (NYSE: BSX).
|
