>> <Thanks for the response. Your point is quite valid about AMAT not being able to
do a hostile takeover b/c of the fleeing of talent.>
Not to be arguementative because I am not involved in the business... BUT, 1.)
where would the "talent" go in a market like this. 2.) I would think the "talent"
would love to work for a "deep pockets" firm that they know are in it for the long
haul. <<
Since I made the original comment about talent flight, I should probably be the one to defend it....
There are only a few hundred top drawer stepper and optical design engineers in the world, maybe fewer than that. These people WILL NOT be laid off by their current employers under any circumstances short of bankruptcy. Should they decide to seek greener pastures, they will find them regardless of broad industry conditions, because they're money in the bank to a stepper vendor.
(Are, say, the chief oncologist at a top cancer center, the chief software architect at Microsoft, or the best plasma physicist at AMAT ever likely to have to scramble for work? No. That's the class of people I'm talking about here.)
As for the virtues of deep pockets, ASML, Nikon, and Canon are all in the stepper business for the long haul, too, and as core litho companies they are likely to be viewed as more comfortable places to be. That's why I made the original argument that a hostile takeover would not be in AMAT's interest.
IMO all of this is speculation, though. If AMAT were going to buy SVGL, they would have done it already. Now, they need to worry about using all that cash to keep their own infrastructure healthy instead.
Katherine |
