It is probably Intel; Intel is PRI's largest customer
Asyst's decision to shutdown Asyst Automation should not make a big difference as PRI has a large market share. Now that Asyst & PRI don't compete, they are free to work together (as in merge'). See the following report from 'Electronic News Online'
PARTNERS IN LINE? -- Heavy R&D outlays looming for semiconductor equipment firms are prompting smaller ones to
contemplate joint efforts -- but with whom? They're not saying. "We are being somewhat active in looking for partners
in tool loading automation," said Mihir Parikh, chairman/CEO, Fremont, Calif.-based Asyst Technology, to Today's EN
at SEMInvest '97. The company just closed its automation subsidiary but said it was hiking R&D outlays for "a new
incarnation" of automation, including a 300mm effort. Mitch Tyson, president/COO of Billerica, Mass.-based PRI
Automation, an archrival of Asyst, also told EN at the same SEMI forum: "There are so many new automation needs
coming up, and areas for us to expand into, like software, 300mm tool automation. We may be looking for acquisitions in
these areas." Alliances or licensing pacts are also possible. Said one industry analyst: "These two should get together.
It would make a lot of strategic sense." He added that Brooks Automation, another major U.S. automation player,
"looked and didn't imply that they had stopped looking" at doing something, "probably acquisition-related," with
Asyst. |
