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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: w0z who wrote (31416)	7/13/1999 9:58:00 AM
From: Jeffrey D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

AMAT set for more acquisitions, per Mr. Morgan and Bloomberg. Jeff Applied Materials Plans More Acquisitions in Effort to Pick Up Technology By Erik Schatzker Applied Materials Plans More Acquisitions to Gain Technology San Francisco, July 13 (Bloomberg) -- Applied Materials Inc., the biggest maker of equipment for the semiconductor industry, plans to acquire more companies to gain technology it doesn't have, Chief Executive Jim Morgan said. Targets will include manufacturers whose equipment checks semiconductors for defects and others with tools used to electrically charge the silicon wafers that become chips. Morgan said the companies likely will be small with few or no sales. Applied is accelerating its acquisition pace as customers demand new products to make chips more powerful. Rather than develop the necessary technology in-house, Morgan said he's now willing to pay to gain share in markets where Applied isn't the No. 1 company. ''As our customers outsource more of their problems, we're looking for ways to provide solutions for them,'' Morgan said in an interview at the Semicon West trade show. ''If we don't have it in house, we'll bring it in from the outside.'' Applied has employed the strategy before. It broke into the chip-inspection business with the purchase in 1996 of two Israeli companies, Opal Inc. and Orbot Instrument Inc. That put Applied into direct competition with KLA-Tencor Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. Last year, Applied bought Consilium Inc., a software maker, and in May it agreed to acquire Obsidian Inc. to gain a chip- polishing system it didn't have. Morgan still has his sights set on KLA-Tencor and Hitachi, the leaders in chip inspection and process diagnostics. In electrical charging, a process known as ion implantation, he's taking on Eaton Corp. and Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc. ''Those are the areas where we're weakest, so we'll try to beef them up,'' Morgan said. Morgan declined to say how many companies Applied is looking at or when it could make the next acquisition. He did say that it also may buy minority stakes in companies, as with Triant Technologies Inc. last month. To make the investments, Applied could use some of its more than $2 billion in cash, or stock. Its shares, which fell 1 1/8 to 73 yesterday, have risen 71 percent this year.

To: w0z who wrote (31416)	7/13/1999 10:42:00 AM
From: Tony Viola	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Re CNBC appearance, Morgan was in a room or booth with real equipment, I guess at the conference going on this week. Very upbeat as has been the case all year. He's beginning to look, sound, to me, something like super-salesman Chambers of Cisco, I believe a friend of his. This is meant as a positive. Nothing really new came out, but what was said: - 0.18 micron, copper and 300 mm are the drivers for the next 2 - 3 years. He also mentioned low K dielectric for faster basic transistor realization, which Intel has been concentrating on for speed improvement, as a driver over the next 2 - 3 years. Haynes asked if customers had to buy new equipment for each of these drivers. Morgan more or less said yes. "You had to pay to play." Not sure though, and I don't know enough about the different pieces to comment. Katherine, please? - AMAT gaining share because they have more of the tools than anyone else. One stop shopping. - Japan looking much better recently. - Haynes asked "what inning are we in re the comeback. Morgan: "just getting started." I know I missed something. Anyone else? Tony