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

To: 16yearcycle who wrote (33538)	12/21/1999 9:09:00 PM
From: Duker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

DuPont Photomasks warns of lower earnings in quarter semibiznews.com [Rembember: The mask business is an entirely strange and bizarre animal. --Duker] Semiconductor Business News (12/21/99, 06:10:13 PM EDT) ROUND ROCK, Tex.--DuPont Photomasks Inc. (DPI) today warned investors that its earnings per share will fall below Wall Street's consensus because of lower than expected revenues in the three-month period, ending Dec. 31. DPI estimated that revenues for the current quarter will increase 15-17% over last year's $61.9 million sales, but earnings per share will come in at $0.19 to $0.24 vs. $0.44 as predicted by financial analysts. Last year DPI posted an earnings per share of $0.20. DPI's revenues in North America have been less than expected because the company delayed investments in high-end photomask capacity while aggressively expanding in Asia, according to Marshall Turner, interim chairman and chief executive officer at DPI. "That impacted our ability to meet the leading-edge requirements of some customers this quarter," Turner said. In Europe, DPI revenues were eroded by lower prices for photomasks due to an excess in capacity and a competitive environment, Turner said. "In addition, our costs have increased along with the strategic investments that we've made to position us for the expected growth in the industry," he said. "Our earnings in any particular quarter are sensitive to relatively small variations in revenues due to the high fixed cost structure of this industry. Incremental revenue this quarter was not great enough to offset those costs." Turner noted that the chip industry is now in an upturn that analysts say is similar to the boom 1993-1995 cycle. "In previous industry cycles, the photomask industry has lagged the semiconductor and semiconductor capital equipment industries by 12-24 months," Turner said. "We expect to begin experiencing stronger growth by the second half of calendar 2000."