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Technology Stocks : Speedfam [SFAM] Lovers Unite ! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Tao who wrote (3511)	1/12/2000 8:58:00 PM
From: SteveC	Respond to of 3736

I think we're up over 20% since Mr. Sam's recent bullish post. It seems the whole sector is on fire. The following article both poses a challenge and opportunity for SFAM -- they need to roll out equipment quicker, but the lead held by AMAT is no longer secure. Intel Exec Chides Semi Turnaround Time Jan 12, 2000 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- Semiconductor equipment suppliers must speed up the delivery time and ramp-to-performance of their gear to satisfy the shorter design cycles of their chip customers, a senior Intel executive said Tuesday. "Our technology cycles have shrunk over the last 10 years from three and half years to two years and sometimes even less than two years," said Michael Splinter, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Technology and Manufacturing Group. "When the technology gets that fast, there isn't a whole lot of time to wait. We need that mature equipment performance and run rate early in the life cycle of the technology right out of the box. That's a huge expenditure for us today, waiting and working and driving the pieces of equipment to maturity. Splinter was speaking to executives at the annual Industry Strategy Symposium in Pebble Beach, Calif. "Oftentimes, we don't get there before the peak of the technology, and that just results in us buying more pieces ofequipment than we would have needed," Splinter said. "It frustrates us, and frustration between customers and suppliers is never good." Chip makers need their equipment vendors to respond more quickly, he said. "I don't think we've seen lead time reduction in the equipment industry ever," Splinter said. "We see stretching out then shrinking out, but lead times never get on average less than six to nine months. That's too long in this economy. It's too long compared to the life cycles of our technology." By the time the equipment is installed and running, a full year can pass before wafers start coming out of the end of the pipe, he added. "What can we do together to cut that time? Why can't we be three months on average?" Splinter asked the audience, which was made up primarily of equipment and materials suppliers. Price competition in the microprocessor market has forced Intel to pay greater attention to cost. "A few years ago, I think most people would say Intel doesn't worry a whole lot about cost, but certainly I think you've seen a pretty dramatic change in the way we act and the way we negotiate and the overall concern of the resulting cost of our product," he said. One of those changes has been to use more than one supplier for certain pieces of equipment, he said. To win Intel's business, a supplier will have to make the best balance between technology, speed, and cost, Splinter said. The chip industry will need to better utilize remote diagnostics to service quickly the far-flung wafer fabs, he said. With most of the equipment expertise concentrated in a relatively few heads, the Internet will also need to be used to get that expertise where it's needed, he said. Intel plans to quickly move forward to 300-mm wafer sizes, since that will reduce its cost of wafers back to where it was in the early 1990's, Splinter said. "That's extremely motivating for us," he said. Intel will start its 0.13-micron next generation process on 200-mm wafers, but will quickly move it to 300-mm wafers, he added. Copyright (C) 2000 CMP Media Inc.

To: Jim Tao who wrote (3511)	1/18/2000 9:26:00 PM
From: SteveC	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3736

This should give us another pop tomorrow: Novellus Systems Reports Record Fourth Quarter and Year-End 1999 Results SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2000--Novellus Systems Inc. (Nasdaq/NM: NVLS) Tuesday reported net sales and results of operations for its fiscal fourth quarter and year ended Dec. 31, 1999. Net sales for the quarter were a record $191.7 million, an increase of 81 percent over fourth quarter 1998 net sales of $106.0 million. Net income of $33.0 million and $0.27 per share was recorded for the fourth quarter of 1999, an increase of 305 percent and 238 percent respectively, when compared with the fourth quarter 1998 net income of $8.1 million and $0.08 per share. The per-share amounts are stated on a diluted basis and are adjusted for the 3-for-1 stock split that was announced on Dec. 17, 1999, and became effective after the close of the market on Jan. 14, 2000. Net sales for the year were a record $592.7 million, an increase of 14.3 percent from 1998 net sales of $518.8 million. Net income for the year was $76.6 million, or $0.64 per share, an increase of 45 percent and 28 percent, respectively, when compared with net income posted in 1998 of $52.8 million, or $0.50 per share. Cash and short-term investments at Dec. 31, 1999, were $385.3 million, an increase of $31.1 million over third quarter 1999 balances of $354.2 million. Cash generation continued in the fourth quarter despite increased working capital requirements to support revenue growth. Backlog at Dec. 31, 1999, reached a record $329.5 million, an increase of 204 percent from the $108.5 million reported at Dec. 31, 1998. Record bookings generated a book-to-bill ratio substantially greater than 1.0 to 1.0 for the fourth quarter of 1999. Richard Hill, chairman and chief executive officer said: "We are extremely pleased with the record bookings, backlog, and revenue achieved by the company in 1999. Semiconductor industry fundamentals continue to improve, driving our customers' capital spending for additional capacity and advanced technology." Hill also added: "The bookings strength of the third and fourth quarters of 1999 demonstrates our customers' confidence in Novellus' ability to quickly ramp production and provide innovative solutions to meet their increasing capacity expansions and advanced technology requirements. Novellus remains committed to new product development and continuous improvement of existing products to maintain our role as the industry leader for deposition technologies."