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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ScotMcI who wrote (23968)	1/15/2000 10:53:00 PM
From: Andrew Vance	Respond to of 25960

I agree with keeping CYMI independent. I would not think a stepper manufacturer could take over CYMI without the permission of other manufacturers manufacturers. My take is that there are numerous stepper manufacturers that already have a stake in CYMI to ensure deliveries. As far as Cymer being in the delicate position of knowing a great deal about the business plans and technology of their customers, and companies would want to avoid letting the competition have that info at all costs, you would be surprised at the integrity of companies. I personally knew a captive mask house back in the late 70s that made masks for the competitors of their mother company. Everything was kept on the up and up and no confidential data ever went into the wrong hands. This is an extreme case since having the mask data tapes WAS the reverse engineering that any competitors would give their eye teeth for. But the best example is a prior employer of mine that made chips for all of the major disk drive manufacturers and was privy to all of the business plans of each of the drive manufacturers. At the time, Hyundai was our parent company and they also owned Maxtor, a disk drive company. Everything was kept on the up and up. We knew what Seagate, Western Digital and the rest of the field were doing and most of them were way ahead of Maxtor. I'll tell you why confidentiality was kept. Should it ever get proven that any hanky panky occurred, the legal remedies would be astronomical in the punitive phases of a trial they would most certainly lose. As I reflect on my comments you highlighted, my concern was for a company like AMAT taking over CYMI or a Major optics company that makes lenses for steppers, or even the Mega companies like Nikon and Canon, but not their litho division but rather the HOME entity. Even Komatsu, with government backing could be a candidate. Bottom Line to all of this is that I sincerely hope CYMI can remain independent. I do not think it should or is a takeover candidate right now. However, they are a strategic supplier for a strategic advanced technology that has a low market cap and cannot be allowed to flounder. For those of you familiar with Advanced Energy Systems (AEIS), you should know they really never wanted to go public but might have been forced into it by a major customer who demanded they be a publicly traded company such that there was more accountability for AEIS and the company direction. At least this is what I was told. At one time NCR made computers of all levels while their semiconductor division was making ASICs for all of its competitors. For as slimy as companies are in many regards, there is a high degree of business integrity when it comes to things like this. Many was the time that NCR was behind the 8-ball because our semiconductor business was helping to build a better mousetrap for the competitors. Sorry for bending your ear but I was still reeling from the ETEC-AMAT merger announcement. There is a good rationalization for it but it is definitely out of their normal market segment. That is, of course, if my conjecture that it is a long term strategic play to create an exposure tool for the IC manufacturers. CYMI is too valuable to let it stand on its own and value hunters in the industry might just very well be able to afford to take CYMI under their wing as a potential proft center. Look at the accumulation of companies being undertaken by ATMI recently. some of them make no sense to me at all. Looks as if the company and its CEO are buying revenues and buying earnings not growing revenues and earnings. My worries are that some conpany with fatten up and overvalued shares could step in and strip us of our future potential profits here. But I am not going to lose sleep over it since the CEO of CYMI is a good man and has done a good job for us shareholders over the years. Enough said. Andrew