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Technology Stocks : Lam Research (LRCX, NASDAQ): To the Insiders -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FJB who wrote (3908)	1/22/2000 10:25:00 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5867

Goldman's Gunnar Miller on Semiconductor Industry: Comment New York, Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Gunnar Miller, an analyst at Goldman Sachs & Co., spoke about the semiconductor industry on financial news network CNBC. Some stocks Miller said his company recommends include Lam Research Corp. and MKS Instruments Inc. ``What we've really seen is a recovery from a period of underspending in 1998. Late 1998 was the absolute trough, and 1999 began a recovery in the industry.' ``Undercapacity in the industry is really resulting in rather strong orders for most of the U.S.-based semiconductor-equipment companies as semiconductor companies ramp up their production to meet demand.' ``We've studied past cycles repeatedly and it looks as though most up cycles tend to last for two to three years. If you view this with a baseball analogy, we are probably into the third or fourth inning of the current up cycle.' ``One thing that we are always aware of is that the semiconductor-equipment business and semiconductor capital spending is likely to remain very cyclical. However, all of our indicators still seem to point toward continued group undercapacity for at least the remainder of the year 2000.' ``I think what investors have to realize about semiconductor- equipment stocks, is that this is the business of selling hundreds of units with million-dollar price tags, as opposed to selling millions of units of something for tens or hundreds of dollars like the (personal computer) microprocessor business.' ``These companies can report big bottom-line surprises on relatively modest upside surprises. We think that trend can continue for at least the next several quarters.'

To: FJB who wrote (3908)	1/24/2000 4:15:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 5867

Every 50 million helps:-) ***************************************************** Tower will spend $50 million to boost fab output in Israel Semiconductor Business News (01/24/00, 01:23:48 PM EDT) MIGDAL HAEMEK, Israel--Tower Semiconductor Ltd. here today announced plans to spend $50 million to eliminate manufacturing bottlenecks and increase production in its chip plant to 20,000 wafers a month. The investment will enable the Israeli foundry company to convert half of its wafer capacity to new processes, said Yoav Nissan-Cohen, co-chief executive officer of Tower. The company plans to build a new high-end facility, but it decided foundry demand was strong enough to upgrade its existing fab line. "The planned investment in our current facility will not detract from our continued efforts to establish a high-end new facility," Nissan-Cohen said. Funding of the $50 million upgrade is expected to come from existing cash resources and expected cash flow from operations, according to the company, which has struggled to with losses while larger rivals in Asia expanded their silicon foundry services last year. However, Tower is hoping to turnaround its business in 2000 by focusing more manufacturing capacity on profitable foundry niches. "We have received initial orders from three new customers for Q1 shipments of our first microFlash-based products and intend to complete the preparations and commence production for these customers soon," said Nissan-Cohen, referring to the planned $50 million investment. "We are also seeing a significant increase in demand for CMOS image sensor products. These products, and products using our mixed-signal processes, are gradually becoming the majority of our product mix."