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To: FJB who wrote (3922)	1/24/2000 5:57:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 5867

Semitool Reports Improved Operating Results For Fiscal 2000 First Quarter New Order Bookings to Record $62.4 Million KALISPELL, Mont., Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Semitool, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMTL - news), a leading manufacturer and supplier of wafer surface preparation and electrochemical deposition equipment and software control systems to the worldwide semiconductor industry, today reported financial results for its fiscal 2000 first quarter ended December 31, 1999. Fiscal 2000 first quarter net sales were $49.6 million, 36 percent higher than the $36.5 million in the preceding quarter and 63 percent higher than the $30.4 million reported for the first quarter in fiscal 1999. Net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2000 was $3.7 million or $0.27 per diluted share compared to $98,000 or $0.01 per diluted share for the previous quarter and a net loss of $1.1 million or $0.08 per share for the same quarter a year ago. New order bookings during the fiscal 2000 first quarter reached a record level of $62.4 million, a sequential increase of 41 percent from $44.4 million in the previous quarter and an increase of 185 percent from $21.9 million in the same period last year. First quarter bookings from the US, Asia-Pacific and European regions were all higher than the previous quarter with the rapid growth in bookings led by increases in the Asia-Pacific and European regions. Reflecting the record bookings level, orders backlog at December 31, 1999 increased to $70.4 million, 22 percent higher than the beginning of the quarter and up 217 percent from the $22.2 million reported at December 31, 1998. Fiscal 2000 first quarter gross margin increased to 52.1 percent compared to 44.9 percent for the previous quarter and 48.4 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 1999. The increase in gross margin is primarily attributable to increased absorption of fixed costs associated with higher operating levels and cost reductions. Commenting, Fabio Gualandris, President and Chief Executive Officer said, ''Our record bookings achievement in the first quarter was driven by customers' acceptance of the LT-210c for copper deposition and the Spectrum automated batch surface preparation system into their high volume production lines. We believe this product acceptance, along with the booking of multiple Spectrum systems at two leading Korean based DRAM manufacturers, is a validation of our technologies and core competencies.'' biz.yahoo.com

To: FJB who wrote (3922)	1/24/2000 9:02:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 5867

World Chip Equipment Sales Double in Nov., 5th Straight Month Tokyo, Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Worldwide sales of equipment used to make microchips more than doubled in November, the fifth straight gain after 15 months of decline, further evidence of a recovery in the global chip market, an industry group said. Chip equipment sales soared 119 percent in November from the same month a year earlier to $2.30 billion, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan said. Demand for equipment is rebounding as chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest computer memory chipmaker, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp., the world's top foundry chipmakers, or third-party chipmakers, expand production capacity. The gain in November's sales also reflects increases in spending on equipment by Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker, NEC Corp., Japan's largest maker of personal computers and microchips, Texas Instruments Inc., the No. 1 manufacturer of chips for cellular phones, and Motorola Inc., the world's No. 2 producer of cellular phones. Orders for chip equipment are getting a boost as companies retool factories to make chips with smaller circuit feature sizes. Smaller chip feature sizes allow more information to be packed onto chips, yielding faster and smaller chips and lower power consumption. That's likely to boost the earnings of many of the world's biggest producers of microchip-making equipment, such as Applied Materials Inc. and Lam Research Corp. in the U.S., ASM Lithography Holding NV of the Netherlands and Tokyo Electron Ltd., Nikon Corp. and Advantest Corp. in Japan. In addition, chipmakers and home video-game makers are teaming up to develop and make chips for future generations of video games and digital household electronics, creating new demand for equipment. Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. in March last year agreed to spend 120 billion yen ($1.14 billion) to make chips for PlayStation 2, the successor to the best-selling video game player, while Nintendo Co. is joining with International Business Machines Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. to develop the successor to its Nintendo 64 game player. Chipmaking-equipment sales figures tend to lag order numbers by up to half a year. The following table breaks down world chipmaking-equipment sales by machinery category. Units are millions of dollars. The percentage changes compare cumulative totals for the April-November 1999 period with the same period a year earlier. ********************************************************* Equipment Nov. April-Nov. Cumul. Sales Y-o-Y Change ******************************************************* Mask/Reticle Man. Equip. 37.851 -30.0% Wafer Man. Equip. 8.801 26.1% Wafer Processing Equip. 1,449.070 36.0% Assembly Equipment 215.958 47.9% Inspection Equip. 489.397 44.0% Related Equipment 100.285 12.5% ********************************************************* TOTAL 2,301.362 34.7%