The Wall Street Transcript Publishes SEMInvest 2000 Semiconductor Equipment Issue
NEW YORK, March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Four leading analysts and eighteen members of top management examine the Semiconductor Equipment sector in this special 78-page SEMInvest 2000 Special Issue available at twst.com or by calling The Wall Street Transcript 212-952-7433.
In a vital review of this sector for investors and industry professionals, this 78-page issue features:
1) Semiconductor Equipments -- Susan Billat, Managing Director with Robertson Stephens, Robert Maire, Managing Director at Bear Stearns, Michael O'Brien, Managing Director with Wit Soundview, and Theodore O'Neill, Principal with Needham & Company, examine the outlook for Semiconductor Equipment in this timely and deeply informative 15,200 word interview from The Wall Street Transcript (212-952-7433) or twst.com
Speaking about changes on the technology side, O'Brien states, ``One I'd mention very quickly is silicon-on-insulator, or SOI. The constant challenge for the chip industry is to design chips that are faster, consume less power and are smaller. This is why the industry has moved to other new materials like copper, low-k and high-k dielectrics. And SOI as a technology is getting broadly adopted by IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) in their microprocessors area, and we think it's really the next sea change that's going to happen. There's only one US public company, Ibis Technology (Nasdaq: IBIS - news), involved in this process.'
Maire declares, ``We've seen new companies get into the industry, sub-suppliers to the industry that heretofore we might not have seen: Advanced Energy (Nasdaq: AEIS - news), which supplies the power supplies to Applied Materials, Novellus, Lam Research and others in the industry; and MKS Instruments (Nasdaq: MKSI - news), which supplies the gas components: gas measuring, metering and supply components to the industry. These are two industry sub-suppliers, or subcontractors, that have shown up in the public market relatively recently and are now large public companies that are growing and benefiting by this move to outsourcing.'
Billat explains, ``A foundry is a company that makes chips for others. The largest foundry in the world is TSMC (NYSE: TSM - news). They make chips not only for a wide variety of fabless companies but also for what are known as IDMs (integrated device manufacturers), which make some but not all of their own chips. They outsource a portion of their manufacturing, like almost everybody else does. And a foundry can be either a front-end foundry or a back-end foundry: Amkor (Nasdaq: AMKR - news) or ASE (Nasdaq: ASTSF - news) that do outsourced tests and assembly, are just called 'test houses`` and 'assembly houses`` on the back end.'
Maire comments on consolidation: ``I think we've seen a couple of acquisitions recently in the industry, most notably Applied Materials purchasing Etec (Nasdaq: ETEC - news). I think that was interesting in that it would be difficult for Applied Materials to purchase a company in its existing market spaces because it's so dominant that they get into issues with antitrust laws, the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and other competitive issues. So they purchased a company that was complementary to, but outside of, their current business model, which I think is interesting.'
This 78-page SEMInvest 2000 Special Issue also includes:
2) CEO Interviews. Top management of eighteen Semiconductor Equipment firms examine the outlook for their firm and the sector. Firms include:
Advanced Energy Industries, Applied Materials, ATMI, Cymer, Electro Scientific Industries, Electroglas, GaSonics International, Ibis Technology Corporation, Mattson Technology, Photon Dynamics, PRI Automation, Rudolph Technologies, Semitool, Silicon Valley Group, Tegal Corporation, Teradyne.
To obtain a copy of this insightful 78-page issue call 212-952-7433 or see http://www/twst/com/info73.htm.
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SOURCE: The Wall Street Transcript |
