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Technology Stocks : Kulicke and Soffa -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scott_jiminez who wrote (4003)	8/3/2000 10:44:24 AM
From: Ian@SI	Respond to of 5482

Kulicke & Soffa Shares Fall After Orders are Deferred (Update1) By Todd Zeranski Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. shares fell as much as 39 percent after the world's No. 1 chip-assembly equipment maker said delayed orders may hurt profit this quarter and next. The company's shares fell 8 1/16 to 14 1/16 in early trading after dropping as low as 13 9/16. The forecast also dragged down the shares of similar equipment makers, including ASM Lithography Holding NV, Applied Materials Inc. and Credence Systems Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Scott Kulicke told analysts in a conference call that he saw no evidence that the deferral meant a downturn in the semiconductor industry. ``I'm sure there are going to be the Chicken Littles who are going to say this is it -- this is going to be the end of the cycle,'' Kulicke said. ``If I saw capacity utilization fall off, I would get nervous. I haven't seen that.'' Kulicke & Soffa, based in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, said some orders were delayed because customers have built up inventories and have had supply shortages. The forecast is for the company's fiscal fourth quarter ending Sept. 30 and the fiscal 2001 first quarter. Chip packagers work at an intermediate stage in the supply chain. They saw silicon wafers into chips, attach a frame and metal leads to the chips and package the assembly in plastic. Kulicke said he had not seen evidence that wafer-fabrication expansion had ended. He told analysts that a single customer for the company's equipment deferred a majority of its orders because factory space wasn't available. ``The worst thing people could do is overreact,'' Kulicke said. He called the company's stock price today ``bizarrely low.'' ``We're only going to have the second-best quarter in the company's history,'' Kulicke added.