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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kirk © who wrote (451)	11/12/2001 3:00:46 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Chip-equipment market projected to fall 8-13% in 2002, Dataquest says By Mark LaPedus Semiconductor Business News (11/12/01 14:51 p.m. EST) SAN FRANCISCO -- The troubled semiconductor-equipment industry is expected to show some improvements over the next year, but the market will still decline from 8-13% in 2002 over 2001, according to a new forecast from Dataquest Inc. At the same time, the blank silicon wafer industry is projected to show flat growth in 2002, after a sharp decline in 2001, according to projections from the San Jose-based market research firm. The new forecast indicates that the current downturn in the chip-equipment and silicon wafer markets have finally hit the bottom--with a recovery due in the second half of 2002, said Klaus-Dieter Rinnen, who tracks the market for Dataquest. "The semiconductor-equipment market will gain momentum in the second half of 2002," Rinnen said during a presentation at the Gartner Dataquest Semiconductors 2001 conference last Friday in San Francisco. Rinnen also indicated that the back-end equipment and silicon wafers markets will rebound to some degree and show flat growth in 2002, following a sharp downturn in these segments in 2001. The front-end equipment market will also show some improvements in 2002, as compared to 2001, he added. There is also some bad news as well. Worldwide capital spending among chip makers will fall 17-25% in 2002 over 2001, he added. "For 2002, 300-mm [equipment spending] will stay on a par with this year's spending," he added. In total, the semiconductor-equipment market is projected to fall between 33-34% in 2001 over 2002, according to Dataquest. In 2002, the market is expected to decline 8% in the most optimistic forecast and fall 13% in the more likely scenario, according to Dataquest. The front-end chip equipment market is projected to decline by 30% in 2001 over 2000, according to Dataquest. In 2002, this market is expected to fall 10% in the most optimistic forecast and decline by 20% in the more likely scenario, they said. This market is also supposed to recover in 2003, with 32% growth over 2002, they said. In 2004, Dataquest projects that this business will grow 51% over 2003. Meanwhile, Dataquest projects that the back-end equipment market will show a 55% decline in 2001 over 2002. In 2002, this market will grow by 9% in the most optimistic forecast and 1% in the more likely scenario, they said. In 2003, the market is projected to show 44% growth over 2002, according to Dataquest. On the materials front, the silicon wafer industry is projected to decline 29% in 2001 over 2002, according to Dataquest. That business is projected to show zero growth in 2002, but is expected to increase by 23% in 2003, they added.

To: Kirk © who wrote (451)	11/12/2001 8:08:58 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

This is a first as far as I can recall in the SCE sector..... Teradyne to Raise Up to $200 Million From Mortgages By Tim McLaughlin BOSTON (Reuters) - Teradyne Inc. (NYSE:TER - news), the world's top maker of semiconductor test equipment, on Monday said it could raise up to $200 million in real estate financing by year-end in order to help it weather a severe industry downturn. Boston-based Teradyne is working to raise $50 million to $200 million by securing mortgages on some of its real estate holdings, Teradyne spokesman Tom Newman said. Teradyne, which last month raised $400 million in a convertible bond offering. would use money raised from real estate financing for operating purposes in case the industry downturn lasts as long as two years, Newman said. ``We'll definitely do something there,'' Newman told Reuters. ''We'll probably decide no later than the first quarter, but it's likely it will happen this year. We're talking to a bunch of people, but we haven't decided how much we want to get out of that.'' Teradyne has been waylaid by a steep downturn in the semiconductor industry that could last several more quarters. The company expects fourth-quarter revenue between $200 million and $250 million, compared with $789.2 million in the year-ago period. ``When you're facing a disastrous environment...you want to have alternatives that you can control,'' Newman said. Teradyne's real estate holdings, land and property, total about $350 million, Newman said. Teradyne, which historically has kept debt off its balance sheet, last month completed a private placement of $400 million of 3.75 percent convertible senior notes due 2006 to bolster working capital. Before the offering, Teradyne held cash and marketable securities worth about $320 million at the end of the third quarter. The convertible offering raised more than Teradyne had planned and it helps give the company enough of a cushion to ride out a prolonged industry downturn, Newman said. The one other convertible debt offering in Teradyne's history came in the 1980s, he added. Separately, Teradyne has received multiple bids for the Diagnostic Solutions business owned by GenRad Inc., which Teradyne recently acquired. ``All offering prices we think are in the right ballpark,'' Newman said. ``We're fairly comfortable (a sale) will conclude by the end of the year. People seem to have a similar valuation of the business as we do.'' Teradyne shares moved up $1.09, or 4.22 percent, to $26.95 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites). The stock is off about 28 percent this year, underperforming the 10 percent decline on the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (^SOXX - news).

To: Kirk © who wrote (451)	11/13/2001 9:19:46 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

LTX believes it hit low point for tester orders in last quarter Semiconductor Business News (11/13/01 09:17 a.m. EST) WESTWOOD, Mass.--Automatic test equipment supplier LTX Corp. here today reported a net loss of $9.4 million on sharply lower sales of $33.0 million in the company's fiscal first quarter, ended Oct. 31. LTX's revenues were 66% lower than $98 million in the fiscal quarter last year due to the severe downturn in semiconductor test markets. "As we have been suggesting, Q1 appears to have been our low quarter for incoming orders, which were approximately $18 million not including a small number of cancellations," said Roger Blethen, president and CEO of LTX. The chief executive officer also said the company believes the bottom of the downturn has been reached by the industry overall, in terms of new orders for products. "While the semiconductor test industry transitions through the bottom of the current cyclical downturn, LTX concentrated on getting orders released from backlog, booking and shipping new orders, and maintaining strict cost controls to meet our financial plans," said Blethen, referring to the just-ended quarter.