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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: advocatedevil who wrote (57262)	12/12/2001 3:37:04 PM
From: advocatedevil	Respond to of 70976

It's interesting that Prudential is positive about AMAT layoffs. I wonder if they stuck a small portion of their foot in their mouth after commenting only an hour earlier: 1:32PM Prudential on Semi Equipment : Prudential positive on semi equipment group; channel checks indicate that TSM is upgrading its Fab 4 to 0.18/0.15/0.13 micron (currently 0.25 micron), and that orders of $350-$500 mln could be seen in Dec/Jan. Also, the construction freeze at Fab 14 has been lifted, which could indicate a nascent trend of upward revisions in TSM's 2002 capex plans. Firm sees primary beneficiaries as AMAT, KLAC, NVLS, LRCX, RTEC. finance.yahoo.com AdvocateDevil

To: advocatedevil who wrote (57262)	12/12/2001 3:44:22 PM
From: Sam Citron	Respond to of 70976

Positive? Why not? Semiequip is a capital-intensive industry. I don't mean to belittle the plight of labor, even the highly skilled variety who work for the likes of AMAT. We (investor and worker alike) have both suffered this downturn. This is simply what plant managers do when times are tough. They try to shift fixed costs to variable costs to lower the breakeven point. I do expect more layoffs. The only question is of duration. Sam