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

To: StanX Long who wrote (61381)	3/4/2002 10:50:14 PM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Why Brooks and PRI say it's time to merge and get bigger in fab automation By J. Robert Lineback Semiconductor Business News (03/04/02 13:36 p.m. EST) siliconstrategies.com The days of wafer fab automation being dominated by relatively small but highly focused suppliers are over. A flurry of acquisitions, led by Brooks Automation Inc., is reshaping this $1.3 billion chip manufacturing segment. But the biggest force behind the change is a growing need for new fab software and fully-automated factories, which are now required to justify multi-billion dollar plants, said the chief executives Brooks and PRI Automation Inc. These two Massachusetts-based companies are awaiting U.S. clearance for a planned merger, which will create the world's largest fab automation supplier with annual revenues over $700 million. "If there is one thing we hear from our customers, it is that they want to do business with fewer suppliers," said Robert J. Therrien, president and CEO of Brooks. "They want fewer part numbers. Suppliers are taking on larger and larger projects. The value proposition becomes the integration of hardware and software--delivering pre-integrated, pre-tested automation solutions."