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To: Return to Sender who wrote (6693)	11/4/2002 4:58:44 PM
From: Return to Sender	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95572

Applied Materials to Cut 11 Pct of Jobs Monday November 4, 4:34 pm ET biz.yahoo.com SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Reuters) - Applied Materials Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMAT - News) will slash about 11 percent of its work force in a move to combat a nearly two-year-old slump in microchip demand, the chip equipment giant said on Monday. Applied Materials, the dominant player in the $28 billion semiconductor equipment industry, said it would cut about 1,750 positions to address the semiconductor industry downturn. The company will take an unspecified charge on earnings for the quarter ending Jan. 26. In after-hours trade, shares of Applied Materials fell to $16.19, after having closed up 4.7 percent in regular Nasdaq trade at $16.45. The job cuts, which were expected by many industry analysts and come on top of about 3,700 job cuts announced since September 2001, come in response to an extended pull-back in spending on chip factory expansions and upgrades. Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - News) , the world's largest chipmaker, has already cut as much as half-a-billion dollars from its 2002 capital spending budget. Applied Materials said about 800 jobs would be cut at its Silicon Valley operations, and another 200 jobs cut at its Austin, Texas, operation. The remainder of the jobs would be cut at other locations in the United States and worldwide, with employees notified by the end of the company's fiscal first quarter, the company said. As of August, Applied Materials had about 16,000 employees. By some estimates, chipmakers will spend 25 percent less this year on capital equipment. For 2003, some analysts expect spending to be flat or grow only 5 percent.