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

To: Fred Levine who wrote (3876)	11/8/2002 3:51:22 PM
From: Math Junkie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Fred, With regard to your concern for "huge losses with unsold equipment," I just want to point out that semiconductor equipment is built to order. They don't build them and put them in a warehouse somewhere waiting for customers to show up. As for R&D, they know it will pay off eventually - it's only a matter of time. Richard

To: Fred Levine who wrote (3876)	11/9/2002 2:48:01 AM
From: Sam Citron	Respond to of 25522

Just before announcing the layoffs AMAT announced that it was increasing its R&D expenditures Not quite. This is a misreading of Morgan's Digitimes interview where he noted that AMAT was outspending the competition on R&D as a % of sales. digitimes.com In absolute terms R&D spending has declined at AMAT for the 9 months ending July 2002 compared with the same period last year.

To: Fred Levine who wrote (3876)	11/13/2002 8:56:30 AM
From: robert b furman	Respond to of 25522

Hi Fred. One of Morgan's famous quotes is when the come - they all come at once. In August 01 I toured Cohu's new facility in Poway. During the walk through The Cohu representative apologized for an area of completed test handlers being stored in the plant. I walked up to them and they mostly had the name of a company on them. I think in the days of pushouts and cancelations,a maintenace worp scheduled is made to give key workers tasks to perform vs just getting a paycheck. This seems to be a way of utilyzing inventory.It also is a productive way of gaining value out of your payroll. If the machine gets pushed out 90 days it delays the turning it into cash - but the deal will still get done. My comment to the rep was every day I come to work and never know where my next car transaction comes from.ANY backlog is a great feature. This no doubt is a riskier way of doing business,but if it is on your "workhorse machine -it is a way of getting some value out of your fixed expenses. Thinking about it probably takes away from the double orders at peak cycles as they get fed out initially during the recovery. BWDIK Bob