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

To: rhering who wrote (11627)	10/4/2004 4:34:10 PM
From: gugie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Re: Real Time Diagnostics I concur with Roger. A couple of years ago I worked as an application engineering manager for a "real time" diagnostics product. It was real time as long as you were inside a Fab's firewall, otherwise the only way to get information was to get on a plane and go there yourself, and then only on a need-to-know basis. Our onsite tech's couldn't even share the information with me due to NDA. Twelve years ago I was new to the industry and naive. I wondered why we couldn't have a real-time "war room" where we could punch up any of our systems around the world and get that real time information.

To: rhering who wrote (11627)	10/4/2004 6:27:58 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

TSMC to see slow Q4 as foundry market declines By Mark LaPedus Silicon Strategies 10/04/2004, 6:13 PM ET SAN JOSE, Calif. — Casting a shadow on this week's FSA Suppliers Expo here, silicon foundry providers are finally seeing a slowdown, according to analysts. Citing inventory correction issues in the marketplace, for example, a research firm has lowered its estimates for bellwether foundries Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC). Second-tier foundries, including 1st Silicon (Malaysia) Sdn., Silterra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., and others, are also seeing a sudden decline in fab utilization, due to wafer cancellations from their customers, said Michael McConnell, an analyst with investment banking firm Pacific Crest Securities Inc. (Portland, Ore.) Foundry vendors will be crying the blues at the FSA Suppliers Expo, which takes place on Wednesday (Oct. 6.) Indeed, the sudden lull in the foundry industry reflects the overall problems in the IC business. "A weaker back-to-school season and inventory corrections at IC manufacturers and distributors have led to a myriad of pre-announcements and revised expectations," McConnell said in a report. As a result, the analyst has recently lowered his forecast for TSMC. The company's third-quarter sales are expected to be at the low end of its guidance, which calls for 4-to-6 percent sequential growth over the second quarter. In the third quarter, TSMC is projected to earn $0.16 on sales of $2.022 billion. Previously, it was expected to earn $0.16 on sales of $2.045 billion. In the second quarter of 2004, TSMC earned $0.15 a share on sales of $1.943 billion. Pacific Crest is also lowering its estimates for TSMC in Q4. Order forecasts from the PC, communications and consumer markets look flat-to-down in the period, the report said. Fab utilizations are projected to fall from 95 percent to 90 percent in Q4, according to the firm. "We are adjusting our Q4 estimates [for TSMC] to reflect a 5 percent sequential revenue decline from a 2 percent sequential increase," McConnell said in the report. "Sources also indicate that TSMC's waferstart forecasts for Q4 are down 6-to-7 percent sequentially." In Q4, TSMC is projected to earn $0.15 on sales of $1.917 billion. Previously, the company was supposed to earn $0.16 on sales of $2.082 billion, according to Pacific Crest. TSMC's rival, UMC, is also seeing a similar weak sales picture, McConnell said. "UMC's order decline is more pronounced," he said in an interview. "They are still communication heavy." Second-tier foundries, such as 1st Silicon, Silterra, are seeing weakness as well. For example, Silterra's utilizations are projected to drop from 90 percent to 80 percent due to wafer cancellations from Agere, Broadcom, and LSI, according to the analyst. 1st Silicon is seeing an order lull among its customers, such as Sharp Corp. 1st Silicon is making flash memories on a foundry basis for the Japanese company.

To: rhering who wrote (11627)	10/6/2004 7:51:59 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Billion-dollar MagnaChip takes control of five fabs By Peter Clarke Silicon Strategies 10/06/2004, 5:35 AM ET SEOUL, South Korea — As expected MagnaChip Semiconductor Ltd. has been launched as a sell-off of the non-memory operations of Hynix Semiconductor Inc. As a result of the transaction a semiconductor company has been created with control of five wafer fabs and an annual revenue of about US$1 billion. The company name was reported by Silicon Strategies Tuesday (Oct. 5). Hynix sold its non-memory semiconductor operations to MagnaChip for approximately 954 billion won or US$828.4 million in a transaction led by Citigroup Venture Capital (CVC) Equity Partners, LP, CVC Asia Pacific Ltd., and Francisco Partners, MagnaChip said Wednesday (Oct. 6). MagnaChip Semiconductor said it has acquired five wafer fabs located in Korea, with current manufacturing capacity of approximately 110,000 8-inch equivalent wafers per month. The company also has more than 15,000 patents in its intellectual property portfolio covering its display driver, CMOS image sensors and application-specific processor business. Following the buy-out the company has 4,200 employees, including its 650 person research and development staff. "MagnaChip is positioned in the marketplace as a leading semiconductor solution company. Our focus will be on establishing recognition for the new MagnaChip Semiconductor brand, continuing to build our extensive R&D capabilities, and improving and expanding our customer relationships," said Youm Huh, president and chief executive officer of MagnaChip Semiconductor, in a statement. "With expected sales of US$1 billion for the full year 2004, MagnaChip is quickly becoming one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers," added Huh in the same statement.