Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : ASML Holding NV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (966)	10/15/2004 5:18:59 PM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43397

Thanks. It sounds like there is plenty of money to be made.

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (966)	10/15/2004 7:30:17 PM
From: burn2learn	Respond to of 43397

ALso the competitive module is EUV. They have a prototype here also

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (966)	10/28/2004 9:37:00 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43397

Canon raises 2004 chip stepper target Thu Oct 28, 2004 02:28 AM ET TOKYO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Japan's Canon Inc. (7751.T: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday raised its target for shipments of semiconductor steppers in 2004 to 160 units from 150, compared with the 80 chip steppers it shipped last year. Steppers are used to etch circuitry onto semiconductors and liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Canon ranks third in chip steppers behind industry leaders Nikon Corp. (7731.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and ASML Holding NV (ASML.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) (ASML.O: Quote, Profile, Research) of the Netherlands. Canon lowered its shipment target for LCD steppers in 2004 to 104 units from a previous estimate for 125. Canon shipped 95 LCD steppers in 2003. Steppers account for less than 10 percent of total sales at Canon, but it has earmarked around $1 billion in investment through the end of 2005 to boost its market share.

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (966)	11/9/2004 6:22:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43397

ASML Wins Major Order from Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Tuesday November 9, 8:00 am ET VELDHOVEN, the Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 9, 2004--ASML Holding NV (ASML) today announced the name of its fourth Japanese customer: Matsushita Electric Industrial. In July, ASML received an order for its TWINSCAN(TM) lithography system for 300 mm production from Japan's largest electronics and electrical-equipment manufacturer and home to Panasonic. The sale marks a milestone in ASML's expansion within the Japanese market, which traditionally has been dominated by local lithography companies. Matsushita chose ASML's equipment for volume production of the latest generation of system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices. It will install the system in its first 300 mm fab located in Uozu, Japan. "To continuously strengthen Matsushita System LSI's business, we selected ASML for its excellent total performance," said Matsushita Electric Industrial Semiconductor Company. ASML announced plans to increase its service, sales and marketing operations in Japan to serve its growing regional customer base. This sale marks the eighth location in Japan in which ASML systems have been installed. Other successes in the Japanese market include recently announced strategic alliances with Tokyo Electron Limited and Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co., Ltd. "Japan is an important market. ASML is committed to raising awareness of our technology leadership and customer focus in this region. This sale secures our place as a leading supplier of advanced 300 mm equipment in Japan," said Eric Meurice, president and CEO, ASML. Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo and serving as the exclusive sales agent for ASML in Japan, was instrumental in securing the order. About ASML ASML is the world's leading provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry, manufacturing complex machines that are critical to the production of integrated circuits or chips. Headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, ASML is traded on Euronext Amsterdam and NASDAQ under the symbol ASML. For more information, visit the Web site at ASML.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: ASML Holding NV

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (966)	12/7/2004 6:22:55 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 43397

ASML grabs lead over Nikon in litho market for '04 Silicon Strategies 12/07/2004, 4:27 PM ET SAN JOSE, Calif. — A strong performance by ASML Holding NV in the fourth quarter will help move the Dutch company ahead of Nikon Corp. in the lithography market for 2004, according to The Information Network on Tuesday (Dec. 7). Lithographic equipment makers ASML of the Netherlands and Nikon of Japan were tied for first place in 2003, based on revenue in the $3 billion lithography market, according to The Information Network. Both companies generated revenues from lithography equipment sales of $1.215 billion in 2003. Nikon was the winner in 2003 lithography market based on unit shipments with 177 of the 383 tools shipped (46.2 percent) to ASML's 126 tools (32.9 percent). In the 2004 lithography market, valued at $4.3 billion, ASML is projected to be first, followed by Nikon, and then Japan's Canon Inc. In terms of the number of new lithography tools sold in 2004, ASML's share will increase to 36.5 percent from 32.6 percent in 2003, slightly edging out Nikon's share of 35.1 percent, according to the report. Canon will gain market share in 2004, increasing from 20.7 percent to 28.4 percent. Canon has rebounded with the help of the Japanese market, where it will register 50 percent of its sales this year. "We are now in a period of pushouts and cancellations," said Robert N. Castellano, president of The Information Network, in a statement. "We project that ASML will ship 206 new lithography tools in 2004 while Nikon will ship 198 tools. The 8 tool difference can be one order from a semiconductor company, and if it pushes out that order to 2005, it could even out the marketplace."

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (966)	1/5/2005 12:50:32 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 43397

ASML to build $325 million US research center, says report By Peter Clarke Silicon Strategies 01/05/2005, 10:27 AM ET LONDON — European lithography equipment vendor ASML Holding NV, working in collaboration with IBM Corp., is set to invest US$325 million, in a research center at the University of Albany, ASML's first outside of Europe, according to a report in the Albany Times Union. The center is to be known as the International Multiphase Partnership for Lithography Science and Engineering (IMPLSE), the report said, and comes as part of a manufacturing initiative in New York state, tipped in this and other reports, worth nearly US$3 billion. The state of New York's contribution to the overall project is expected to be US$225 million. IBM is set to get US$150 million and ASML US$75 million, the report said. The report did not make clear whether New York contribution was additional to, or included within, the US$325 million figure. "ASML believes that it is critical to build R&D alliances in order to support and continuously improve our products and services as they are introduced into production facilities around the world," the quoted Martin van den Brink, ASML's executive vice president of marketing and technology, as saying. "This partnership with New York state exemplifies our commitment to providing our customers with production-worthy, enabling technologies that meet the requirements of their technology and business roadmaps," it also quoted van den Brink saying. In 2004 ASML had delivered the first world's first 193-nm wavelength "pre-production" immersion lithography system to Albany NanoTech, which announced it had begun processing 300-mm diameter wafers in August. Soon after IBM added immersion to its lithography road-map and revealed it had used the Albany machine to make examples of a 64-bit Power processor implemented in 90-nm CMOS. The development of immersion lithography was one of the major stories of 2004.

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (966)	1/19/2005 9:09:25 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 43397

ASML reiterates 2005 caution Analyst: ASML is near pure play on chip demand view By Emily Church, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 6:40 AM ET Jan. 19, 2005 LONDON (CBS.MW) -- Shares of ASML eased Wednesday after the Dutch chip equipment maker said it has "no visibility" on demand in the semiconductor industry in the second half of this year. Despite a backlog of orders for two quarters, ASML (ASML: news, chart, profile) said it remained cautious on concerns its chipmaker customers could push-outs orders for its lithography systems. "We know there is a sales correction out there," said Eric Meurice, president and chief executive on a conference call. 'There is clearly no visibility at this moment where the semiconductor industry is going to go." The outlook is not pessimistic, he argued, but a reflection of the industry's volatility. ASML booked no orders in October and November, but saw orders swell "in the order" of 26 to 27 in December. Industry inventory levels are "fairly low," he noted. ASML said it's seeking to reduce the time it takes to bring the equipment to market as part of the effort to maintain earnings growth. It's reviewing cost cuts as well, but declined to detail targets. 'Minor profit warning' ASML's order backlog at the end of 2004 stood at 131 lithography systems, missing market expectations at around 150 systems. ASML plans to ship 60 systems in the first quarter, but said it has "limited visibility" for the third and fourth quarters of this year. For the year, ASML said analysts are anticipating market demand for the litho systems from 400 to 500. Despite higher average selling prices for its equipment, ASML also cautioned it expects gross margins to decline to the 38 percent to 40 percent for the first half of 2005, lower than the 42 percent that had been targeted, analysts said. "There's a minor profit warning in this," said Lex Werkheim of Eureffect brokers in Amsterdam. "If they sell the order backlog in the first and second quarters, then they will clearly perform better than is anticipated." Chipmakers Samsung and Intel Corp. (INTC: news, chart, profile) since the start of the year have said they plan to raise capital spending, which likely means more funds headed to industry suppliers like ASML. Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD: news, chart, profile) overnight posted a loss in the December quarter as it flash business dragged. In a conference call, officers for the company said AMD would spend $1.5 billion this year on capital expenditures, compared to $1.4 billion spent in 2004. See more ASML "is a very clear play at the moment: If you're bullish on the sector and semiconductor demand, then you have enormous leverage (in ASML)," Werkheim said. Yet the business model's fragility will be exposed if the chipmakers do indeed push-out orders, he added. ASML's fourth quarter profit rose to 108.6 million euros from 15.7 million euros, with sales climbing to 785.2 million euros from 525.5 million euros. The average selling price for a system was 8.8 million euros, with new system ASPs 10.7 million euros. Profit and sales topped consensus broker forecasts according to an AFX News poll. New orders in the fourth quarter totaled 19, well below the market consensus at 53. "Order intake was very disappointing and has hit the trough, in our view," J.P. Morgan Securities said. Shares (NL:33436: news, chart, profile) were last down 0.8 percent in the Amsterdam home market at 11.63 euros, recovering from a decline of as much as 3 percent.

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (966)	2/11/2005 1:57:26 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43397

U.S. fund Capital has more than 10 pct of ASML Fri Feb 11, 2005 01:43 PM ET AMSTERDAM, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The Capital Research & Management investment fund raised its stake in Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML (ASML.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) to above 10 percent, a SEC filing showed on Friday. In a Schedule 13G filing, Capital said it owned 50,572,880 shares or 10.3 percent of the stock of ASM Lithography NV. Its stake was 9.18 percent in November 2004, according to Reuters data. ASML stock added 3 percent on Friday to 13.30 euros. The share lost 14.1 percent of its value in the last year, but gained 27 percent in the past six months -- outperforming the Dow Jones Stoxx Technology Index by 7.3 percent.

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (966)	4/13/2005 7:58:34 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43397

Order outlook down at ASML as results confirm flat 2005 Peter Clarke EE Times (04/13/2005 2:41 AM EDT) MUNICH, Germany — Lithography equipment supplier ASML Holding NV (Veldhoven, The Netherlands) reported a net profit of 100 million euro (about $130 million) on net sales of 685 million euro (about $885 million) in the first quarter of 2005. The results came in slightly below analysts' expectations as did ASML's order in-take for the first quarter, although it was up from the previous quarter. The company added that it expected order intake to drop in the second quarter confirming a predicted flat semiconductor equipment market during 2005. However, CEO Eric Meurice predicted that amidst the flatness ASML would be profitable in all four quarters of 2005. ASML's Q1 2005 sales of 685 million euro (about $885 million) were down from net sales of 785 million euro (about $1 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2004 but up from net sales of 453 million euro ($585 million) in the same quarter a year before. "The average selling price for new systems jumped by 15 percent from the previous quarter," said Eric Meurice, president and CEO of ASML, in a statement. "Our order intake for the quarter reflects the current cautious state of the semiconductor industry: yet we have booked more systems quarter on quarter." In Q1 2005, ASML shipped 50 new and 9 refurbished systems compared with 62 new and 19 refurbished machines in Q4 2004. The Q1 2005 average selling price for a new ASML system was 12.3 million euro (about $15.9 million), the company said. The order backlog as of March 27, 2005 comprised 107 lithography systems with an average selling price of 12.9 million euro (about $16.7 million) per system and this compared with a backlog at the end of 2004 of 131 lithography systems at the same average selling price. In terms of the company's outlook Meurice said: "Our actual backlog and continued solid operational execution support another good quarter in Q2 2005, the sixth in a row, as we are expecting to ship approximately 50 systems at a 13.3 million euro average selling price." "The current slow improvement in semiconductor fab capacity utilization makes a sharp recovery of the industry unlikely in 2005. Therefore, we expect Q2 2005 order intake to be lower than that of Q1 2005. Although we remain cautious as our visibility beyond Q3 2005 is limited, the level of order intake and our track record of operational improvements are such that we are confident of continued profitability in each of the remaining quarters of 2005," he concluded.

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (966)	4/18/2005 4:45:07 PM
From: Sam Citron	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 43397

Hi Cary, I had a look at what Morningstar said about ASML's relationship with Zeiss, and quote it here for discussion purposes: Although ASML is focused on profitability, it must continue to spend on R&D to remain competitive. Reducing its materials cost and expanding gross margins will also be difficult given ASML's limited leverage with certain component suppliers such as Cymer CYMI and Zeiss. Cymer holds pricing power as the dominant supplier of lithography light sources. ASML is even more dependent its sole source of lithography lenses, Zeiss. ASML's own annual report states plainly that ASML "would effectively cease to be able to conduct our business" without Zeiss. Lacking alternate suppliers, we'd argue ASM is at a disadvantage to rivals that have internally developed lenses at their disposal. As a start, I'd like to focus on Morningstar's somewhat superficial conclusion that ASM's relationship with Zeiss is a disadvantage. Zeiss makes the best lenses in the world. Why make if you can buy? The relationship could easily be a competitive advantage for ASML, just as a camera that uses Zeiss lenses enjoys a competitive advantage to its peers. Sam