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

To: etchmeister who wrote (14753)	5/4/2005 8:07:32 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Novellus struggling in CMP market, analyst says Mark LaPedus EE Times (05/03/2005 4:19 PM EDT) SAN JOSE, Calif. — Despite several attempts to gain a foothold in the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) equipment market, Novellus Systems Inc. is struggling to make inroads in the competitive arena, according to an analyst. The company is also having a difficult time gaining acceptance with its new CMP tool at customers, including Fujitsu Ltd. and Micron Technology Inc., said Avinash Kant, an analyst with investment banking firm Adams Harkness Inc. (Boston), in a report. In 2002, Novellus (San Jose) entered the CMP equipment market through the acquisition of SpeedFam-IPEC for $175 million. At the time of its acquisition, SpeedFam-IPEC held roughly 9 percent share of the total CMP market, behind Applied Materials Inc. and Ebara Corp. Last year,, Novellus moved to lower the cost of CMP, by rolling out a 300-mm tool that it claimed could be used down to the 32-nm manufacturing process node. Intended for next-generation, copper/low-k designs, Novellus' Xceda CMP tool is based on a four-polish module and a "through-the-pad" direct slurry distribution architecture for high throughput applications in wafer fabs. "Novellus remains committed to our CMP business," according to a spokesman for the company. "We continue to work with key customers to deliver a tool that meets their productivity and cost-of-ownership needs." Still, Novellus has barely made a dent in the market with the tool. "Our industry channel checks have been indicating that the CMP business at Novellus is not going very well," Kant said. "Since the acquisition of SpeedFam, Novellus has been working extensively on modifying SpeedFam's tool into an effective and production-worthy one, but efforts in this department have not been able to bear much fruit so far," Kant said. "In fact, our recent industry channel checks indicate that the qualification of Novellus' CMP tool has not been going well at some of its key customers such as Micron and Fujitsu." Novellus had high hopes in CMP. The company was supposed to give Applied and Ebara a run for their money in the arena. Last year, Lam Research Corp. exited the CMP equipment market. "Given Lam's decision to drop out of the CMP business, and indications from our channel checks that Novellus might not be able to make any dent in the market at the 65-nm and also most likely at the 45-nm node, we believe that the CMP market remains open to just two key vendors — Applied Materials and Ebara," Kant said. "We believe Applied Materials will continue to dominate this market with close to 80 percent share," he said. In total, the CMP and the post-CMP clean market is roughly a $1 billion market. Chip-equipment vendor Novellus said sales for the first quarter of 2005 were $339.7 million, flat compared to $340.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2004 and up 29.2 percent from $262.9 million in last year's first quarter. Net income was $30.5 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, down 18.8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2004 net income of $37.5 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, and up 82.7 percent from net income of $16.7 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2004. For Q2, Novellus guided to a revenue decline between 3-6 percent ($320-$330 million), flat orders, and EPS between $0.17-$0.20.

To: etchmeister who wrote (14753)	5/4/2005 9:23:57 AM
From: Gottfried	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 25522

etch, let's not forget that >by not having a crash the chance to re - accelerate (combined with buzzword "growth") is eliminated.<

To: etchmeister who wrote (14753)	5/4/2005 11:47:49 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25522

DRAM price weakness drags Q1 sales down at Hynix Peter Clarke EE Times (05/04/2005 10:26 AM EDT) LONDON — Sales revenue dropped at Hynix Semiconductor Inc. (Seoul, South Korea) in the first quarter of 2005, due to weakness in DRAM prices and the strength of the Korean currency against the U.S. dollar, the company said. Revenue for the first quarter was 1,284 billion won (about $1.29 billion), operating profit was 299 billion won (about $300 million), which represent sequential declines of 4 percent and 29 percent respectively, while net income was 317 billion won (about $320 million), which is an increase of 70 percent sequentially, the company said. Hynix said it achieved consolidated revenue of 1,270 billion won (about $1.28 billion) and operating profit of 321 billion won (about $322 million) which are down by 12 percent and 30 percent respectively from the previous quarter's revenue of 1,450 billion won (about $1.46 billion) and operating profit of 459 billion won (about $461 million). The company also recorded net income of 321 billion won (about $322 million) for the first quarter which is a 53 percent increase from the previous quarter's 209 billion won (about $210 million). The sequential decrease in the revenue and operating profit was mainly due to a strong price decline in DRAM market that could not be completely offset by increased bit growth and reduced unit cost. In addition, weakness of the U.S. dollar against the won had a negative impact on the overall revenues and profits. However, flash sales increased significantly, the company said.