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

To: etchmeister who wrote (16601)	11/19/2005 1:57:59 PM
From: Cary Salsberg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

RE: "AMAT and NVLS are in a dogfight (CVD/PVD)." NVLS believes that CMP will be added to the dog fight in 2006. I read one analyst say that LRCX is making a "strategic commitment to clean". Do you know what "clean" refers to? Bagley came to LRCX with th acquisition of the leading CMP clean tool company. When AMAT added their own clean tool and gained dominant market share of CMP, LRCX business went away. I suspect any success NVLS has in gaining CMP market share will bring increased business to LRCX. NVLS certainly will not want to pair with AMAT's cleaner. So, does "clean" mean CMP clean for LRCX or something else?

To: etchmeister who wrote (16601)	11/20/2005 10:55:43 AM
From: Big Bucks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Etch, strategic marketing wins means that once a toolset is placed into a fab, and is successful, that it becomes the "tool of record" for that fabs chip manufacturing. The longer term benefits are that typically the toolset will remain in use for 5-7 years (or longer). There will be additional revenues generated by spare parts, paid service, and additional similar toolset capacity purchases. Once a customer is comfortable with the performance of the toolset he is likely to purchase similar toolsets that perform different functions because they have developed confidence in the ability of the performance metrics of the tool, the vendor, and the support that they receive. It is a long term sales and support strategy that matters, not just a predatory pricing issue. Few fabs buy only 1 of an initial toolset once they have evaluated and approved the performance of the tool to meet their current and future production needs. There are longer term intangible benefits that become tangible at a later point in the purchase decision. You should know, performance, economic concerns, vendor relationships, and profitability are part of the longer term decision process.