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To: Elvis Jones who wrote (40)9/24/1997 12:21:00 AM
From: Tom Terf  Respond to of 168
 
You are right about the very low capacity utilization.
It's about 25 % for both plants on combined basis.
They have tons of available capacity and are looking
for business.

That's why they are going for very high volume situations --
with lower inherent margin. They need to lower wafer costs
so they can can achieve good margins at a 30 % higher
revenue base than were they are now.

The Thin Film business is about $ 5.7 - 5.9 M this
quarter, not bad by historic standards. Next quarter
it will be at all time high for sure. So they are aiming
for $8.5- 9M sales base per quarter to yield about $1M margin
This is about 0.10 per share.

They didn't add capacity in 1994, they inherited all that
capacity through the 1986 Tempe plant acquisition from GTE.
It's almost idle relative to what it can do if they can
find the customers. They need a large foundry partner
desparately and have been engaged with Sipex technically, but
the big wafer production runs haven't come in yet.

Possibly in early 1998. They have been at it since mid-1995. Sipex may even take them over if the business is large enought, especially at today's seven dollar level.

As to how low the stock will go in this last revelation of lousy
results again, I think it could reach back to 6 7/8 for a few
weeks through October. Then move higher through the
balance of the year and end 1997 at about 9 - 9 1/2.

The fiscal year is a wash -- again. I think they'll try
to attract a takeover in early 1998 if the industry heats up
and they see little movement in their own business prospects.
Management and especially the Board want out of this thing.

However, the new customers, when they come .. will
help to remedy this problem.

We need patience in this case. There's a lot of downside
in all those situations which have already tripled this year.
I'd stay with, or follow, this dog a while longer. Little downside
from the 7 1/4 level.



To: Elvis Jones who wrote (40)12/5/1998 12:33:00 PM
From: Alan A. Hicks  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 168
 
CAMD is making steady progress in its transition to new standard products based on a unique, new semiconductor technology integrating high performance passive components on a single chip for specific applications in PCs, workstations, servers, wireless communications devices, and networking equipment. With their first two products introduced over the last year, revenues have reached 30 percent of overall revenues.

Two additional new products are set to go into high volume production very soon. CAMD's new product revenues could reach 50% of revenues and approach breakeven in the March quarter. CAMD could have as many as 10 new products in high volume production by the end of next year and be solidly profitable. At a recent presentation at the American Electronics Association conference CAMD sees a $1 billion market for these integrated passives with semiconductors with CAMD potentially capturing 20 to 30% of this market. CAMD currently has $34 million in revenues.

CAMD's traditional products have had declining revenues and have masked the growth in the new products. An important inflection point will be when new products surpass 50% of their revenues next year. Book value plus tax credits are around $4.25 per share. As CAMD introduces more new successful products based on this unique new technology, CAMD is going to become an increasingly attractive takeover candidate, but management will probably resist any takeover under $10 per share.