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

To: etchmeister who wrote (1376)	4/5/2007 2:42:01 PM
From: niek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 43592

Fab-tool rankings change in '06 EE Times 04/04/2007 SAN JOSE, Calif. — In 2006, there was a major shift in the fab-tool rankings, according to Gartner Inc. U.S.-based Applied Materials Inc. remained the market leader, as its revenue increased 37 percent in 2006, according to Gartner. ASML Holding NV of the Netherlands continued to gain market share and it closed in on Japan's Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) for the No. 2 position, according to the firm. The rankings shuffle started with the advance of U.S.-based KLA-Tencor Inc. to the No. 4 position, as it expanded its share in the process control market. Lam Research Corp. of the U.S. experienced the strongest growth among the top-tier vendors, as its revenue increased 64.1 percent in 2006. Lam Research moved up two positions, as it returned to the top 5 for the first time since 1997. Gartner analyst attributed the company's success to its leadership in etch, and its strong positioning among memory customers. Driven by new capacity needs and a competitive investment race in the memory sector, worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending totalled $41.95 billion in 2006, a 22.9 percent increase from 2005, according to final results by Gartner. "The 2006 market was marked by a reacceleration of capacity buys and strong memory spending, combined with new equipment for the ramp up of 65-nanometer (nm) processing and first 45 nm purchases," said Klaus Rinnen, managing vice president for Gartner's semiconductor manufacturing research group, in a statement.