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To: The Ox who wrote (40191)	9/15/2008 4:13:24 PM
From: The Ox	Respond to of 95888

Here's an article from March on ACLS: Sumitomo Sweetens Its Axcelis Offer Ruthie Ackerman, 03.10.08, 1:40 PM ET Sumitomo Heavy Industries is trying once again to win over Axcelis Technologies by dangling some extra cash in front of shareholders' eyes. On Monday, Sumitomo, a Japanese heavy-machinery maker in partnership with private equity firm TPG upped its bid to $6 per share from $5.20 per share to acquire Axcelis Technologies (nasdaq: ACLS - news - people ), which makes ion implantation equipment used in manufacturing semiconductors. Axcelis’ shares gained 3.2%, or 17 cents, to $5.54 in afternoon trading, signaling that Axcelis investors aren't sure the deal will go through since there is such a large gap between the offer price and the stock price. Sumitomo’s original offer of $544 million was rejected on Feb. 25. The company said the offer undervalued the company, didn’t reflect its long-term potential, and failed to compensate it for recent investments to develop new products, which would leave shareholders with inadequate value. Sumitomo said the revised proposal values Axcelis at $630 million, a 48.5% premium to its closing share price of $4.04 on Feb. 8, the last trading day before Sumitomo’s offer. The company said the premium exceeds those of similar offers in the semiconductor equipment industry. Sumitomo said since its original offer on Feb. 4 was rejected by Axcelis’ board it has spoken to a number of Axcelis shareholders, who own a substantial majority of the outstanding shares. Sumitomo said it does not plan on increasing its price again. Sumitomo said it has been patient over the last 18 months as Axcelis’ board rejected its offers to discuss the sale of the company. Meanwhile, Axcelis’ market share and financial performance declined significantly during that time. “We have revised our proposal because we strongly believe bringing our companies together quickly is in the best interest of all involved, including Axcelis and its stockholders, employees, and customers,” Sumitomo said. Sterling Capital Management, which owns 11.9% of Axcelis, urged the company to solicit other bids, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Sterling said a fair price for Axcelis would be $7.00 to $7.50 per share.

To: The Ox who wrote (40191)	9/15/2008 5:18:49 PM
From: Return to Sender	2 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95888

From Briefing.com: 4:35 pm : Monday marked an extremely ugly session on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 falling 4.7% -- marking the largest one-day percent drop since the first session following the attacks on September 11, 2001. Losses were driven by severe turmoil in the financial sector –- Lehman Brothers (LEH 0.21, -3.44) filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch (MER 17.06, +0.01) sold itself to Bank of America (BAC 26.55, -7.19) and AIG (AIG 54.76, -7.38) is looking for a massive amount of cash in an attempt to stave off failure. The S&P 500 closed at its lowest level since 2005 and is now down 18.8% year-to-date and down 24.3% from its October 2007 all-time high. The financial sector (-10.4%) took the brunt of the selling interest, although weakness was broad-based with all ten economic sectors posting a loss. Decliners outpaced advancers by a whopping 81-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. A total of 1.88 billion shares exchanged hands on the NYSE, which would normally be considered heavy volume, but is somewhat light considering the session's developments. Lehman Brothers filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after no buyers were willing to save the troubled 158-year-old firm due to a lack of a government backstop. None of Lehman's broker-dealer subsidiaries will be included in the bankruptcy and will continue to operate. Lehman listed $613 billion in debt, which is the largest bankruptcy on record according to reports. My Comments - First off AIG is now a $4.76 stock - which simply points out that you should never take anything you read at face value. Of interest to me was that if we look back to the last one day loss of this magnitude which was supposedly after 9/11 that it took 4 more sessions before the market made its September bottom: It was not until October 2, 2002 that the market made an ultimate major bottom. Now back to the Briefing.com commentary: 4:01PM Plexus awarded manufacturing contract with Kirby Lester (PLXS) 22.48 -0.82 : PLXS announced that the co has been awarded the primary contract to manufacture Kirby Lester pharmacy automation systems in its Buffalo Grove, IL facility. Kirby Lester is a provider of automated tablet machines, offering a full line of counting, dispensing and verification systems for pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and a variety of industries. 11:34AM MEMC Elec reports that their Pasadena facility does not appear to have sustained any major structural damage from Hurricane Ike (WFR) 33.06 -1.28 : Co reports that their Pasadena facility does not appear to have sustained any major structural damage. Co maintained power throughout the storm and the occupancy crew that stayed on site through this period is safe. Co's restart activities commenced as planned over the weekend, however, they have been notified of raw material delays by their suppliers due to their own startup difficulties. Co is working closely with their suppliers to understand and overcome these delays. They are not updating guidance at this time. 11:34AM MEMC Elec provides status update post Hurricane Ike of its facility in Pasadena; does not appear to have sustained any major structural damage (WFR) 33.00 -1.35 : Co provided an update on the status of its facility in Pasadena, Texas, which was threatened by Hurricane Ike. "Pasadena facility does not appear to have sustained any major structural damage. We maintained power throughout the storm and the occupancy crew that stayed on site through this period is safe. Our restart activities commenced as planned over the weekend, however, we have been notified of raw material delays by our suppliers due to their own startup difficulties. We are working closely with our suppliers to understand and overcome these delays. We are not updating guidance at this time." 9:04AM KEMET announces the sale of its Wet Tantalum assets (KEM) 1.09 : Co announces that it has sold its Wet Tantalum assets to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vishay Intertechnology (VSH) for $35.2 mln and other consideration in the form of a three-year term loan of $15 mln. Sales generated by these assets during the co's fiscal-year ended March 31, 2008 were ~$16.0 mln and $4.4 mln during the quarter ended June 30, 2008. Closing is scheduled to occur by the close of business today. 09:31 am Mattson initiated with a Hold at Needham: . Needham initiates MTSN with a Hold saying while there are good opportunities in etch, they believe Mattson is stretched too thin with too many products/ platforms to support. Firm believes consensus estimates for 2009 are too high, and project several quarters of losses ahead. While MTSN is trading at below fair value of $6 per share, the firm says they would wait for signs of new etch penetration and/or a stronger rebound before getting aggressive.