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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TechHunter who wrote (9184)	11/12/1997 7:42:00 AM
From: flickerful	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25960

<<(The analyst was Bret Hodess-interesting isn't it?)>> the investors were a scruffy lot by now; they had wandered far. very far: and at every corner, wherever they felt they were back on track, the landscape would suddenly transform itself into nothing they had ever quite seen before. you are about to join us there right now... you are about to enter the twilight zone. ( so the equivalent time frame would land us at record highs when??? smile.)

To: TechHunter who wrote (9184)	11/12/1997 7:46:00 AM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 25960

Fab shortage??....................... sumnet.com From Page One of Electronic News: November 10, 1997 Issue FSA Fears Fab Shortage By Peter Brown San Jose, Calif.--The Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA) will today make a major change at the helm. After three years, Robert Pepper, president and CEO of Level One Communications, is retiring as chairman of the FSA and being replaced by David Angel, chairman and CEO of Information Storage Devices (ISD). One of the first items of business for Mr. Angel will be encouraging foundry companies to continue to build facilities and centers that ensure there is enough capacity for the coming years. "I am concerned that there may have been an overreaction in the industry that there is excess in capacity," said Mr. Angel. "There was a period back when there was a terrible shortage of capacity. Actually that is when the FSA formed. Now there is a period in which people are claiming excess capacity. Much of what is being installed is for memory and we need to make sure there isn't a bad reaction and people stop building foundries in the world and we experience this capacity shortage again." According to San Jose, Calif.-based market research firm Dataquest, the fabless industry is out-pacing the overall semiconductor market in terms of overall growth. The fabless sector is projected to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the years 1996-2001 of 27.4 percent compared to 16.2 percent for the overall semiconductor industry. This translates into increasing market share in the semiconductor industry from 4.8 percent currently to 7.8 percent in 2001, Dataquest said. Along with capacity issues, Mr. Angel plans to deal with 0.25- and 0.18-micron capability issues, equity investing in foundry services and the question of where R&D investment should be placed to continue rolling out unique products. Mr. Angel added he is going to try to bring fabless companies who are not members of the FSA into the organization so fabless companies as a whole can have one distinct voice. Building A Book-To-Bill Ratio One of the more interesting ideas Mr. Angel would like to implement is a fabless industry equivalent of the book-to-bill ratio formerly used by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). This would provide information about fabless companies to Wall Street to give them an idea about the direction fabless companies are going, the different product areas these companies are investing in and general information about the fabless semiconductor industry as a whole. "I wouldn't really call it a book-to-bill but it would be something similar that would provide significant parameters for the FSA to develop meaningful information to the financial community," said Mr. Angel. "Right now it is just an idea but I am going to try and pursue it in the future for the organization. Industry reaction to this idea was very positive and thought it would be a good idea to further the growth of the fabless companies." According to Ed Ross, member of the FSA board and president of the technology and manufacturing group at Cirrus Logic, having Mr. Angel as the new chairman is a positive move forward and will further add to the continuity of the organization. Dr. Ross said an information-gathering service--such as a fabless book-to-bill--for Wall Street would have the backing of the board and actually has been discussed by members of the FSA. He added it would be a positive move for the organization and wouldn't be surprised to see this come about in the near future. "I think an objective of the FSA is to be a voice for fabless companies and promote their interests in whatever way possible," said James Hines, principle analyst at Dataquest. "Some indicator that would accurately state how their business was doing and what certain product areas they are in would certainly contribute to the growing fabless industry." Mr. Hines said the fabless and foundry business models have been very effective so the electronics industry can expect them to grow in importance going forward. Some of the reasons for this lie in the relationship between semiconductor company and foundry. The semiconductor company concentrates its capital on creating interesting and innovative new products that can revolutionize a certain industry while the foundries concentrate on the silicon, design and manufacturing, he added. Smaller companies can then react quickly to changing market conditions and reduced time-to-market and take advantage of these changes more quickly because they don't have to worry about filling a billion dollar fab. "Some of the most innovative designs in semiconductors are coming from the fabless companies," says Tom Newsom, business development manager at Hewlett-Packard's semiconductor test division. He sees these companies pushing the technology rather than the big established ones. "I think that is a sound objective. Even fabless companies need investment of some sort and do need the backing from Wall Street," said Reuven Marko, director of worldwide marketing for pure-play foundry Tower Semiconductor. "If the FSA finds a way to strengthen that tie to Wall Street by providing quality information, I think that helps investors recommend to others what to do in regard to these fabless companies. It gives you a good idea about what the company does and where it is going." Mr. Marko said that change in the semiconductor industry is always welcome and that new blood can sometimes take an organization in a better direction than it might have been going. Mr. Marko added the FSA already has numerous ideas and relationships in the works for standards, communications between companies and intellectual property transfers and would like to see these issues continue during Mr. Angel's term. Still not everybody is happy with FSA. Meir Janai, director of business development for Chip Express, said there were some issues that the FSA has not addressed, including running a 0.25 micron test chip program. Even though Chip Express is not yet manufacturing devices utilizing 0.25 micron, it would like to see the issue discussed. "Another concern is that I have to pay Dataquest $10,000 to find out the average manufacturing wafer prices while I should be able to get this information from the FSA," said Mr. Janai. "If I have to buy silicon I should be able to find out how much money per wafer I am paying without having to pay more money. There are a few companies that are leading the FSA effort and what is done does not reflect the needs of the majority of its members, maybe it does some but not ours."

To: TechHunter who wrote (9184)	11/12/1997 11:13:00 AM
From: D.J.Smyth	Respond to of 25960

yes, Hunter, aware of KLIC. good comparison.

To: TechHunter who wrote (9184)	11/12/1997 1:00:00 PM
From: Curlton Latts	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25960

Tech: Klic has done a lot of straight common equity issuance - different than convertible notes. The analysts' dances around KLIC were directly related to the fees generated thereby - a big game incidentally - the big hike in short interest was in anticipation of the new shares coming into the market. All of the KLIC activities revolved around distribution of stock. KLIC also seems to have performed with its business. I believe that CYMI is a slightly different situation - particularly with CYMI's earnings growth/no competition opportunity. Needless to say they are similar in that these analyst recommendations aren't worth the paper they're printed on because of the conflict of interest. Good Luck To Each And All Curly ~~~~~~~^^ [6.6] ....> [_] ]