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

To: Czechsinthemail who wrote (12741)	1/16/1998 2:31:00 PM
From: Angela	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25960

<< As with the Koreans and others, I think they will have to bite the bullet and invest at least enough to develop their DUV processes and perhaps enough to develop major DUV-based operations.>> I have a different view on this matter. The top 3 dram makers in S. Korea are Samsung, Hyundai and LG Semicon. Together they make over 30% of the world's dram supply. I read an article (I'll try to find it) that said the best of the lot had a debt equity ratio of over 200%, while the worst one of the 3 was over 400%. I definately believe their capital expenditures will slow down for two reasons: 1. For now the won is so low they can't afford the capital equipment (priced in $) 2. The IMF and President Kim are getting serious about reforming the chaebol -- no more fancy accounting to get loans when you're already too deep in debt, no more political power being used to get loans, opening up the books, etc. etc. However, Taiwan is making noise about picking up the slack if S. Korea misses a step. But even if that doesn't happen, I'm not too concerned about Cymer because drams are only one semiconductor market, you still have DSPs, CPU, Mixed signal, logic, ASICS. DSPs are just on the cusp of getting into .25. Texas Instruments, the leader in DSP, has already announced its .18 DSP chip to be available in volume sometime in 1998. That means its competitors, Lucent and ADI, etc. will be going down the same road or get left in the dust. Just my opinion, FWIW. Regards, Angela