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Technology Stocks : Dupont Photomasks (DPMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TI2, TechInvestorToo who wrote (81)	1/25/1998 4:48:00 PM
From: jeffbas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 955

Why wouldn't equipment suppliers like Cymer or ETEC be more interesting, since most of their sales are focussed on the high end, as compared with only part of DPMI. Is the simple answer "yes, if the valuations were the same", which they are not? Also shouldn't we expect at least one more poor quarter because of Asian problems, which has not been announced yet? Has there been any guidance about the future? I am not enthused about buying into high pre-announcement risk stocks, which looks like the case here.

To: TI2, TechInvestorToo who wrote (81)	1/26/1998 12:12:00 PM
From: kinkblot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 955

TI2, Your comments regarding the demise of optical are true. At this point IBM has press release "breakthroughs" and pilot programs. E-beam was also touted as a technology of the future for two decades, and is only now becoming significant. The lead times are just very long and the dominant technology has a lot of inertia due to existing infrastructure. For medium-term trading, maybe something 2 generations out need not be considered. Aren't equipment vendors somewhat of a different business model than photomask, which has more of a recurring business element? My interest in DPMI is to track overall semiconductor industry growth. Picking winners among equipment suppliers is more of a high risk, high reward type of investment. The customer base is less diverse and unit prices are much higher, so quarterly earnings results will tend to be "lumpier". Uncertainty about the next few quarters is the necessary tradeoff against the current low price. Will