Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Financial Collapse of 2001 Unwinding -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (4479)	2/21/2020 1:35:58 PM
From: robert b furman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13803

Hi Elroy, They sold off the slower growing Cryo business and paid off the debt incurred by buying the faster growing high margin business named Genewhiz. In the past Brooks had bought the cryogenic unit which was part of Helix (obtained by acquiring Helix years ago). Brooks took the lessons learned from the cryogenic unit and applied it to cold storage systems initially - primarily addressing storage of pharma products. Then realizing that colder temps were required for the storage of bio samples , they designed very cold storage for human samples and hospital research in leading hospitals of the world. Both of these systems were enabling creative destruction for the existing lower tech approaches. The semi portion of brooks is all about robotic transport of wafers in vacuum containers that prevent contamination. This expertise was transferred to the life sciences storage division. To design a system that logs the location of where the sample is stored and then store it in cold and very cold systems, without humans touching has been a fast growing, but difficult to introduce a completely new superior way of storage. It took about another 2 years to build the very cold storage system. All of these systems must be completely reliable - there was some time required for the product's reliability to be established - now years ago. Management tries very hard to stay debt free. Once Genewhiz business was secured , a large amount of debt was taken on to secure the deal 450 million . Then the cryo business was negotiated and sold for 675 million - that took a long time to get government antitrust OK. Schwartz (CEO) and Robertsons (CFO) hold a very good webcast. You can feel their conservative nature about spending money and or taking on debt.. They consistently strive for margins in the 40% and growth that reaches 20% to 30%. If they have operations that do not comply with those numbers , they sell them off and are focussed on growing the life sciences - which they pretty much own now. Their list of customers is the who's who of hospital research centers - Cleveland Clinic ,MD Anderson , Mayo clinic. They literally have all of the large pharma companies of the world. Their reach into lifesciences has been quite fast, considering they had to invent the equipment first and then sell it. As they saw success, they sold off more of the cyclical semi business,and invested in the very stable and fast growing life sciences business. Now perhaps some would say they should have embraced debt and kept it all. I like the idea that they are not in love with any business. If it doesn't meet their profitability standards - it gets sold. That kind of high margin fast growth with a management team that prefers to be bullet proof with no debt - is my kind of company. The selling of slower growth yet profitable divisions is what makes Brooks earnings look like a roller coaster. With the selling now done, the growth that they have promised appears to be on track. In this last webcast they received more orders for equipment last quarter than ever in the history of their life sciences division. They have 67 customers and 24 with repeat multiple purchases. They appear to be dominating the sector they created. brooks.com Recent quarterly webcast transcripts: mail.google.com mail.google.com mail.google.com Hope you find it interesting! Bob