To: John Fedak who wrote (13482 ) 1/30/1998 12:06:00 AM From: Tulvio Durand Respond to
Thanks to the many transcribers of the CC, and in particular John Fedak for an accurate transcription and Adrew Vance for a concise summary [ Message 3296181 ].
My take, for what it's worth, -- faced with an Asian slowdown and future Asian market uncertainty Cymer chose to redirect more of its resources towards expanded R&D product improvements, new products and expanded product support. This emphasis will improve Cymer's long term viability and competitiveness even at the cost of short term earnings performance. Looked at another way, the slowdown would have given competitors more time to catch up. Cymer chose the INTC route -- keep bringing out better product that the competition can't match.
It's difficult to predict what investores will do. Short term money may run to greener pastures (wherever that is) and LT investors may come in seizing real value at the preent stock price.
Couple of points from CC that I didn't see reported.
- 83 Cymer-DUV-lasers equipped tools are now are now used by chip makers in production of chips.
- KrF laser is de facto standard for production 0.18 down to 0.15 micron.
- ArF laser has been shipped in late 1997 to support next generation scan-and-step tool development aimed at 0.13 micron (and smaller).
- present generation Cymer 5000 series KrF is the only DUV laser installed in production stepper tools in the world. The Cymer 5010 which starts shipping 98Q2 is a higher power, more stable, more costly KrF laser that will gradually supplant the 5000. The Orion, which will begin shipping in 98Q3 is twice as powerful as the 5010, will have a higher throughput than its predecessors and will cost even more. At some point fewer lasers will ship but revenue, including 15% spares and support, will keep on climbing (and that's why Cymer will shift away from # units shipped to revenue $ in future reports, IMO).
All in all a good report and a good CC, IMO. BTW, Brett Hodess of Montgomery Securities and a couple of other analysts (whose names I missed) congratulated Cymer management for the good Q results. We should join them by adding our congrats.
Tulvio
