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Biotech / Medical : Coherent (COHR) : Anyone else holding? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Harbor who wrote (450)	2/26/1998 2:13:00 PM
From: JDN	Respond to of 788

TO ALL: We havent had much to comment on regarding COHR for a few days. Thought I would post this response I received from the company regarding a question I posed to them. jdn John, How do you define quantity? I define it as order for 10 or more units from a single source at one time. Lambda Physik can do that and we look forward to that challenge when the opportunity arises. Presently, there are many more DUV lasers in the market than there are steppers. It may take longer than you believe for the buying cycle to open up due to the situation in the Far East as well as the current supply situation. So I can't give you a concrete time frame. I estimate that the market for DUV lasers in 1998 is between $250 and $350 million (CYMI FY '97 sales were 203.6M-CYMI trades at market cap of over 2X sales or $590M. If COHR traded at 2X sales our market cap would be about $800M.) What I can say is that many of the stepper manufacter have asked for a second source of supply. Coherent, Inc. is not allowed to say who are customers are for DUV lasers unless our customers decide to discuss this with analysts, etc. and it becomes public. Sometimes you have to read between the lines on what companies say. To summarize, I think the opportunity is there and Lambda is ready for the challenge. Coherent's Lambda Physik subsidiary has the most advanced lithography equipment on the market. Not only has Lambda Physik installed over 5,000 excimer lasers into the marketplace, but they were the first to introduce 193nm Argon Fluoride (ArF) DUV excimer lasers able to produce linewidths of around .1 micron and 157 nm (F2) Flourine DUV excimer lasers for the sub .1 micron lithography market which was introduced at the Semiconductor Workshop, Nagano, Japan, November 1997. Coincidentally, Lambda Physik has over 40 F2 lasers in the field. Lambda Physik, not Cymer, was the first company to offer a clear product migration path from the existing lithography at 248 nm. I hope this gives you some update on our status.