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Technology Stocks : General Lithography -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crossy who wrote (804)	3/1/1998 9:37:00 AM
From: Andrew Vance	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1305

Optical Sensitve sbstances are being interpreted by me as light sensitive substances which are called Photoresists. The major companies that deal in photoresist are TOK (not a symbol), JSR (not a symbol), Shipley, Hoechst Celanese, Hunt, and maybe 1 or 2 others. I do not recall if any of these is not just a subsidiary of a larger conglommerate. Look at Hoechst-Celanese and you catch my drift. Somewhere buried in these names might be a potential play but for the most part I have limited the commodities related to IC production to ATMI, WFR, DPMI, MASK, and PLAB. To each his/her own and I have found the "excitement" more in the AMAT, NVLS, KLAC, ASMLF, LRCX, etc. types of stocks while looking for the next significant up and coming company like the AEIS, CYMI, YILD, CFMT, MTSN, IPEC, SFAM, etc. type companies that have a shot at success. I was about to end this message when it occurred to me that NANX is worth a look. While way too early, you have a possible large raw material provider for the CMP slurry business. They have a great nanocrystalline abrasive precursor for the slurry that was exclusively under contract with MOYC. MOYC could not really be a player in this sector (for reasons we could discuss) and sold off the potential business to a major player in the IC chemical services business. I can't remember the company's name off hand but the subsidiary, EKC technology is what I am most familiar with. As CMP becomes more commercialized and implemented across the industry, it is possible that NANX could be a good play way down the food chain on for CMP. NANX is not a pure play but it close to it. If you look at its chart you will see it recently went public, took a nice run, then dropped like a rock to its present level. Hi tech hysteria maybe behind this or maybe a nice manipulation. Who knows, but it is worth taking the time to check EDGAR and press releases and see if it is of interest. I do not see a great rush to this stock over the next month but any significant upward movement in IPEC and SFAM who make the CMP equipment would indicate good sales coming for the CMP slurry providers. Key point is that there are many players in this field, more than even photoresist providers at this stage. there will be consolidation here with Cabot(CBT), EKC Technology, some massively big companies with niche operations, Rodel, etc. vying for "world domination". As or me, it is too early to tell who the lead sled dog is. However, the SEC filings on NANX seemed to indicate that NANX (through MOYC) materials were being evaluated and tested by 4-5 major companes in the industry. This in itself, coupled with MOYC's size, company recognition and experience in the IC arena, may have led to the present selling of the technology. MOYC was originally courted by Ashland Chemicals for rights to the slurry. Well, it looks like the afterthought was longer than the original reply<GGGG>. Andrew