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Technology Stocks : Ultratech Stepper -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ian@SI who wrote (2301)	3/31/1998 8:42:00 AM
From: Mark Pritikin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3696

<<Limit order to buy at 19>> I do not follow the trading on this stock as I am beginning to research UTEK; however, your order would not fill if the ask price was not 19. The low was 18 7/8 and was likely a trade on the bid and the ask probably over 19 ask this stock usually has more than a 1/8 spread. Since your order had been out there for a while (GTC) it is likely that the stock never was asking 19; if it did other orders must have been filled first. Other factors could be the size of your order and if it was placed all or none. Regardless, a GTC order is not a good idea. You could be buying into a free fall and the market makers will gladly fill you on the way down.

To: Ian@SI who wrote (2301)	3/31/1998 11:01:00 AM
From: Andrew Vance	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3696

Ian-the following link to an ASMLF press release has me slightly baffled. At first it shocked me to death but on reconsideration it almost did not make sense. biz.yahoo.com Now that you have read this link, here are my questions and comments. 1. ASMLF is making an effort to invade UTEK's dominant domain, cutting into their market share dominance. 2. This SA business unit is a stand alone business. 3. Remember the catch phrase "Twice the throughput at half the cost" meaning that UTEK was onw of the most cost effective systems on the market. Higher throughput at much less cost. 4. Reticle tooling for UTEK is also more cost effective. 5. If ASML does try to invade this territory, how can they do it at competitive cost of ownership. In order to compete with UTEK, wouldn't they have to drop the prices of these units significantly and wouldn't that eat into their profitability or margins??? 6. Should we be worried that this type of competition will be detrimental to UTEK or is there another angle to this??? 7. I can't get it out of my head that ASMLF would go for much lower margins in this sector in order to compete with UTEK. Remember the mix and match campaign over a year ago?? Remember the UTEK reticle managment system that ASMLF was enthralled with??? WHAT IF (no hype or spam or iniside info but rather just a weird observation) this is a prelude to making UTEK the core of that business unit. Am I crazy or what??? Form the business unit and then make a bid on UTEK to accomplish your goal. With the explosive growth of ASMLF over the past few years and with all its splits, a stock takeout would make sense. It would also make sense since MEMS is just about starting to come into its own. Is it a coincidence that the announcement comes today and coincides with the elimination of Gov't funding at MCNC (Microelectronics Center of North Carolina) thereby allowing MCNC to open its process and libraries to the rest of the world for MEMS??? ISNR went public a few weeks ago with little fanfare but they are a MEMS company. The problem with all this is that it makes too much sense to me so I am looking for people to shoot holes into this theory. Key word is theory and should not be construed as rumor. Again, this is a low end market (TFH, MEMS, MR, GMR, etal.) relative to the high $$$ margins and profits that will be associated with DUV and sub 0.45u i-line lithography. I can understand branching out into other arenas but isn't it ridiculous to spend the $$$ and resources to develop a lower end business?? I would acquire the business if it were me. Look at what INTC ran into today. There low end processor for the under $1000 market was reported to be slower than both the the AMD and NSM(CYRX) microprocessors. Everyone, please feel free to shoot holes into the above post. I am still an UTEK supporter but my mind has begun to wander due to the lack of performance here. I do not know if this makes sense or if it is just wishful thinking on my part. Andrew