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To: Andrew Vance who wrote (13790)	5/12/1998 5:57:00 PM
From: Andrew Vance	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17305

AV--Jeff will get a kick out of this. One of the Questions asked on the AMAT conference call was related to the YR2K issues (are they YR2K compliant) the company may have in both its financial systems and its system software. Their response was they have a corporate initiative (I do not know the exact term used but it means a high level of priority and a executive) to deal with this issue in 1998 AND 1999 and to make sure it is resolved. To me this means they have a problem and are going to have to remediate it. Costs for the YR2K remediation goes up in 1999 over 1998 expenditures.<GGG> Receivables are also up and they are trying to get this back in line with historical figures. CMP order were up 60% quarter to quarter but no dollars figures were given. Many cost reduction programs in place last quarter and are moving forward. Some included shutdown days. Merit increases went into effect this past quarter. Moving forward there will be significant shutdown days for 3rd quarter. They will also have the full effect of 1300 that are no longer on the payroll. No shutdown activities have been announced for the 4th quarter yet. Behind their market penetration strategy on their advanced oxide etch capability due to weakness in the industry. They believe they will be well positioned for the 0.18u technology that is presently in development and which may see limited production in 1999. Conference call just concluded at 5:55 pm and took close to 1.5 hours. Replay # was not announced. If I find it, I will post it. Andrew

To: Andrew Vance who wrote (13790)	5/12/1998 11:45:00 PM
From: Filbert	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17305

I would like to speculate on the possibility of a DuPont acquisition. Zeneca Group PLC (ZEN, $8.6 billion), (headquartered in London, maybe Nigel can comment more easily than I), has been considered a takeover candidate for a while now because of its potential complementary capabilities in the agrochemical and seeds arena and its large portfolio of drugs. DuPont and Monsanto are most frequently suggested as the potential buyers, and with Monsanto spending $4.4 billion in acquisitions recently, I thought that perhaps DuPont might be interested. ZEN has recently split, 3 for 1 I believe, and has dropped a bit after the split. I don't own any ZEN, a friend asked me to check it out because of a breast cancer drug that they are trying to develop, and she was interested in investing for that reason. I have more details if desired. Filbert