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To: Katherine Derbyshire who wrote (612)	5/15/1998 9:23:00 AM
From: Ian@SI	Respond to of 955

Katherine & Thread, (*OT* ETEC/UTEK *OT) When at my best, I aspire to achieving half your ability while in "brain-locked" state. <VBG> Since the thread was about wafers, I think I brain-locked on that market. Sigh...* Thread, I think Katherine's response has dealt with most of your queries. I would add that most companies have rigid rules for what they will include in backlogs. e.g. Maximum delivery date less than 1 year out, sometimes as little as 6 months. I would suspect that ETEC's backlog is delivery constrained not order constrained. (Don't know, haven't researched the company) Ultrabeam V2000 is still unproven in the field. Selling price for first product was just under $7M. I have no idea how the gross margins compare between ETEC and UTEK products. To displace a known, high quality vendor, the upstart has to offer at least a 25% Price/Performance advantage just to get his foot in the door. IMO, it's premature to worry about ETEC's prospects or dominance. As I own UTEK, not ETEC, I would be very happy if the thread's concerns come to pass. I hope that UTEK will be very successful. That won't make it so; and even if it happens, it won't seriously impact ETEC. IMHO, Ian.