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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert O who wrote (21875)	7/15/1998 11:46:00 PM
From: Henry Eichorszt	Respond to of 70976

FROM SMARTMONEY-The shares of the chip equipment maker rallied on merger rumors and a well-received presentation of its copper technology on Monday at Semicon West, the semiconductor equipment industry's show in San Francisco. "Clearly, the company has a lead in this next generation technology," says BT Alex. Brown analyst Byron Walker, who is attending the show. Novellus also announced that it has been developing its copper technology with IBM (IBM) for the past two years. Novellus CEO Rick Hill said that copper costs less than aluminum in manufacturing chips, so more chip firms will move to copper. The shares are also are rising because of rumors that Novellus could merge with Lam Research (LRCX), analysts say. The two companies entered a joint venture to develop copper technology in May. Novellus is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Thursday. Walker expects the company to meet forecasts of 46 cents a share, compared to 50 cents a share a year ago. But he says that the company could issue a cautionary outlook in the report, given that the prevailing mood at the show is that the industry still has a ways to go before it hits bottom.