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To: Mitchell who wrote (402)	8/15/1998 11:40:00 PM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1138

From BRKS 10Q... The Company expects revenues in the fiscal 1998 fourth quarter will decrease at least 15% compared with the three months ended June 30, 1998 due primarily to the prolonged economic downturn currently impacting the semiconductor industry and related fabrication equipment sector. Foreign revenues for the three months ended June 30, 1998 increased 73.1% to $11.2 million (50.2% of revenues), including $10.7 million of direct sales to Asian customers, compared with foreign revenues of $6.5 million (28.0% of revenues), including $4.6 million of direct sales to Asian customers in the comparable prior fiscal period. Foreign revenues for the nine months ended June 30, 1998 increased 47.7% to $25.3 million (37.6% of revenues), including $21.3 million of direct sales to Asian customers, compared with foreign revenues of $17.1 million (30.8% of revenues), including $13.0 million of direct sales to Asian customers in the comparable prior fiscal period. The Company expects that foreign revenues will continue to account for a significant portion of total revenues in fiscal 1998. However, there can be no assurance that the geographical growth rates, if any, in the foreseeable future, particularly in Asia which is suffering regional economic downturns, will be comparable to those achieved in the first nine months of fiscal 1998. and a warning of potential for litigation from AMAT... The Company had received notice from General Signal Corporation ("General Signal") alleging infringements of General Signal's patent rights, relating to cluster tool architecture, by certain of the Company's products. The notification advised the Company that General Signal was attempting to enforce its rights to those patents in litigation against Applied Materials, Inc. ("Applied Materials"), and that, at the conclusion of that litigation, General Signal intended to enforce its rights against the Company and others. According to a press release issued by Applied Materials, Applied Materials settled its litigation with General Signal by acquiring ownership of five General Signal patents. Although not verified, these five patents would appear to be the patents referred to by General Signal in its prior notice to the Company. Applied Materials has not contacted the Company regarding these patents. In 1992, at the time that General Signal first raised patent claims in the cluster tool area, the Company joined with six major semiconductor process tool equipment manufacturers in forming an "Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense against General Signal Cluster Tool Patents." At that time, the members of the Ad Hoc Committee notified General Signal that the member companies were of the opinion that the General Signal patents were invalid based on (i) prior art, (ii) inequitable conduct before the Patent & Trademark Office and (iii) estoppel as a result of General Signal's activities in establishing standards for cluster tools and interfaces within the semiconductor industry. The Company believes that the position taken by the Ad Hoc Committee remains valid. However, if the holder of these patents were to seek to enforce these patents against the Company, there can be no assurance that the Company would prevail in such litigation.