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Technology Stocks : Semi-Equips - Buy when BLOOD is running in the streets! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LLCF who wrote (6778)	8/21/1998 9:58:00 PM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10921

>>Whats your take on consolidation in the industry if things get uglier?<< Well, there's already been a good amount of consolidation at the low levels. Asyst bought Hine Design, UTEK bought ISI, and so on. As long as visibility is zero and the Morgans of the world admit that they're managing for breakeven, I doubt you'll see much more. The potential acquiring company isn't likely to want to add more overhead, especially if they're faced with likely layoffs of existing staff. But, things will start looking up for the big guys before the little guys, simply because the big guys have more market share. Once that happens, they may consider it a green light to start spending whatever cash is available. If things get ugly enough, the values on some of the smaller companies may get to be just too low to pass up, both for the industry gorillas like AMAT and the diversified mega-companies like GE. Disclaimer: I know a good bit about semiconductors, but very little about the ins and outs of mergers and acquisitions. These are just my opinions. Katherine