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Technology Stocks : Mattson Technology -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Stewart who wrote (974)	11/29/1998 11:58:00 PM
From: EACarl	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3661

To all: CASH BURN. Hello everyone, I haven't posted here in quite a while. Background: I am long. I bought MTSN on 9-11-98 for 3 1/4. A little early, but obviously I have no complaints at this point. I own numerous semi-equips and want to be "in" the sector all the way to the next up-cycle peak. I do accept the fact that based on the fantastic short term performance of these stocks, there could be a significant pullback in the sector if the recovery is slower than is historical (and there are those that believe that will be the case this time). In any event, I am searching for a semi-equip company which will provide above average percentage returns between now and the next cycle peak, and I believe MSTN has that potential. However after last quarters "disaster", I am concerned about the cash burn rate if the sector does have a very slow recovery. From the 10Q's: Cash and short term investments as of 6-28-98 were $40,318,000. Cash and short term investments as of 9-27-98 were $28,886,000. At that rate cash would be gone in 2.5 quarters. I do realize that MTSN has reduced its Break even point on revenues to $15-16 million, which would stretch the cash out further. It did not look to me that any of the significant one time charges last quarter affected cash. How about a little more detailed discussion on this subject? I'm sure I have only scratched the surface here.