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

To: Gottfried who wrote (29221)	3/26/1999 12:51:00 AM
From: Jeffrey D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Merger mania coming to the chip equipment sector? The following from a Reuters article. Jeff << Mergers also are heating up in the downtrodden $22 billion semiconductor equipment industry, which makes the million dollar equipment used by chip makers around the world. Chip equipment firms are slowly turning around, with forecasts that revenues will be flat this year after dropping last year. The industry slump came amid economic woes in parts of Asia, home to many big customers. Barry Newman, senior managing director of NationsBanc Montgomery Securities, said he had been predicting consolidation in the equipment industry for a few years, but this year will be one for more mergers in chip equipment, as companies recover from the worldwide industry slowdown. ''We are in an environment where people are thinking about them,'' said Newman, who heads up NationsBanc Montgomery's technology investment banking. Another factor driving equipment companies to merge is competition with the world's largest equipment maker Applied Materials Inc., which offers entire solutions to many steps involved in the complex 12-sequence chip manufacturing process, while most equipment makers offer one or two products at the most, SG Cowen & Co. analyst Min Pang said. ''There were 29 deals in this space last year and there are already 12 this year (through February),'' Pang said. ''It's incredible. It's not very visible because these are not very large companies. But these things are already happening.'' >>

To: Gottfried who wrote (29221)	3/26/1999 11:56:00 PM
From: Paul V.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Gottfried, Find attached a portion of the the article on the CBS Hardware site. cbs.marketwatch.com hard.htx?source=htx/http2_mw Chip, computer stocks end lower By Tiare Rath, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 4:17 PM ET Mar 26, 1999 . . .Friday, selling hit companies like Applied Materials (AMAT) and KLA-Tencor (KLAC) after their strong gains Thursday. Applied Materials' shares dropped 31/4 to 57 13/16, while KLA-Tencor's stock lost 2 1/8 to 49 1/2. Novellus Systems (NVLS) declined 1 1/2 to 531/2. Applied Materials' shares have been particularly volatile this week. Wednesday, the company is set to meet with analysts in Silicon Valley. . . Next week should be an interesting time after the meeting with analysts. Below is a comparison between the 1996/97 with 1998/99 using Relative Strength (RS), Price, and BTB numbers. Note, price is given in absolute numbers Naturally, the above is only my opinions and the data which I have reviewed from various sources, ie IBD, DW. Readers are reminded the old saving, "caveat emptor (buyer/reader beware)." Paul 96/97 96/97 96/97 98/99 98/99 98/99 MTH RS PRICE BTB VRS RS PRICE BTB 7/96 <10 22-25 0.76 20-54 29-34 0.65 8/96 <10 23-27 0.71 38-56 25-37 0.57 9/96 11-15 24-30 0.7 38-50 23-27 0.57 10/96 11-27 26-30 0.78 40-65 22-36 0.75 11/96 15-79 27-40 0.9 62-86 33-43 0.84 12/96 60-87 35-40 1.01 92-96 38-47 0.97 1/97 65-94 36-49 1.08 94-96 46-64 1.12 2/97 90-95 41-55 1.07 94-97 56-71 1.17 3/97 94-95 44-54 1.15 95-97 55-67 na 4/97 94-96 45-55 1.1 5/97 95-97 56-72 1.09 6/97 95-97 58-75 1.07 7/97 95-97 74-95 1.12 8/97 96-99 89-108 1.1

To: Gottfried who wrote (29221)	3/28/1999 5:47:00 PM
From: Thomas J. Smith	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 70976

PIGMAN has arrived............................................. Yes the Pigman that called the sell ////short of IOM at 10 and Yes the PIGMAN that on March 11th ,,, Told the DELL holders to run for cover,,,, That's dell 44 to dell 35 and a bounce to 40 only to die with dell.... Major top in DELL AMAT is the best chart to the downside I ,,,in my 15 years of charting have never seen a perfect short as I have seen here on AMAT........... Rarely do I show my hand before I have actually shorted a stock,,, But there is so much room to the downside on AMAT,,,, I can't believe how good this chart looks.... The PIG is here and will win on AMAT.............. THE PIGMAN