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

To: Ian@SI who wrote (3087)	4/1/1999 12:15:00 AM
From: Demosthenes	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3696

All, I spoke to UTEK IR today for 30 minutes. As I have mentioned before, I am not an expert on semi equip technology by any means. I ask simple questions and cross examine when I think necessary. Here are my notes from that call: 1) Ubeam. There are several problems with Ubeam. These are split between a) software and b) process related. PLAB has by no means given up on the testing and is working with UTEK to develop solutions. PLAB says it is "a good tool" and has great potential. UTEK has increased its focus and energies in ironing out Ubeam problems by allocating more engineers to them. Utek didn't anticipate how hard it would be to anticipate the individual needs of mask makers. UTEK believes it has identified these problems and can fix them and that Ubeam will still be a winner. No time frame was given as to when the machine will be problem free and ready for full time production. In other words they just don't know. On the other hand, they say they think they can place 2 Ubeams in C99. There are over a dozen potential customers interested in Ubeam. Evidentally, Asian customers are not comfortable with laser technology and lean heavily toward ebeam technology. This is UTEK's personal experience over there. ETEC's Mebes 5000 does not match the SIA roadmap. 2) P-Gild P-Gild is characterized as having home run potential beginning in 2nd half 99. UTEK uses the baseball analogy of Ubeam's success being a base hit whereas P-Gild can take the ball well out of the park due to "huge makets." HWP and MOT are partners in the development. 300mm opportunities for P-Gild are enormous. 3) Earnings Street consensus estimates call for Q1 at (.15) and revenue of $21-22 million. They think they can go profitable in Q3 but are guessing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This should stir the pot a bit. Let's have some comments and discussion. As always, D