Some reaction to Applied Materials’ offer to buy Semitool for $364 million. Semitool is one of the largest employers in the area and the acquisition could have a huge impact on the Flathead Valley:
Semitool will become part of Applied’s Silicon Systems Group (SSG). Applied Materials and Semitool “have a strong track record of collaborating to develop equipment solutions for leading chipmakers,” said Randhir Thakur, general manager of Applied’s SSG.
Ray Thompson, chairman of Semitool, said, “As part of Applied Materials, we can accelerate the global adoption of the technologies Semitool has developed and provide our employees with a strong future and our stockholders with exceptional value.”
Semitool offers Applied the opportunity to better address two areas of the chip manufacturing market, advanced-packaging and copper-conversion, said Splinter.
Chip packaging is the process of attaching semiconductors into electronics. Applied said a growing number of its customers are expanding into this area.
“We look to Semitool’s customer base in the packaging market as a way to accelerate our presence,” said Randhir Thakur, head of Applied’s silicon systems group.
As far as how this relates to Applied Materials, analysts according to Thomson Reuters are looking for revenues of $7.18 billion for its fiscal year-end October-2010. In short, this is a bolt-on or tool chest acquisition.