Applied offers $400-$500M for ASM’s ALD, PECVD businesses

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- 6/6/2008

Bilthoven, the Netherlands-based semiconductor manufacturing equipment supplier ASM International (ASMI) reported today that it has received an unsolicited offer from capital equipment giant Applied Materials Inc for its atomic layer deposition (ALD) and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) businesses.

The offer was communicated orally by Applied to ASMI with a value in the range of $400 to $500 million, ASMI said, and noted that a divestment of its ALD and PECVD activities would have major implications for the company’s current strategy and business model.

This acquisition would give Applied two new revenue streams for its silicon systems business, which is forecast to be down 20% this year for the whole industry, as well as serve as a leg up in the CVD market, which is expected to be $3.8 billion this, growing to $4.6 billion in 2012, according to Dean Freeman, research VP for Gartner Inc’s technology and service provider research.

Broken out, the PECVD segment is expected to be $1.17 billion this year, growing to $1.62 billion in 2012, while the ALD segment is predicted to be $240 million this year, growing to $406 million in 2012, Freeman added.

ASMI said its management board and supervisory board will discuss the offer and its implications, determine its initial position with respect to the offer and make a public announcement no later than June 14.

As a result of this activity, ASMI’s stock was trading up approximately 11% at press time.

Last month, ASM detailed its atomically engineered single-metal gate stack to allow 32-nm generation high-k metal gate stacks using a single metal, instead of the two different metals required previously for CMOS. This ALD process implements lanthanum oxide (LaOx) and aluminum oxide (AlOx) high-k cap layers, the company said.

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