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Stocks (from 12)
Amkor Technology Inc.’s shares belong to
company insiders and institutional inves-
tors, with the latter owning 40.10% of the
company’s shares (February 14).
On balance, however, MarketBeat reports
analysts like Amkor stock less than other
3
computer and technology securities.
Applied Materials (AMAT)
After your team of de- Applied Materials DXZ CVD system for 150 and 200mm wafers
sign engineers formulate began in 1957, were obligated to jerry-rig
the specs for a new CPU their own front-end gear.
or memory device, it’s
time to fabricate it. This A wide range of front-end tools
is a lengthy complicated Today Applied sells equipment for fabri-
process that requires li- cating semiconductors, solar cells and flat
thography and deposition panel displays. It is now the largest pro-
equipment and many oth-
other types of very costly front-end vider of etching and deposition equipment
equipment. Enter Applied Materials. by revenue in the world.
Founded before Intel The equipment consists of automated
Applied Materials, now located near one of wafer processing tools for chemical vapor
its key buyers Intel, was founded a year deposition, physical vapor deposition and
before the Santa Clara, Calif. semiconduc- other thin-film deposition.
tor giant in November 10, 1967.
Applied’s competitors in this niche include
The founder was Michael A. McNeilly, a Lam Research and Tokyo Electron. The
relatively obscure name in Silicon Valley Dutch company ASML, brings in the high-
history. From his obituary, we learned he est revenue in front-end equipment, but it
died at age 66 on Nov. 8, 2005 in Menlo mainly sells lithography tools.
Park, Calif. and was a native of Montana.
The failed merger
In September 2013, Applied excitedly
Over the years, the person most con-
nected with the growth of the company is announced that it planned a “merger of
retired CEO and chairman James C. Mor- equals” with Japanese giant Tokyo Electron
gan. He became CEO in 1977 and ran the Ltd.
company until 2003, when he was named
chairman. According to various sources, This would create a company, Applied said,
when Morgan joined Applied, the company with a total value of $29 billion. There
was in very shaky financial condition. would, after the combination, be two
headquarters — one at Applied’s Northern
Before Applied began rolling out its capi- California locaation, the other at TEL’s To-
tal-intensive fab tools, existing chip mak- kyo headquarters.
ers such as Fairchild Semiconductor, which next page
