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According to yesterday’s EETimes daily newsletter, ASML, the lithography tool supplier headquartered in the Netherlands, is having a tough week. Applied Materials thinks that the company’s offer to buy it was at a fair price, and Nikon has now taken the complete Intel Corp. account for immersion tools - a potential scoop for EETimes yesterday.

Doing a double take on reading George Leopold’s lead piece in the newsletter, I realized that some colleagues in the press still get confused over the other ASM. It is also based in the Netherlands, but has the word ‘International’ posted at the end of the company’s name.

ASMI and ASML often get mixed up by the mainstream press, but this rarely happens in the trade press.

Hopefully George isn’t planning on going to SEMICON West next week, as a few more people may want to let him know the errors of his ways.

So we can all rest easy that AMAT is still only after ASMI and ASML has nothing to do with the startling story.

Extract from EETimes newsletter – July 8th, 2008

"Lithography vendor ASML Holding is having a tough week. Parts of the Dutch tool maker have been targeted for acquisition by U.S. rival Applied Materials Inc. European editor John Walko reports that Applied Materials CEO Michael Splinter is sticking with the company's original offer for some of ASML's operations. Splinter would not comment on whether it will expand its offer to buy all of ASML. Intel, meanwhile, picked Nikon Corp. over ASML to supply lithography tools for 32-nanometer chips. One could conclude from all this that Intel and its rebounding market share, along with looming consolidation in the lithography tool market, will shift the lithography industry's focus away from Europe and toward Intel and its U.S. and Asian suppliers."