ASM International has publicly announced that it has received an
unsolicited offer for its ALD and PECVD product ranges from Applied
Materials who is offering between $400 million and $500 million for the
two businesses.
ASM said in a statement that the offer was communicated orally and that
its management and supervisory board would respond to the offer no
later than June 14.
The
Dutch equipment company has been struggling to turn around its
loss-making ‘Front End’ business operations for many years and recently
restructured the business unit and dropped certain product development
projects.
ASM is also caught up in a battle with investment
funds that want to unseat key executives and sell off the front-end
wafer processing equipment business.