Although ASM International’s Supervisory Board has rejected the offer
by Applied Materials to acquire its ALD and CVD businesses for between
$400 million and $500 million in cash, ASM left the door open to the
world’s largest semiconductor equipment supplier to pursue alternative
strategies.
In response to ASM’s rejection of the initial offer, Applied Materials
has said that it wanted talks to start early this week and based on
normal procedures believes that a deal could be struck for the purchase
of the units in a matter pf of weeks.
Applied noted in a statement that: ‘the
transaction would provide value well in excess of the negative value
which has been attributed to ASMI’s entire front end business for
significant periods during the past three years and infuse a
significant amount of cash into ASMI that could be used for the benefit
of ASMI’s stakeholders.’
ASM reiterated that the ALD and
CVD units were an integral part of its plans to return the ‘front-end’
division to profitability and give the required value to shareholders.