MKS Instruments Acquires Yield Dynamics
WILMINGTON, Mass., Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MKS Instruments, Inc. (Nasdaq: MKSI), a leading worldwide provider of monitoring and control technologies for improving productivity in semiconductor and other advanced manufacturing processes, announced that it has acquired privately held Yield Dynamics, a provider of yield management technology based in Sunnyvale, California. The acquisition is expected to be slightly accretive going forward, and is not expected to materially affect MKS' near term financial results.
Leo Berlinghieri, MKS' Chief Executive Officer and President, said, "Semiconductor fabs need to improve yield to meet production cost targets as they transition to smaller device geometries. We see opportunities to increase our sales to semiconductor fabs with a total solution for managing and correlating process data to improve process yield. We also see long term opportunities for our yield management solution in flat panel display, solar cell, and other markets that use thin film manufacturing processes."
Yield Dynamics' data and yield management software, along with MKS' portfolio of sensors that control critical processes, data collection and integration hardware, and real-time fault detection and classification software, provides a comprehensive offering for generating, collecting, and analyzing process sensor data and correlating the data to wafers, chambers, and tools across the fab.
Mr. Berlinghieri continued, "By correlating real-time process chamber information with offline production analysis on wafer yield, fabs could achieve higher yield. We believe we can help fabs identify additional information from our sensors that, when integrated with fault detection and classification and yield management software, could allow fabs to take a step closer to predicting process excursions before they happen and improve yield while reducing cost."
Jonathan Buckheit, President and Chief Executive Officer of Yield Dynamics, said "We are pleased to join an industry leader with technology focused on improving process productivity, and by offering a solution-driven approach to yield improvement we expect to deliver added value."
MKS Instruments, Inc. is a leading worldwide provider of process control solutions for improving productivity in advanced manufacturing processes such as semiconductor device manufacturing; thin-film manufacturing for flat panel displays, data storage media, architectural glass and electro-optical products; and technology for medical imaging equipment and other markets. Our instruments, components and subsystems incorporate sophisticated technologies to power, measure, control, and monitor increasingly complex gas related semiconductor manufacturing processes, thereby enhancing our customers' uptime, yield and throughput, and return on invested capital.
This release contains projections or other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27 of the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act regarding MKS' future growth and the future financial performance of MKS. These projections or statements are only predictions. Actual events or results may differ materially from those in the projections or other forward-looking statements set forth herein. Among the important factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those in the projections or other forward-looking statements are the fluctuations in capital spending in the semiconductor industry, fluctuations in net sales to MKS' major customers, potential fluctuations in quarterly results, the challenges, risks and costs involved with integrating the operations of MKS and any acquired companies, dependence on new product development, rapid technological and market change, acquisition strategy, manufacturing and sourcing risks, volatility of stock price, international operations, financial risk management, and future growth subject to risks. Readers are referred to MKS' quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, for a discussion of these and other important risk factors concerning MKS and its operations. MKS is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
SOURCE MKS Instruments, Inc.
11/08/2007
CONTACT: Ronald Weigner, Vice President & Chief Financial Officer of MKS Instruments, Inc., +1-978-284-4000
Web site: http://www.mksinst.com
(MKSI