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Re: noelbull post# 2

Sunday, 04/15/2001 12:11:53 PM

Sunday, April 15, 2001 12:11:53 PM

Post# of 67
Noel-I hope AMAT goes up with the rest of the Market...

But I never like to see cutbacks... Hope its just temporary...

What is your opinion on AMAT long term...

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AMAT -- Applied Materials, Inc.

Santa Clara, Calif.-Based Chip-Making Equipment Firm to Ask Workers to Leave

Mar 16, 2001 (Austin American-Statesman - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Applied Materials, facing sluggish demand for its chip-making equipment, will ask as many as 1,000 workers to voluntarily leave the company.
The company said Thursday that the offers will be made primarily to employees at its headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., and in Austin. Analysts predicted Austin would receive the most offers, which will include a pay and benefits package.

"They don't want to lose a single one of their Silicon Valley engineers," said analyst Eric Michael Ross of Thomas Weisel Partners in San Francisco. "They're trying to trim back their manufacturing, and that makes Austin the chief target."

Employees will have the right to refuse the offers, spokesman Steve Taylor said. "This is not layoffs. The power is in their hands," he said.

Still, there is no guarantee that layoffs won't occur if too few workers take the offers. The company will wait 45 days to see how many workers quit and to evaluate the economic outlook, Taylor said.

A glut of semiconductors and a slowing economy hashave hurt chip-related companies across the board. Last week, Intel Corp. said it would cut 5,000 jobs after announcing that revenue in the first quarter would be down by about 25 percent from the fourth quarter's $8.7 billion.

Applied, the world's largest maker of chip-making equipment, already has cut more than 500 temporary jobs at its Austin factory this year. The company has about 5,000 permanent and contract workers in Austin, Taylor said.

In addition to cutting contract workers, Applied has frozen hiring, restricted travel and ordered workers to take mandatory days off to cut costs. But "the continued slowdown in demand for semiconductor equipment requires further action by the company," Applied Materials said in a statement.

The company last month beat lowered expectations for its first fiscal quarter, but said orders for chip-making equipment began slowing in mid-January and warned of difficult times to come.


By Lori Hawkins

To see more of the Austin American-Statesman, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.austin360.com

(c) 2001, Austin American-Statesman, Texas. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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