KLA-Tencor Corporation to Change Name to KLA Corporation to Represent the Company's Broader Scope and Optimistic Vision

MILPITAS, Calif., [Jan. 10, 2019] -- KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC), the leading provider of advanced process control solutions, today announced that it will be changing its name to KLA Corporation. At the same time, the company is rebranding and adopting the tagline Keep Looking Ahead™, to indicate KLA’s optimistic view of technology’s impact on the world. 

 

“Our old name and identity have served us well since KLA and Tencor merged in 1997,” said Rick Wallace, president and CEO of KLA. “Our new, simplified name and more contemporary identity will better reflect and more effectively communicate our vision of the future to new employees and new customers—while retaining the strength of our industry-leading brand. Our new brand is designed to signify our confidence in technology’s ability to drive positive change in the world, lifting global society through many avenues including IoT, AI, and other technologies that connect us. KLA’s products and solutions play a key role in enabling these devices and experiences.” 

KLA-Tencor Announces Plans to Establish R&D Facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan

[KLA-Tencor LINK] KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC) has announced plans to establish a research-and-development (R&D) center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The development is expected to include a total capital investment of more than $70 million and create up to 500 new high-tech jobs in the region over the next five years.

"Among the reasons for building a major R&D hub in the Ann Arbor and Detroit metropolitan area are the region's attractive talent pool, relative low cost of living and proximity to Detroit Metropolitan Airport," said Bobby Bell, chief strategy officer. "Our plan is to develop innovative solutions that will have an impact across a broad spectrum of semiconductor and electronics applications, including data storage, cloud computing, machine learning and automotive."

Announcing Kronos™ 1080 and ICOS™ F160 Inspection Systems: Expanding KLA-Tencor's IC Packaging Portfolio

KLA-Tencor has announced it is expanding its integrated circuit (IC) packaging portfolio with two new defect inspection products designed to address a wide variety of IC packaging challenges: KronosTM 1080 and ICOS™ F160. The two new inspection systems join KLA-Tencor’s portfolio of defect inspection, metrology and data analysis systems that help accelerate packaging yield and increase die sort accuracy. You may find the official release here;

Highlights: 

• Kronos 1080 – offers production-worthy, high sensitivity wafer inspection for advanced packaging, providing key information for process control and material disposition.
• ICOS F160 – examines packages after wafers have been diced, delivering fast, accurate die sort based on detection of key defect types—including sidewall cracks, a new defect type affecting the yield of high-end packages. 

 Kronos™ 1080 and ICOS™ F160 (Image shared by KLA-Tencor)

KLA-Tencor Announces Agreement to Acquire Orbotech Ltd.

[Press release LINK] MILPITAS, Calif., and YAVNE, Israel, March 19, 2018 – KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC) (“KLA-Tencor”) and Orbotech Ltd. (“Orbotech”) today announced they had entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which KLA-Tencor will acquire Orbotech Ltd. (“Orbotech”) for $38.86 in cash and 0.25 of a share of KLA-Tencor common stock in exchange for each ordinary share of Orbotech, implying a total consideration of approximately $69.02 per share. The transaction values Orbotech at an equity value of approximately $3.4 billion and an enterprise value of $3.2 billion. In addition, KLA-Tencor announced a $2 billion share repurchase authorization. The share repurchase program is targeted to be completed within 12 to 18 months following the close of this transaction.

With this acquisition, KLA-Tencor will significantly diversify its revenue base and add $2.5 billion of addressable market opportunity in the high-growth printed circuit board (“PCB”), flat panel display (“FPD”), packaging, and semiconductor manufacturing areas. The broader portfolio of leading products, services, and solutions, as well as increased exposure to technology megatrends, will support KLA-Tencor’s long-term revenue and earnings growth targets.

Applied Materials Or Lam Research: Which Is The Better Stock?

As Published by Yahoo Financial: The semiconductor equipment segment has seen quite a bit of consolidation such that today there are just a handful of companies worth looking at. But this has led to some really big players such that further consolidation may be difficult due to anti-trust hurdles.

Earlier, Applied Material’s AMAT proposed acquisition of Tokyo Electron fell through on anti-competitive concerns and now there is a possibility that similar issues in China, Japan and Korea will work against the Lam Research LRCX-KLA-Tencor KLAC merger.Here is a brief analysis of the two market leaders in the backdrop of shrinking process nodes, 3D NAND production ramp up and an emerging Chinese semiconductor sector.

Applied Materials remains the market leader in wafer level manufacturing equipment according to Gartner with a 19.1% share. The company has been the market leader for as far back as I can remember and it continues to take share (growing 1.3% in a market that shrank 1.0% in 2015). But Lam Research has seen more remarkable growth of 24.7% in 2015 to end the year with a 14.3% share of the market. Lam has grown through acquisitions, most notably that of Novellus Systems in Jun 2012.

Continue reading: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/applied-materials-lam-research-better-145202547.html

Lam Research, KLA-Tencor Say Deal Faces Regulatory Holdups

Lam Research, KLA-Tencor Say Deal Faces Regulatory Holdups

bloomberg.com

Lam Research Corp. said its $10.6 billion acquisition of KLA-Tencor Corp. is facing regulatory hurdles and probably won’t get approval before the planned closing date in October.