KLAM Kommentary – Assessing the political landscape of approval

KLAM Kommentary – Assessing the political landscape of approval
by Robert Maire on 09-16-2016 at 12:00 pm

LRCX & KLAC’s merger continues to be closely watched given the recent turns and reversals we have seen which call into question the ability to get the deal done. The deal was announced in October of 2015 and we are on our second request from the DOJ and the deal will almost certainly go beyond the Oct 20th, one year deadlineRead More


Further delays in KLAM deal not a good omen

Further delays in KLAM deal not a good omen
by Robert Maire on 08-14-2016 at 4:00 pm

Deal likely getting worse as time & remedies go by…
Just a couple of short weeks ago on the earnings conference call, Lam management was adamant about the KLAM deal getting done and done by the Oct 20th deadline. Martin Anstice, the CEO , went to great lengths to tell us that the deal was under control, was going to happen,
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KLAC accelerates business into Q4 and where are we on the KLAM deal?

KLAC accelerates business into Q4 and where are we on the KLAM deal?
by Robert Maire on 08-09-2016 at 12:00 pm

While no one was really paying attention, and the company didn’t have an earnings call anyway, KLAC put up a strong beat. Revenues came in at $919M versus street of $842M and EPS came in at $1.77 easily beating $1.42 street.

However this was at the expense of the September quarter as it appears that business in the September quarter… Read More


ASML pays $3.1B for Hermes to get E-beam inspection

ASML pays $3.1B for Hermes to get E-beam inspection
by Robert Maire on 06-21-2016 at 7:00 am

Cheap versus year ago but expensive on fundementals – Net negative for KLAC/LRCX & AMAT. ASML bought Hermes Microvision for much the same reason as the Cymer acquisition – to support EUV. ASML could have made a counter offer for KLAC (as we had suggested previously) but this obviously would have been much more expensive… Read More


The best possible merger in the Semiconductor Capital Equipment Business history!

The best possible merger in the Semiconductor Capital Equipment Business history!
by Robert Maire on 10-21-2015 at 12:00 pm

A new powerhouse to dominate over AMAT
Combination of best of Breeds
KLAC shareholders get $32 cash plus stock


The wedding invitation…….

Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ: LRCX) (“Lam”) and KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC) (“KLA-Tencor”) today announced that they have entered… Read More


EUV – So late to the party it may already be over!

EUV – So late to the party it may already be over!
by Robert Maire on 09-29-2015 at 12:00 pm

Stocks in the semiconductor equipment space continue to fall only this time along with the broad market. We had recently pointed out that LRCX was the last to fall among the large cap companies in the space but now the question becomes when have they fallen enough to say its over, and which stocks have more to fall……

ASMLRead More


Samsung to cut Semi Capex 20% due to over capacity

Samsung to cut Semi Capex 20% due to over capacity
by Robert Maire on 09-24-2015 at 4:00 pm

Article confirms market fears…
An article in the Korea Times cites sources that say Samsung will cut Semi Capex by 20% due to current oversupply and weak pricing. This is obviously a huge negative as Capex for 2016 will certainly be down significantly from 2015 given these cuts which follow on cuts by Intel and others. We can
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Will the Apple A9 Fall Flat?

Will the Apple A9 Fall Flat?
by Robert Maire on 01-23-2015 at 12:00 pm

Several months ago we had suggested that we were concerned that Apple’s A9 processor would wind up being 20nm planar (maybe 14nm planar) rather than the expected 14nm FinFET. As we are now under 9 months from a likely launch time for Apple’s next gen IPhone the timing for getting a 14nm FinFET processor on board the phoneRead More