Reorganisation
EUR150mn in tax in that country. Stern also reports that the company could
implement the policy of sacking its worst 5 percent of staff every year.
Austrias SEZ Group is to return its resources to focusing on single-wafer
wet surface preparation technology, closing its wet bench production
facility in Donaueschingen, Germany. The wet bench operation was formerly
HMReinraumtechnik, which was acquired by SEZ in February 2001 and became SEZ
Germany.
Global workforce at SEZ has been reduced by 20 percent from 750 to 600 employees.
The reduction includes the Donaueschingen closure.
SEZ says it wants to expand its customer base without having to compete in
the low-margin wet bench equipment market. Previous to its HMReinraumtechnik
acquisition, SEZ only produced single wafer spin processing equipment.
The company will show a net loss of CHF12-15mn for the business year 2002,
instead of the originally expected net profit of more than CHF10mn. SEZs
financial plan is to lower the companys break even from CHF45mn to less
than CHF40mn per quarter, beginning in Q3, 2003.
Optical switch array module maker OMM will cease operations as of Friday
March 7, 2003. The company plans to release all of its 85 employees and
assign the assets to the benefit of creditors.
OMM has been highly successful in the design and manufacture of the worlds
first commercial MEMS-based optical matrix switches, says Phil Chapman,
President and CEO of OMM. The company shipped products to more than 60
telecommunications equipment manufacturers and achieved numerous customer
design wins. However, with the severe downturn in the worldwide telecom
industry, the market timing for volume deployment of our products has been
significantly impacted.
The company had been seeking additional private funding to continue, but was
unable to raise the amount necessary to wait out the slump in the global
telecom market.
OMM, originally known as Optical Micro-Machines, was started in California
in 1997 funded by a combination of venture capital and strategic customer
investments. Investors included venture capital funds and Nortel Networks,
Siemens, Alcatel, Sycamore Networks, Solectron, Fairchild Semiconductor and
Corvis.
Metrology equipment developer Rudolph Technologies has reduced its global
workforce by 10 percent. Rudolph says that capacity utilisation of its products
remains soft, but that its leading-edge tools are continuing to receive
broad acceptance at the design engineering level. Rudolph plans to maintain
its R&D spend at approximately 20-25 percent of revenue for the foreseeable future
in order to meet the needs outlined by the International Technology Roadmap
for Semiconductors (ITRS). The company has some 73.0mn dollars in cash and
short-term investments.
Shareholders have agreed the change of company name back to Brooks
Automation, Inc. from Brooks-PRI Automation effective February 27, 2003. The
Brooks-PRI name was created through the merger of Brooks Automation and PRI
Automation.
Robert J Therrien, chairman and CEO, explains: We feel that the brand power
and simplicity of the Brooks Automation name allows it to be easily
distinguished in the marketplace.
