TOKYO-- Applied Materials Inc. and Tokyo Electron Ltd. said that
they will scrap plans to merge their operations, citing problems
with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The deal, which was unveiled in September of 2013, would have
created a company with an estimated market value of $29 billion.
Applied planned to swap about $9.3 billion of its shares for Tokyo
Electron.
"We viewed the merger as an opportunity to accelerate our
strategy and worked hard to make it happen," said Gary Dickerson,
president and chief executive officer of Applied Materials said in
a statement.
The two companies announced in 2013 that they would join in a
merger of equals, in what would have been a combination of two of
the semiconductor industry's biggest suppliers.
"There remains a gap between the view of Tokyo Electron and
Applied Materials and the view of the United States Department of
Justice, and it has become apparent that such gap will not be able
to be bridged," Tokyo Electron said in a separate statement,
without specifying the nature of the troubles.
The future of the deal between the two companies was put into
doubt earlier this year when plans the merger plan was pushed back
due to regulatory approval issues in a number of different
countries.
Write to Shawn Schroter at Shawn.Schroter@wsj.com
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