NEW YORK (Thomson Financial) - ASM International N.V. Friday said it has
rejected an unsolicited offer from Applied Materials Inc. for its front-end
activities, saying the offer significantly undervalues the business and fails to
reflect its future prospects.
On June 17, ASM received a combined, unsolicited indicative offer from
Applied Materials for its atomic layer deposition and plasma enhanced chemical
vapor deposition activities with an initial value indication of $400 million to
$500 million and an offer from Francisco Partners for the remainder of its
front-end activities, including its epitaxy and vertical furnaces activities,
with an initial value indication of $225 million to $300 million.
ASM's management said the wide offer value range, the complexity of the
combined offer and the unclear terms of the partnership represents significant
uncertainty and execution risks for ASM's shareholders, and is not in the best
interests of the company.
ASM shares fell 2.5% to $31.66 in late morning trading. Applied Materials
shares fell 1.1% to $20.24.
Christie Rizk
cr/vj
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