The acquisition was approved by a vote of Gasonics’ shareholders, held on Jan. 9. Over 99 percent of the Gasonics shares present and voting at the Gasonics shareholder meeting voted in favor of the acquisition. As a result of the acquisition, the Gasonics ticker will be removed from the Nasdaq listing after today’s close of market.
Gasonics International is a leading developer and global supplier of photoresist and residue removal technologies. Gasonics’ products allow its customers to integrate manufacturing process steps as well as increase yields and throughput. Gasonics also provides low-pressure chemical vapor deposition systems for the flat panel display industry. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif.
In the transaction, as consummated on Jan. 10, 2001, Novellus acquired all outstanding shares of Gasonics in a stock-for-stock merger, with all outstanding shares of Gasonics capital stock converted into approximately 9,240,000 shares of Novellus common stock. In addition, all outstanding options to purchase shares of Gasonics capital stock were automatically converted into options to purchase approximately 1,400,000 shares of Novellus common stock. Novellus believes that the acquisition of Gasonics will provide Novellus with a leading position in the emerging market for surface preparation equipment, a critical enabling technology as the semiconductor industry evolves toward copper dual damascene manufacturing processes and ever-smaller devices. Gasonics will form the nucleus of a new surface preparation business for Novellus, providing the key building blocks for addressing removal of yield-killing contaminants at 0.13 micron and below.
As a result of the acquisition, Gasonics will become the Novellus Surface Integrity Group, headed by Executive Vice President Asuri Raghavan, former president and CEO of Gasonics. Novellus’ metals and dielectrics divisions will form the Deposition Group, headed by Executive Vice President John Chenault.
As the semiconductor industry transitions to interconnect structures with 0.13-micron and smaller geometries, preparation of the wafer surface prior to each deposition step becomes increasingly critical to manufacturing yields and device performance, said Richard Hill, chairman and CEO of Novellus. Gasonics’ knowledge of surface preparation issues and Novellus’ knowledge of deposition in copper dual damascene manufacturing will allow us to bring significant technological resources to bear on the emerging challenges of advanced interconnects.
This acquisition will enable us to more closely couple Novellus’ and Gasonics’ process development, which had already started within the Damascus Alliance, said Asuri Raghavan, executive vice president of the newly formed Surface Integrity Group. We believe this acquisition will accelerate our development of the advanced interconnect technologies that are critical to the industry. In addition, our existing customer base will benefit from an even greater level of customer service and support as we join the Novellus global service and support network.
