Intel Corp’s latest investment venture is even closer to home than usual. Yesterday, the company made a $15m equity investment in advanced wafer processing equipment firm the Silicon Valley Group Inc. Intel said it would work with SVG on the development of next generation photolithography tools used for manufacturing future Intel processors. The investment means that Intel will own 4.7% of SVG’s stock.
Earlier this week, SVG agreed to acquire Scotts Valley, California-based automated wafer processor equipment maker the Semiconductor Equipment Group from Watkins-Johnson Co, for $6m. SVG will assuming liabilities of $40m as part of the deal.
Formed in 1977, San Jose, California-based SVG began in the photoresist processing equipment market, but later expanded by buying Anicon Inc in 1987 for chemical vapor deposition, Perkin-Elmer Inc’s optical lithography unit in 1990, and Tinsley Laboratories in November 1997 for deep ultraviolet lithography. Revenues for the first six months of 1999 were $146.9m, down from $384.6m in the same period last year. Losses for the six months were $25m, compared with $21.7m profit last year. The company blamed lower sales of its lithography, track and thermco product lines, and the timing of scheduled customer delivery dates.
