NEW YORK -- Industry support--and pressure--is mounting on the U.S. to clear ASM Lithography's planned purchase of Silicon Valley Group Inc. after a congressional committee delayed the acquisition with a 45-day review because of national security concerns.
The concerns center around SVG's Tinsley Laboratories unit, which was acquired by the San Jose company in November 1997. Tinsley had supplied the U.S. government with lens-polishing capabilities for defense satellites in the 1990s, and some government officials want to make sure that capability will be protected and available in the future, said C. Douglas Marsh, vice president of business integration at ASML.
ASML has not publicly commented on how it is trying to deal with the congressional review, which was acknowledged earlier this month (see March 8 story), but company officials in the Netherlands have said they are confident the acquisition will be completed after it clears U.S. review.
After ASML was notified of the 45-day review, "not one question has been asked by Congress," said Marsh, who was fielding questions from financial analysts today (March 20) during the SEMInvest conference in New York.
The pending $1.6 billion stock acquisition of SVG has received the endorsement of many large U.S. chip makers--such as Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices, and others--as well as "unanimous" backing by the directors of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), according Craig Barrett, president and CEO of Intel (see March 15 story).
Marsh indicated that Barrett has spoken to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney as part of the growing support for ASML's acquisition of SVG.
Asked if ASML would consider spinning off Tinsley Laboratories to assure domestic ownership of satellite lens-polishing technology, Marsh said that was an option, but he quickly added that Tinsley's capabilities were crucial to the SVG Lithography unit. "Without it, SVG wouldn't be successful," said the Tempe, Ariz.-based vice president of ASML.
Only 5% of Tinsley's business is now serving government-related applications, and with no current contracts considered to be classified, Marsh said. The lens-polishing requirements for the satellite project completed seven years ago are a fraction of what is now used in deep-ultraviolet scanners, he added.
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