WILLOW GROVE, Pa.--Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. here today announced it will acquire Cerprobe Corp. of Gilbert, Ariz., for $225 million in cash to expand its business into chip-testing and wafer-probe interconnect systems. Under an agreement approved by directors of both companies, K&S will pay $20 in cash for Cerprobe common stock.
"Today K&S drives interconnect solutions that stretch the limits of existing wafer probe and IC socket technology," said C. Scott Kulicke, chairman and CEO of the world's largest supplier of chip-assembly and -packaging equipment. "The acquisition of Cerprobe will allow K&S to accelerate development in this area in support of our strategy of offering the most complete, capable and cost-effective interconnect solutions to our customers."
In recent years, Kulicke has expressed a desire to take a "total solutions" approach to semiconductor backend manufacturing steps similar to what Applied Materials Inc. has done in the frontend wafer processing. Kulicke has also hinted of a move into the wafer probe and chip testing segment when asked if the timing was right for consolidation between assembly equipment and tester segments, which have remain separate.
"There has been no movement yet between the test and assembly segments of suppliers," noted Kulicke during a press conference at Semicon West in July. "There is some movement in the test segment to bridge traditional tester problems with socket and device handling problems... But I think it is reasonable to forecast a convergence of suppliers in automatic test equipment and assembly tools," he added (see Q&A from the July press conference).
Willow Grove-based K&S said the acquisition is subject to shareholder approval and government reviews. The transaction is expected to be slightly dilutive to K&S earnings per share in its fiscal year 2001, which ends on Sept. 30, 2001, and accretive in fiscal year 2002.
Cerprobe supplies wafer probe cards, ATE interface assemblies, and ATE test boards with manufacturing facilities in Arizona, California, Texas, France, Scotland, Taiwan, and Singapore. For the second quarter, ended June 30, Cerprobe posted sales of $31.0 million, a 120% increase from $14.1 million in the same period last year. The company's net income for the second quarter was a record $3.2 million compared to a net loss of $1.5 million in the period last year.
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