(Bloomberg) -- Tokyo Electron Ltd. and Applied Materials
Inc. scrapped their planned merger after opposition from the
U.S. Department of Justice.
The regulator told the companies their proposal wouldn&rsquo t be
enough to remedy competition concerns, according to a statement
Monday. Applied Materials announced plans to buy back $3 billion
of stock and Tokyo Electron will purchase 120 billion yen ($1
billion) of its own shares, according to separate statements.
&ldquo Based on the DoJ&rsquo s position, Applied Materials and Tokyo
Electron have determined that there is no realistic prospect for
the completion of the merger,&rdquo they said in the statement.
Applied Materials agreed in September 2013 to buy Tokyo
Electron for $9.39 billion in stock to add scale as a shrinking
base of clients makes earnings of suppliers more volatile. Intel
Corp., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung
Electronics Co. now buy the majority of the production machines
deployed by the industry and are the top three customers of both
companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The companies make machines that prepare silicon wafers for
imprinting with the circuits that turn them into processors
capable of crunching numbers, showing video and connecting to
mobile networks, among other tasks.

 

Good news for UMS. AM will continue to rely on UMS.