Microchip gear maker ASML to buy U.S. group Cymer

PanARMENIAN.Net - The world's leading microchip gear maker ASML, is to buy U.S. group Cymer, its key supplier of a light-based technology crucial to making a new generation of much smaller chips, for 1.95 billion euros ($2.5 billion), Reuters reported.

The Dutch company said that Cymer would accelerate the development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) semiconductor lithography, which will produce the chips that will increase power and functionality in future smartphones and tablet computers. The light source in ASML's EUV development plans has been an ongoing technological challenge for ASML, causing delays in production

Over the summer, ASML announced a string of deals with its three biggest customers, including Intel, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. These will amount to the trio buying a collective 23 percent stake in ASML and supplementing its R&D budget to the tune of 1.38 billion euros.

Cymer and ASML have collaborated closely for more than a year and the acquisition was a natural evolution, ASML said.

The deal, which is due to close in the first half of 2013, is a cash-and-stock transaction. Each Cymer shareholder will receive $20 in cash and 1.1502 ASML ordinary shares per Cymer share.