Oct 7 2004
Veeco Instruments Inc. today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Manufacturing Technology Inc. (MTI), a privately held manufacturer of slicing and dicing equipment for the data storage industry, for $9.5 million in cash. MTI is based in Ventura, California and forecasts its 2004 revenues to be approximately $10 million. In connection with the acquisition, Veeco hired approximately 70 of MTI's employees.
With this acquisition, Veeco has created an integrated "Slider Process Equipment" division consisting of MTI (slicing and dicing) and Aii, its precision lapping and automation business. Veeco's product line now includes all of the critical slider manufacturing steps controlling fly height for next generation thin film magnetic heads.
Edward H. Braun, Chairman and CEO of Veeco, commented, "The acquisition of MTI complements our broad line of solutions for the data storage industry. Slicing is another key process step in the manufacture of thin film magnetic heads, and MTI has leading technology and the industry's largest installed base of over 500 systems worldwide. As the data storage industry's largest process equipment and metrology supplier, we are ideally positioned to benefit from the emerging growth of next generation consumer electronic products with embedded storage. Hard drive growth rates forecasted for consumer applications will increase the industry trend toward smaller form factors and advanced tool requirements for slider fabrication."
Veeco's data storage products include ion beam etch, ion beam deposition, physical vapor deposition and a family of metrology products including optical profilers and atomic force microscopes. In November 2003, Veeco completed the acquisition of Advanced Imaging Inc. (Aii), which added lapping technology to Veeco's portfolio. Now, with MTI, Veeco will offer a complete end-to-end slider solution, furthering its strategy to provide "one stop shopping" solutions to the data storage industry.
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