Silicon Valley Group Purchases Optics Manufacturer

Jennifer L. Morey

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Silicon Valley Group Inc., a supplier of automatic wafer processing equipment to the semiconductor industry, agreed last month to acquire precision optics manufacturer Tinsley Laboratories Inc. in a stock pooling transaction valued at $42 million.
Under the terms of the agreement, Silicon Valley will exchange a 0.6594 share of its common stock for each outstanding share of Tinsley common stock. The day after the agreement was announced, Tinsley's stock skyrocketed 88 percent to close at $20.25 per share. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Silicon Valley representatives expect the move to bolster the company's strength in deep-ultraviolet lithography technologies. Tinsley's aspheres are the key elements in Silicon Valley's catadioptric lenses, which are used in photolithography exposure tools for printing images on wafers.
Such step-and-scan lithography systems are becoming more important as semiconductor manufacturers move toward 0.25-µm production, according to Silicon Valley's chairman and CEO, Papken Der Torossian. He added that the Tinsley acquisition will allow Silicon Valley to increase production of its lithography systems to meet an increasing demand.
The Tinsley subsidiary will maintain its name and report to Silicon Valley's newly appointed president and chief operating officer, William Hightower. None of Tinsley's 125 employees will lose their jobs in the transaction, said Robert Richardson, Silicon Valley's vice president of new product development and corporate marketing. In fact, he said, the company is planning to expand its operations at the Tinsley location in Richmond, Calif.
Silicon Valley's sales totaled $639.9 million in 1996, while Tinsley's totaled $17.4 million. Tinsley also manufactures optical instruments and metal mirrors. G