Veeco Sells Metrology Unit to Bruker
PLAINVIEW, N.Y., & BILLERICA, Mass., Aug 16, 2010 — Veeco Instruments Inc. announced Monday that it will sell its metrology business to scientific instruments provider Bruker Corp. for $229 million in cash.
The sale will transfer Veeco Metrology to Billerica-based Bruker, including its atomic force microscope (AFM) business in Santa Barbara, Calif., and its optical industrial metrology (OIM) business in Tucson, Ariz., as well as Veeco's associated AFM/OIM field sales and support organization.
Veeco currently expects cash proceeds from the transaction to be approximately $160 million net of estimated applicable taxes and transaction fees. Additional terms of the transaction, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010, pending regulatory review and subject to customary closing conditions.
"Veeco Metrology is a great business that is strong, growing and profitable and has many exciting new products. Even so, it lacks meaningful synergies with our process equipment businesses in technology, distribution and customers. We believe it will be a better fit as part of a large and successful instrumentation company, such as Bruker, where the focus will be on continued development of innovative scientific instruments. We have great confidence that the metrology business will continue to grow and prosper as part of Bruker," said Veeco CEO John R. Peeler.
Bruker said it intends to combine Veeco Metrology with its Bruker Nano instruments business, which currently sells systems and analytical solutions for materials and nanotechnology research, while retaining the vast majority of the present business's management, operations, research and development, and sales and marketing personnel. Bruker intends to continue to operate the AFM and OIM instruments business in California and Arizona.
“We are excited to add Veeco’s industry-leading scanning probe microscope (SPM) and optical metrology systems to the Bruker product portfolio of high-performance materials research and nanotechnology instruments,” said Bruker President and CEO Frank H. Laukien.
The sale will allow Veeco to focus more on its LED & solar and data storage process equipment businesses, Peeler said. “We believe the sale of Metrology will allow us to accelerate our progress developing new products, gaining share, and aligning with key customers in markets with large growth opportunities, including several 'clean tech' markets. The sale is also expected to give us additional financial flexibility to pursue acquisitions and expand customer support for our growing Asia business,” he said.
Veeco will account for the metrology business segment as a “discontinued operation” effective Aug. 15. The company updated its guidance for third-quarter 2010 revenue from continuing operations to be in the range of $255 million to $280 million, with GAAP earnings per share between $1.45 and $1.72 and non-GAAP EPS between $1.13 and $1.33. Without metrology, Veeco’s updated guidance is that 2010 revenues from continuing operations will be approximately $1 billion, with about 90 percent from the LED & Solar business segment.
For more information, visit: www.veeco.com or www.bruker.com
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