Keithley sells Quantox line to KLA-Tencor – EE Times
CLEVELAND Keithley Instruments Inc. has sold its Quantox line of oxide monitoring products to KLA-Tencor Corp. (San Jose, Calif.). The divestiture will allow Keithley to devote additional resources to penetrating its targeted market segments of the test and measurement industry, the company said.
Keithley had attempted to position itself as a capital equipment manufacturer for the semiconductor market while continuing its efforts in the test and measurement markets. To do so, Keithley had commercialized the Quantox non-contact measurement technology it had obtained from IBM Corp.
Though its orders for Quantox increased steadily, Keithley said it realized it would not be able to penetrate the front-end business and continue to grow its core test instrument business. The semiconductor industry's future conversion to 300-mm wafers was a particularly sobering challenge for Quantox, Keithley said. Staying on top of that conversion would have required an investment in reengineering that would have weakened the company's ability to invest in other portions of the business, the company said.
“Quantox tools are the leading contamination monitoring products for materials such as iron and copper,” said Gary Bultman, vice president and general manager of KLA-Tencor's Film Measurement Division. “We also find a very strong synergy between the ability to determine the electrical characteristics of films and the optical measurement capabilities of KLA-Tencor products.
“As the semiconductor industry continues to push toward 0.13-micron device technology and beyond, monitoring and controlling gate oxides will become increasingly difficult,” Bultman said. “Bringing the technology and expertise of the Quantox group into KLA-Tencor accelerates our ability to develop capabilities in this critical area.”
The sale will result in a one-time gain for Keithley of $0.35 to $0.40 per share, before giving effect to a stock repurchase tender offer announced this week. The gain will be recorded in the company's first fiscal quarter ending December 31, 1998. The cash proceeds from the sale will be used to partially fund the stock repurchase tender offer.
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