ASML might be interested in taking over Mapper Lithography (translated)
21 DEC 2018
ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ: ASML) might be interested in taking over Mapper Lithography, reported Dutch BNR News Radio, citing ASML CEO Peter Wennink. The CEO said it is important that the technology of the distressed chip machine maker Mapper is retained for the Netherlands in response to the news that Mapper has requested an extension of payment.
Wennink soon wants to talk with the board of the Delft based technology company. He said it is a good technology company, the Dutch government spent a lot of money on it, and it employs some very good engineers.
Mapper and ASML both make machines with which chips can be made, but they work on a different technology. ASML machines use ultraviolet light to print chips, Mapper has been working since 2000 on a machine that writes chips using electron beams.
The technology is fundamentally different, Wennink remarked. But he wants to look at how he can keep Mapper's technology in the Netherlands and further develop it.
Mapper managers said before that they preferred their company to be taken over by ASML. But those advances were rejected.
Mapper's CEO, Bert Jan Kampherbeek, responded surprisely to Wennink's offer to come and talk. He still knew nothing, and did not want to comment, Dutch daily Het Financieele Dagblad reported.
Mapper certainly received € 31 million in innovation credits from the Dutch government over the years. The Mapper 2016 annual report showed that the Ministry of Economic Affairs wanted to recover these credits. A spokesman for the ministry did not want to say on Thursday whether this had happened, or whether the parties had come to a different agreement, the FD report said.
Mapper employs 240 people. According to industry experts, there would be a lot of interest in the technology from the United States. With the machine of the Delft researchers, chips can have an individual characteristic, which would be interesting for the defense industry and for digital security.
Link to original source (BNR)
Link to report in Het Financieele Dagblad