Fremont, California–Credence Systems Corp., a leading manufacturer of automatic test equipment (ATE) for the worldwide semiconductor industry, announced that based on weakening order activity and customer-requested shipment delays from its existing backlog, particularly with its customers in Asia, the company now expects revenue in the current fiscal quarter ending January 31, 2001 to be at least 40% below the fourth fiscal quarter of 2000.

Dr. Graham Siddall, president and chief executive officer, said, “Going into this quarter we anticipated a slowdown in the semiconductor test and assembly sector during what we believed was an absorption phase. The magnitude of the slowdown now appears greater than we expected. We now believe we may be seeing a cyclical downturn in the industry and we believe a recovery may not occur until late calendar 2001 or 2002. In light of that belief, we will be taking steps in the coming weeks to reduce our expense structure to match our lower anticipated revenue.”