Glouchester, Massachusetts–Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. today announced that it expects to report fiscal first quarter 2001 revenues in the range of $223 to $228 million. In addition, the company advised that it continues to make improvements in its gross margin and to carefully manage its operating expenses.

As a result of the uncertain general economic outlook, the company also advised that visibility into the coming quarters of fiscal 2001 is less clear than it had been earlier in the first fiscal quarter. Therefore, the company’s guidance for the balance of fiscal 2001 is being updated.

“We have recently received requests from a few customers to delay some deliveries. These requests, combined with general market uncertainty, have caused us to update our guidance for the rest of fiscal 2001,” said Richard A. Aurelio, Varian Semiconductor’s president and chief executive officer. “We now expect our annual revenue growth to be in line with the revised industry’s growth projections of approximately 10% year over year, while our recurring net income is expected to grow by 15 to 25%.”

Aurelio also commented, “As indicated previously, we expect selling, general and administrative expenses to be approximately 12 to 13% of revenue, and we will continue to increase our investment in research and development. We remain optimistic about the long-term outlook for growth in ion implantation and the continued shift to single wafer processing. Our leadership in technology and customer satisfaction as well as gains in market share should all contribute to long-term revenue growth, as the increasing information content of chips requires the highly sophisticated processing offered by our VIISta single wafer common platform.”

Varian Semiconductor will issue results for its first quarter of fiscal 2001, which ended December 29, 2000, after the close of the market on January 25, 2001.