June 2, 2004 — Novellus Systems Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire Peter Wolters AG, a privately held manufacturer of high-precision machine manufacturing tools headquartered in Rendsburg, Germany.

The transaction will add a series of industry-leading machine tools to Novellus’ existing portfolio and broadens the company’s non-IC-related business and technology portfolio.

The deal will also bring a chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) product line that will augment Novellus’ existing CMP technology for semiconductor manufacturing. The acquisition is expected to close in the beginning of the third quarter of 2004.

Novellus only recently established its position in the machining equipment and CMP areas with its acquisition of SpeedFam-IPEC Inc. in 2002. Peter Wolters supplies lapping, grinding, polishing and deburring products for fine-surface optimization of metal, glass, ceramics, plastics and, more recently, nano- range semiconductor materials. The company’s lapping and grinding core technology will be merged with Novellus’ SpeedFam industrial business, and the combined product lines will be marketed under the Peter Wolters name.

Peter Wolters’ tungsten and dielectrics-centric CMP technology will be incorporated into Novellus’ existing CMP product line and will complete the company’s toolset for both metal and dielectrics applications.