Jan. 27, 2009 — Seeing no more synergies with its now-core technical and strategic areas, Germany’s Oerlikon says it has sold its Esec unit to Dutch firm BE Semiconductor.

Esec — which was acquired in 2000 (by what was then Oerlikon-Buehrle), later renamed as Unaxis and renamed back to Oerlikon in the fall of 2006 — makes die attach tools (bonders, flip-chip) and wire bonding products. Now, Oerlikon says these technologies are not synergistic with the group’s “core technological competences in the coating/thin-film sector,” in its press release that it would incur about 8% share dilution…with roughly 33.7M total BESI shares outstanding priced at €1.43/share (before the deal was announced), that calculates out to around €3.86M.

In addition to the Esec divestiture, Oerlikon says its etch business will be spun out via management buyout (though the wording suggested final terms are yet to be agreed upon), in a bid to narrow the focus of its Systems business on core PVD processes, serving semiconductor and optical disc sectors, while expanding into “clean technologies” and “advanced nanotechnology.”