By Christina Bruns
WaferNews Associate Editor
Dec. 19, 2001 – Veldhoven, Netherlands – ASML Holding N.V. announced that it has sold San Jose, CA-based Tinsley Laboratories Inc. to SSG Precision Optronics Inc., a Wilmington, MA, corporation that specializes in the design, fabrication, and testing of space-based and other high performance optical subsystems.
Details of the agreement between ASML and SSG were not disclosed.
Tinsley was an optical polishing subsidiary of Silicon Valley Group Inc. (SVG), a company that was acquired by ASML in May in a $1.2 billion deal. In conjunction with the acquisition of SVG, ASML agreed with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to make a good-faith effort to sell Tinsley. The SVG/ASML deal spent seven months working through the CFIUS bureaucratic process due to national security concerns over the lens-making and optical-mirror polishing technology held by Tinsley
The Tinsley lithography activity that relates to semiconductor manufacturing equipment will transfer to ASML. Tinsley’s total sales in 2001 are estimated to be $12 million.
Doug Dunn, ASML’s president and CEO, said, “One of the strategic reasons why ASML acquired SVG is to expand its access to lithography competence for making semiconductor equipment. We committed to make a good faith effort to divest Tinsley Laboratories, a small part of SVG, to satisfy CFIUS regarding ownership of Tinsley’s defense and space-based optical technology. The sale of Tinsley to SSG fulfills ASML’s commitment by placing the technology in the hands of a premier defense contractor whose core competency is to furnish space-based optics to the U.S. government for reconnaissance and space systems.”
Dan Desmond, SSG’s CEO said, “Both we and our strategic financial partner, Parthenon Capital, are very excited about this acquisition. The combination of SSG and Tinsley solidifies our position as a leading provider of optical subsystems for major Department Of Defense programs as well as NASA and civilian space projects.”