Santa Clara, CA-based Applied Materials (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMAT]]) said today it was buying Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VSEA]]), a Gloucester,MA-based provider of ion implantation products for semiconductor chips, in a definitive merger agreement, paying $63 per share in cash. The $4.9 billion transaction represents a 38 percent premium on Varian’s 30 day average closing stock price, and a 55 percent premium on yesterday’s closing price. Varian will remain in Gloucester and will become part of the silicon systems group of Applied Materials, which is focused on equipment, services, and software in the manufacturing of semiconductors, flat panel displays, and solar photovoltaic products.
Author: Erin Kutz
Erin Kutz has a background in covering business, politics and general news. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Erin previously worked in the Boston bureau of Reuters, where she wrote articles on the investment management and mutual fund industries. While in college, she researched for USA Today reporter Jayne O’Donnell’s book, Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. She also spent a semester in Washington, DC, reporting Capitol Hill stories as a correspondent for two Connecticut newspapers and interning in the Money section of USA Today, where she assisted with coverage on the retail and small business beats. Erin got her first taste of reporting at Boston University’s independent student newspaper, as a city section reporter and fact checker and editor of the paper’s weekly business section.
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