Nova Measuring Instruments (Nasdaq: NVMI) has entered into an asset purchase agreement with privately-held HyperNex Inc. to acquire all its assets for up to 1.8 million shares of Nova and the assumption of specified liabilities, including certain liabilities related to contracts assumed by Nova. Based on the closing price of Nova's ordinary shares on April 2, 2006 the transaction is valued at approximately $4.5 million.
Nova develops, designs and produces integrated process control systems in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.
Headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania, HyperNex was formerly a wholly-owned subsidiary of ATMI Inc. HyperNex has developed and manufactures a unique wide-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) stand-alone metrology system for advanced semiconductor fabs. Its XRD tool has very high throughput compared to other tools presently in the market. It utilizes patented technology and has been used in production since 2004.
Assuming the transaction closes during May as anticipated, HyperNex could account for about 10% of Nova's revenue in 2006. The transaction is expected to be accretive to Nova's full-year earnings on a pro-forma basis (excluding non-recurring acquisition-related charges).
Nova today stated that HyperNex's technology could be positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for characterizing microstructures based on multiple parameter capabilities, enabling control of the quality of thin metal layers such as copper, tungsten, seed and barrier layers at the 65nm node, 45nm and below.
Nova president and CEO Dr. Giora Dishon said, "HyperNex is an excellent fit with Nova. It will strengthen our offering in the high-end stand-alone metrology market and expands our array of process control solutions. HyperNex's X-ray-based process control capabilities complement our spectrophotometry and scatterometry based solutions, which will enable us to provide complete metrology solutions for critical steps such as gate structures and copper interconnect."
HyperNex founder and CEO Dave Kurtz said, "We already have excellent relationships with leading IC manufacturers and we are enjoying a high degree of interest from several more. Given Nova's strong position in the market, we believe that together we will be able to leverage their infrastructure and expertise to create an attractive growth engine and achieve a leading position in the field of characterization of very thin conducting films."