Last week, Goldman Sachs downgraded its recommendation for the chip equipment sector from "Buy" to "Neutral", because the industry's growth engines for 2009-10 have been used up and the companies' share prices reflected the performance of the companies in the industry. On Thursday Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (Nasdaq:NVMI; TASE:NVMI) announced that another "leading foundry" had chosen its stand-alone metrology solution. Sources inform ''Globes'' that the foundry is an Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) spinoff Globalfoundries Inc.
Nova said that the foundry ordered the Nova T500 metrology solution for testing production of its 30-nanometer technology semiconductors. Nova expects to receive several orders worth $15-20 million from Globalfoundries over the next two years for its foundries around the world, including a new $6 billion foundry under construction in New York.
Nova president and CEO Gabi Seligsohn said, "We enter 2011 with a significantly larger standalone customer base than ever before. This additional adoption of our Nova T500 standalone platform, at the highest end of technology, further solidifies our position in leading edge semiconductor manufacturing."
Nova's share price fell 0.6% on Friday on Nasdaq to $8.68, giving a market cap of $173 million, but rose 2.5% by early afternoon on the TASE today to NIS 30.82.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 9, 2011
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