Newport Corporation (Nasdaq:NEWP) announced that it has completed its previously announced merger with Kensington Laboratories Inc., a privately held manufacturer of high-precision robotic and motion control equipment for the semiconductor and fiber optic communication industries. Newport issued approximately 3.5 million shares in the transaction, which is being accounted for as a pooling of interests.
The transaction is immediately accretive to Newport's 2001 results and is expected to add an estimated $0.15 per diluted share to 2001 earnings. Because of the pooling accounting, Newport's 2000 earnings, reported on January 24, 2001 as $0.86 per diluted share, are expected to increase by approximately $0.10 per diluted share, subject to final audit. With the closing of the transaction, Newport can now finalize the restatement of historical financials to include results of Kensington for all prior periods. The company intends to make restated historical data available to investors by the end of February 2001.
Kensington, which is headquartered in Richmond, California and holds more than 20 patents covering advanced robotics and motion control technology, had revenues of approximately $38 million in the year 2000. The company has a strong backlog of about $50 million, mostly in advanced high-throughput, sub-micron motion control and robotic systems used by the semiconductor industry, particularly in advancedA300 millimeter processing systems. The company's technology has also been applied to fiber optic component assembly and automation through its use in Newport's photonics packaging solutions over the last five years.
"Kensington's array of motion products and capabilities will be incorporated into the full spectrum of Newport assembly automation solutions for fiber connected optical device manufacturing. This is particularly important as system speed and material handling features are added to our test and assembly tools. At the same time, Kensington's competencies in nanometer-scale motion control and wafer handling systems for semiconductor production equipment expand our capability and capacity to meet growing customer demand. That demand is being fueled, in part, by the semiconductor equipment industry's trend toward greater outsourcing and by the need for advanced motion control and optics as chip making companies move toward developing finer line widths and larger sized wafers," said Robert G. Deuster, Newport's chairman and chief executive officer.
About Newport Corporation:
Newport Corporation designs, manufactures and markets high-precision components, instruments and integrated systems to the fiber optic communications, semiconductor equipment, scientific research and industrial metrology markets.