Veeco Instruments Inc. (Woodbury, NY) has agreed to buy telecommunications-gear maker Applied EPI Inc. for about $132.2 million in stock and cash. Veeco said the deal, which it expects to close by month's end, adds optoelectronic telecommunications and wireless products to its offerings. Under the terms of the deal, Veeco will exchange $30 million in cash and four million common shares of Veeco stock for Applied EPI.
Veeco, which makes process equipment and metrology tools used in optical telecommunications, data storage, semiconductor and research applications, had 2000 revenue of $386.5 million. Applied EPI (www.applied-epi.com), a closely held company in St. Paul, MN, had revenue of $25 million in 2000, and expects 2001 revenue of $50 million.
Applied EPI provides molecular beam epitaxy equipment for the manufacture of compound semiconductors. The devices are used in fiberoptic and wireless communication products, as well as for consumer applications, such as digital versatile disks, or DVDs.