MKS to buy laser micromachining maker Electro Scientific Industries, increasing MKS's electronics manufacturing presence

MKS Instruments (Andover, MA; NASDAQ:MKSI), which makes process-control and other industrial manufacturing equipment and instrumentation, and which acquired optics and photonics equipment maker Newport Corporation in 2016 for about $1 billion, has revealed that it is now acquiring Electro Scientific Industries (ESI; NASDAQ:ESIO), a maker of industrial lasers, for about $1 billion.

ESI specializes in laser micromachining tools, for example in the electronics industry, a specialty that will fit right in with MKS's expertise in the same industry, as well as MKS's increasing presence in the optics and photonics space. MKS will acquire ESI for $30.00 per share; the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019.

MKS says that the combined company should have approximately $2.2 billion in annual revenue, based on the two companies' calendar 2017 results. The combined company expects to realize $15 million in annualized cost synergies within 18 to 36 months, according to MKS.

The new entity may provide a challenge to Coherent (NASDAQ:COHR), which, among the many other types of lasers it makes, produces industrial lasers for micromachining of printed-circuit boards and other electronic components.

Source: MKS