Brooks Automation Completes Acquisition of both AutoSimulations, Inc. and Auto-Soft Corporation from Daifuku, Giving Brooks a Worldwide Market Leadership Position
In addition, Brooks and Daifuku intend to establish a strategic alliance that enables both companies to provide solutions to their customers through joint development, joint research and joint distribution of hardware and software products.
Upon completion of these strategic and complementary acquisitions Brooks becomes the largest and most comprehensive provider of automation software for the semiconductor industry with the largest customer software sales and service resources. Brooks' software solutions provide customers with a value proposition that translates into demonstrated improvement in equipment throughput and utilization, process optimization and fab throughput.
AutoSimulations, Inc.
AutoSimulations, Inc. (ASI) (www.autosim.com) is the world leader in robotic and material handling simulation, scheduling and real-time dispatching software for the semiconductor industry. Its simulation product, called AutoMod, is used for the design and analysis of robotic and material handling systems by many of the major semiconductor equipment and material handling suppliers as well as a majority of the major semiconductor device manufacturers. ASI's scheduling and real-time dispatching software, known as AutoSimulations Productivity Family (APF) is designed to help semiconductor manufacturers make optimal scheduling decisions on the shop-floor on a second-by-second basis. It is already fully integrated with all major commercial semiconductor Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), as well as several customer developed MES solutions. The integration platform embedded in the APF product has also been used to integrate data from Material Control Systems (MCS), ERP systems and Advanced Planning systems.
ASI was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Bountiful, Utah with facilities in the US, UK, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, and employs more than 100 people worldwide.
Auto-Soft Corporation
Auto-Soft (ASC), (www.autosoft.com) founded in 1985, is the leading fab material handling software provider as well as a top systems integration company focusing on manufacturing, distribution and logistics systems for the semiconductor industry. Products and services include real-time inventory control, management of automated storage and retrieval systems and MES systems integration. Auto-Soft specializes in the definition and integration of "Best-in-Class" software and hardware to bridge the gap between financial systems and the real-time processes of factories and the physical distribution process. Its material control software (MCS) is the leading solution for controlling automated material handling equipment provided by the leading suppliers of fab automation hardware, with greater than 50% of the world market as reported by AMR Research Inc.
Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, ASC has sales and support locations in the US, UK, Korea and Japan and employs approximately 170 people worldwide.
Brooks' Family of Integrated Software Solutions
"The integration of ASI and ASC into the growing Brooks' family of automation software companies demonstrates our commitment to move from point solutions to pre-integrated, total solutions for manufacturing systems within a fab, thereby enabling our customers to achieve optimum results" Robert Therrien, Chief Executive Officer and President of Brooks Automation Inc. "Our customers benefit from "Best-in-Class" solutions that arrive with integration templates, built on open standards, and are less costly to deploy and support. Brooks benefits through increased revenue opportunities over the life of a fab, reduced cost from operating synergies, and the ability to leverage what will become the largest automation software sales and support organization serving the semiconductor industry.
"Our end user software solutions are built upon the three pillars of fab performance: equipment utilization, process optimization and throughput optimization. Brooks can now enhance tool availability with better diagnostics through fault detection products from our Domain Manufacturing acquisition and through maintenance management solutions from the FASTech acquisition. In the areas of process optimization, we can accelerate the time to first silicon through sophisticated data collection and analysis tools from Domain and FASTech. To complete the pillar of throughput optimization, we now will be able to offer powerful scheduling, real-time dispatching and simulation tools from ASI and a leading MCS solution from ASC. When coupled with next generation MES from FASTech and system integration capabilities from our recent Hanyon and Auto-Soft acquisitions, as well as other FASTech partners, the products and services of the Brooks' integrated solution is a compelling value proposition for our customers and a growth opportunity for Brooks. We are seeing strong interest from our target market in the complete Brooks solution."
Brooks Automation
Brooks Automation Inc. is a leading supplier of integrated automation solutions for the global semiconductor, data storage, and flat panel display manufacturing industries. As an established market leader in hardware and software automation, Brooks continues to pioneer "Best-in-Class" technologies that outperform their competitors – from vacuum and atmospheric robots, cluster tool platforms and modules,
ultra clean mini-environments for isolating processing equipment and wafers – to factory and tool automation software and integration services. Both OEM and fab customers leverage Brooks' automation products and services to optimize total fab performance in dynamic manufacturing environments. The Company has ISO 9001 certification, is headquartered in Chelmsford, MA and has direct operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. The Company's web-site is www.brooks.com.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The foregoing discussion contains forward-looking statements related to the proposed transactions, the businesses being acquired, and future financial results. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, risks relating to finding supplemental financial statement formats that convey an accurate understanding of the Company's operations, the Company's dependence on the cyclical semiconductor industry, the Company's dependence on relatively few customers for a significant portion of its revenues, the Company's reliance on sales to OEM customers and the lengthy sales cycles of those customers, the ability of the Company to continue to successfully develop and market new products and product enhancements on a timely basis, the ability to integrate recent acquisitions into the Company, the highly competitive nature and rapid technological change that characterize the industries in which the Company competes, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, there can be no assurance that the Company's future results will not be materially different than those projected. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only of the Company's expectations as of the date of this press release. The Company also operates in an industry sector where securities' values are highly volatile and may be influenced by economic and other factors beyond the Company's control. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
AutoSimulations, Inc., a Brooks Automation Company, 655 Medical Drive, Bountiful, UT 84010. Tel: 801-298-1398; Fax: 801-298-8186.