No matter what Splinter and his crew say, I still prefer to remain skeptical of AMAT’s intentions.  AMAT is the largest player in the semicon capital equipment space - and as such, they tend to act more like the bull in the china shop rather than a conscientious employer.  Sorry, but the math doesn’t add up - good intentions don’t improve market conditions - AMAT will burn and slash when things don’t work out.  They’ve done things like give equipment to manufacturers like Intel for gratis, merely for the service contracts.  And I know way too many former AMAT employees that said that they were happier that they left.

FYI, Splinter was a VP for Intel when I was an employee there - and his track record was just as ruthless on the logic manufacturing side as it is in the semicon cap equipment space.

time will tell and we will see.  I say give it a chance and we will hope for the best.  Seemed to me the employees of semi tool were always under the shadow of when is the next layoff coming.  Now we hope there will be more security for them.

@mitch:  very true, but Semitool is not the only cap equipment manufacturer that plays that game.  They all do it, to a certain degree.  They always talk the talk - but walking the walk is a different matter entirely. 

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

AMAT has the same “revolving door” reputation as Semitool always has(had).  When will people realize there will never be job security in the semiconductor industry?