Entegris will acquire CMC in $6.5 billion deal

Abstract

Entegris has struck a deal to acquire CMC Materials in a transaction valued at about $6.5 billion. CMC, which until last year was known as Cabot Microelectronics, is the world’s leading producer of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) slurries, used to smooth the surfaces of circuit-laden silicon wafers between semiconductor chip fabrication steps. It has annual sales of about $1.2 billion. Entegris has annual sales of about $2.1 billion of both equipment and chemicals used in chip production. In announcing the deal, Entegris CEO Bertrand Loy said the combination will create “the industry’s most comprehensive and innovative end-to-end electronic materials offering.” Mike Corbett, a managing partner at the electronic materials consulting firm Linx Consulting, says the purchase will make Entegris a top-five player, by sales, in materials and gases for semiconductor wafer fabrication, along with Linde, Air Liquide, DuPont, and Merck KGaA. Moreover, Corbett says, Entegris’s materials portfolio will be both