REUTERS: U.S. chip gear maker Applied Materials Inc on Monday agreed to buy Japan's Kokusai Electric for US$2.2 billion in cash from investment firm KKR & Co Inc , as it bets on rising demand for memory chips.
The deal comes less than two years after KKR took control of Hitachi Kokusai in a US$2.2 billion deal. The Financial Times had reported in February that the private equity firm was in talks with two Chinese buyers for the"full or partial" sale of the company. "AMAT needs to acquire a US$1B+ revenue business to make a difference to its revenue and earnings, so this makes sense," Cowen and Co analysts wrote in a client note.The deal would push the U.S. company's share of the chipmaking equipment market to above 20per cent from 18per cent, according to the Nikkei, which had earlier reported on the deal.