SiliconBeat

In case they haven’t gotten the message already, Asyst Technologies advised investors today in an SEC filing that its shares will probably be worthless before the liquidation process is over in its current bankruptcy proceedings.

The company has struggled over the last year in its ultimately unsuccessful attempt to Read the rest of this entry »

Asyst Technologies, the Fremont maker of automation equipment for the semiconductor and flat panel display industries, received a default notice from the administrative agent for its credit agreement under which it currently has an outstanding balance of $76.5 million, according to a company filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

KeyBank National Association said that Asyst failed to Read the rest of this entry »

Asyst Technologies finished its “interim goodwill impairment analysis” and is taking an $89.4 million charge to account for it, according to a press release it issued early Tuesday.

The charge would would have made it non-compliant with the old terms of its loan agreement, but those were modified to eliminate the debt-to-capital covenant, replacing it with a new requirement related to setting a maximum pre-tax loss.

But that’s a fix that the company doesn’t expect to last long, since Read the rest of this entry »

Asyst Technologies said Wednesday that that it “As a result of the current economic environment and recent decline in the market value of the company, Asyst currently is conducting an interim goodwill impairment analysis, which the company anticipates will result in a non-cash charge of $85-$90 million for the quarter.”

It also revealed that the non-cash charge would Read the rest of this entry »

Asyst Technologies will pay two percentage points more in interest on $110.4 million it owes as the result of a second amendment to a credit agreement with KeyBank National Association, according to a regulatory filing this afternoon. In exchange, certain of its loan covenants were relaxed, such as the minimum level of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and minimum liquidity. Asyst also agreed to increase its scheduled payments next year

The original $137.5 million credit agreement, signed in July 2007, was good on an $85 million loan and $52.5 million worth of revolving credit. The company first amended the agreement in April to allow its loan Read the rest of this entry »

Asyst Technologies, the Fremont maker of automation equipment for the semiconductor and flat panel display industries, pulled the plug on its talks with Aquest Systems, the company run by a former Asyst CEO that offered to buy Asyst for $6.50 a share back in July, saying Aquest “has been unable to assemble and submit a transaction proposal”.

Here’s what Asyst’s chief executive said in a letter to Mihir Parikh, chief of Aquest, and Scott Honour, senior managing director of an investment firm pledged to help finance the acquisition: Read the rest of this entry »

Shares of Asyst Technologies shot up 28.6 percent, or $1.12, to $5.03 Wednesday after the company revealed that it’s board is mulling over another offer to buy the maker of chip-making equipment.

The offer came from Aquest Systems, a company headed Mihir Parikh, an Asyst founder and former chief executive who in 2003 alleged Read the rest of this entry »

If you are an employee at Asyst Technologies and you are reading this, maybe you shouldn’t.

Your boss, Steve Schwartz, sent you a note Wednesday warning that Read the rest of this entry »

Asyst Technologies, the Fremont chip-making equipment manufacturer, said that it received word that a hedge fund run by Bryant Riley intends to nominate its own slate of six directors to “in an attempt to gain control of Asyst’s Board of Directors,” according to a press release put out by Asyst Wednesday afternoon. If elected, the new directors “intend to sell (Asyst) through an auction process” according to the release. Read the rest of this entry »