Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: AMAT : AP2 : 4336 NASDAQ-100 Component S&P 500 Component
Industry	Semiconductors
Founded	Nov.10, 1967
Founder	Michael A. McNeilly
Headquarters	Santa Clara, California, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Gary E. Dickerson (President & CEO) Willem P.Roelandts (Chairman)
Revenue	US $ 9.66 billion (2015)
Operating income	US $ 1.69 billion (2015)
Net income	US $ 1.38 billion (2015)
Total assets	US $ 15.31 billion (2015)
Total equity	US $ 7.61 billion (2015)
Number of employees	~14,600 (October 2015)
Website	www.appliedmaterials.com

Applied Materials, Inc. is an American corporation that supplies equipment, services and software to enable the manufacture of semiconductor (integrated circuit) chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones and televisions, and solar products. The company also supplies equipment to produce coatings for flexible electronics, packaging and other applications. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, in the Silicon Valley.

Founded in 1967 by Michael A. McNeilly and others, Applied Materials went public in 1972. In subsequent years, the company diversified, until James C. Morgan became CEO in 1976 and returned the company’s focus to its core business of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. By 1978, sales increased by 17%.

In 1984, Applied Materials became the first U.S. semiconductor equipment manufacturer to open its own technology center in Japan and the first semiconductor equipment company to operate a service center in China. In 1987, Applied introduced a CVD machine called the Precision 5000, which differed from existing machines by incorporating diverse processes into a single machine that had multiple process chambers.

In 1992, the corporation settled a lawsuit with three former employees for an estimated $600,000. The suit complained that the employees were driven out of the company after complaining about the courses Applied Scholastics had been hired to teach there.

In 1993, the Applied Materials' Precision 5000 was inducted into the Smithsonian Institution's permanent collection of Information Age technology.

In November 1996, Applied Materials acquired two Israeli companies for an aggregate amount of $285 million. Opal Technologies and Orbot Instruments for $175 million and $110 million in cash, respectively. Orbot produces systems for inspecting patterned silicon wafers for yield enhancement during the semiconductor manufacturing process, as well as systems for inspecting masks used during the patterning process. Opal develops and manufactures high-speed metrology systems used by semiconductor manufacturers to verify critical dimensions during the production of integrated circuits.