Mattson Tech shrinks 3Q loss to $8.6 million

Mattson Tech shrinks 3Q loss to $8.6 million, says business is improving

• On 6:56 pm EDT, Wednesday October 21, 2009

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) -- Semiconductor equipment maker Mattson Technology Inc. said on Wednesday that it shrank its quarterly loss to $8.6 million, though sales plummeted from a year ago.

The company said its loss of 17 cents per share during the quarter that ended Sept. 27 compared with a loss of $20.7 million, or 42 cents per share, during the same period last year.

Revenue fell 62.8 percent to $11.2 million, from $30 million a year earlier.

Not counting a tax benefit of 17 cents per share and a restructuring charge of 3 cents per share, the company would have lost 31 cents per share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who generally exclude such one-time items, were expecting a loss of 32 cents per share on revenue of $10.9 million.

Cash and short-term investments fell to $67.8 million, down from $79.8 million at the end of the second quarter.

President and CEO David L. Dutton said business conditions are improving, and pointed out that revenue was up 38 percent from the second quarter of this year.

"Mattson Technology has not only survived this extremely difficult environment; we have invested in new initiatives at the company that we expect will lead to a market opportunity nearly triple the size of what we had before," he said.

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