Amtech buys French solar automation firm

AmtechSystems Inc. has acquired R2D Ingenierie (R2D), a solar celland semiconductorautomationequipment manufacturingcompany located in Montpellier, France.

Under the terms of the agreement, Amtech has acquired all the outstanding shares of R2D for a total purchase price of approximately $6.1 million and has made a working capital infusion of $1.0 million largely for solar business build-up. The purchase price includes significant contingent payments tied to R2D's successful product improvements, production and technology transfer. In addition, R2D's key personnel have signed three-year employment agreements.

"R2D's unique manufacturing automation technology and expertise secures our current solar automation product offerings and we plan to utilize these capabilities to expand the automation solutions we can provide to our current and future solar customers," said J.S. Whang, president and CEO of Amtech. "This acquisitionadvances our strategic objective to increase our share of the rapidly growing solar market and is part of our ongoing effort to truly become a multi-product provider to solar cell manufacturers. The addition of R2D's business and proven technology expands our market opportunity by enabling Amtech to offer an integrated system under our Tempress brand to the solar industry."

Lina Derias, president of R2D, said, "We are very pleased to become part of the Amtech team, which has positioned itself as a leader in providing solutions to the solar industry, and we believe that our automation products can significantly contribute to Amtech's future solar revenue growth."