Cymer Announces Shareholder Lawsuit

A shareholder of excimer laser manufacturer Cymer Inc. (San Diego, CA) has filed a lawsuit charging that the company and certain officers and directors issued materially false or misleading statements. The statements under fire concern rapid acceptance of deep ultraviolet (DUV) technology by semiconductor chip manufacturers, strong demand and orders for Cymer's Series 5000 krypton fluoride (KrF) excimer DUV lasers, its strong order backlog for these lasers, and the technical quality of the lasers.

The suit alleges that while in possession of this material non-public information, certain of Cymer's top insiders and controlling shareholders sold or disposed of 1,869,086 shares of Cymer stock, generating $48.5 million in insider proceeds.

Cymer believes that the lawsuit is without merit and intends to defend against it vigorously.