News Release

Applied Materials and ASM International Dismiss Patent Litigation

Aug 11, 2004 at 2:31 PM EDT

SANTA CLARA, Calif. & BILTHOVEN, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 11, 2004--Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) and ASM International N.V., along with its subsidiaries ASM America, Inc. and ASM Japan, K.K., today announced that they have entered into a settlement agreement, dismissing litigations between the companies involving mutual allegations of patent infringement.

As part of the settlement, the parties agreed to dismiss all claims and counterclaims in the pending lawsuits without prejudice. The cases were settled without payment of any kind by any party and without licensing any patents. The settlement resolves all pending lawsuits between the parties.

About Applied Materials and ASM International

Applied Materials (Nasdaq:AMAT) is the largest supplier of equipment and services to the global semiconductor industry. Applied Materials' Web site is www.appliedmaterials.com.

ASM International and its subsidiaries provide production solutions for semiconductor wafer processing, assembly and packaging through their facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International's common shares are traded on NASDAQ (symbol ASMI) and Euronext Amsterdam (symbol ASM). ASM's web site is www.asm.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: All matters discussed in this statement, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, economic conditions and trends in the semiconductor industry, currency fluctuations, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, litigation involving intellectual property, shareholder and other issues, commercial and economic disruption due to terrorist activity, armed conflict or political instability and other risks indicated in the Company's filings from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Authorities.


    CONTACT: Applied Materials
             Jeff Lettes, 408-563-5161 (Business Media)
             Paul Bowman, 408-563-1698 (Financial Community)
                 or
             ASM International
             Robert de Bakker, +31 (30) 229-8540
             Mary Jo Dieckhaus, 212-986-2900

    SOURCE: Applied Materials, Inc.