From the desk of Thomas O. Gephart

January, 2013

A Ventana Global Cross-Border Success Story

The goal of every venture capital firm is to invest in portfolio investments that will return superior returns. However, the real success stories are the portfolio investments that not only meet the expectations of high returns but continue to achieve multiple wins year after year.  Recently, Cymer has been in the news as one of these multiple winning companies and attributes much of their success to their ability to successfully globalize.

“The CymerStory”

In 1987 VentanaGrowth Fund II led the investment in CymerLaser, a start-up company, whose product imprinted images on a silicon wafer during the fabrication of a semiconductor.  In 1988 Cymer was awarded Semiconductor International’s Editor’s Choice Product of the Year for the CX-2LS.  Then, in 1991, one of Ventana’slimited partners, Mitsubishi, helped Cymergain access and open offices in Japan. And in 1996 Cymerwas declared IPO of the year by Barron’s, completing their public offering at $4.75/share; today they are trading at $92 per share. 

Cymer’sglobal story didn’t stop there.  In 1988 they opened global offices in Asia and Europe, followed by regional offices in China and Korea in 2003.  Cymer’sglobalization took the company to new levels when Cymershipped its 3000thproduction excimerlight source in 2005.  Growth through globalization paid off, with the announcement that the Dutch company ASML is buying Cymerfor 2.5 billion US dollars. 

ANOTHER VENTANA CROSS-BORDER GLOBAL SUCCESS STORY

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