Tucson: Bruker buys Veeco

Mass. firm buying local Veeco unit

By David Wichner

ARIZONA DAILY STAR 8/18/2010

Veeco Instruments Inc. has agreed to sell its metrology busi­ness, including an optical industrial metrology division in Tucson that employs about 75 people, to Bruker Corp. for $229 million in cash.

Bruker, based near Boston in Billerica, Mass., said it will contin­ue to operate the Tucson business, known as Veeco Optical Industrial Metrology, and a Veeco atomic­force microscope business in San­ta Barbara, Calif., that was also part of the deal.

The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to be finalized after regulatory approvals, in the fourth quarter.

Bruker said it expects to retain “the vast majority” of employees at the Tucson and Santa Barbara divisions, including management, operations, research and develop­ment, sales and marketing and service staff.

The companies’ international field sales and support staff will be integrated into Bruker’s existing sales offices, applications laborato­ries and service centers worldwide.

The acquired Veeco businesses are forecast to contribute revenues of more than $130 million to Bruker in 2011, Bruker said in a news release. Ross Smith, vice president and general manager of Veeco Metrol­ogy in Tucson, said Bruker is a good fit for the Tucson company because both specialize in metrol­ogy — technology used to measure objects or effects.

“That is Bruker’s core business. Veeco, over time, has become more of a process-control compa­ny,” Smith said.

Veeco Metrology’s main busi­ness is making devices, such as optical profilers, that measure the shape and roughness of surfaces for industrial applications.

According to Veeco, Bruker in­tends to combine Veeco Metrology with its global Bruker Nano in­struments business, which sells a broad range of systems for materi­als and nanotechnology research.

Veeco CEO John R. Peeler said in prepared remarks that the sale will help Veeco focus on and invest in its LED (light-emitting diode) and solar and data-storage­process equipment businesses.

Peeler called Veeco’s metrology unit “a great business that is strong, growing and profitable” but said it “lacks meaningful syn­ergies” with the company’s process-equipment businesses.

Contact Assistant Business Editor David Wichner at dwichner@azstarnet.com or 573-4181.

DID YOU KNOW

Tucson-based Veeco Metrology was formed in 1997 when Plainview, N.Y.-based Veeco Instruments Inc.

acquired locally based Wyko Corp.

Wyko was co-founded in 1984 by University of Arizona College of Op­tical Sciences Dean James Wyant and former UA optical scientist Chris Koliopoulos.

The deal, for Veeco stock, was val­ued at about $87 million.