With the move, Applied has re-entered the electrochemical deposition (ECD) market. Applied once had an ECD tool, but it dropped that system several years ago. Novellus Systems Inc. is the leader in ECD.

Semitool's primary suite of equipment include ECD systems for electroplating copper, gold, solder and other metals; surface preparation systems for cleaning, stripping and etching silicon wafers; and wafer transport container cleaning systems.

Here's what analysts said about the Applied-Semitool deal:

C.J. Muse, an analyst at Barclays Capital:

''Applied appears to be refocusing its efforts on its silicon business in targeting wafer level packaging as growth area. We like the acquisition, but this does not change our view that Applied's silicon business will undergrow WFE (wafer fab equipment) in the coming cycle.

Applied becomes competitor to Novellus again in ECD (primary threat at Hynix); renews focus on packaging market; finally, is Applied becoming more acquisitive?

In 2008, Semitool had 8 percent of the spray clean ($856 million TAM), 9 percent of the wafer level packaging ($954 million TAM), and 24 percent of the copper ECP market ($126 million TAM).

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Edwin Mok, an analyst at Needham & Co. LLC:

''We believe the acquisition of Semitool is strategically important for Applied as it further extends Applied's position in advanced packaging, one of the remaining few growing sub-sectors in semi equipment market. Additionally, Semitool's copper ECD and single-wafer wet clean products can expand Applied's servable market. We believe this deal signals that Applied is not giving up on the semi equipment sector, and we expect more strategic M&A will be incubated in the coming year.

The deal highlights Applied's increased effort advanced packaging and TSV (thru-silicon vias). We believe TSV has been a significant technological challenge for packaging houses, and it will be an inflection point leading to strong growth in the packaging equipment market over the next few years. We believe the acquisition of Semitool enables Applied to offer a completed TSV line to customers. Applied can also leverage Semitool's leading positions in bump plating and its sizable lead in TSV development, with tools at 17 of its top 18 customers.

Increased competition in copper ECD. Although Semitool is working with all memory makers, in the near term, we believe the deal will not expand its positions beyond AMD/GlobalFoundries and Micron/Nanya/Inotera. Longer-term, the combination of Semitool's strong plating technologies and Applied's scale will lead to increased competition for Novellus in 32-nm and beyond.

Since Applied does not have a linear wet processing platform, we believe Semitool's Raider platform offers Applied several integration opportunities. Applied can add other wet technologies to the Raider, and even integrate a small version of Raider as a front-end with wet stations.''