Applied Materials to Purchase Consilium

Applied Materials Inc., the world’s largest maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, said it will buy Consilium Inc. to acquire software used to make computer chips. Santa Clara-based Applied Materials said it will exchange between 0.165 and 0.182 share for each Consilium share, depending on Applied Material’s average share price during an undisclosed period. Applied shares rose $3.19 to close at $26.81 on Nasdaq. At that price, Consilium could be purchased for between $37.9 million and $42 million. Mountain View-based Consilium is the leading independent supplier of integrated manufacturing execution systems software used to control chip making. Shares of Consilium rose 6 cents to $1.81 before trading was halted on Nasdaq. Consilium earned $204,000, or less than 1 cent a share, on sales of $7.69 million in its third quarter ended July 31, contrasted with a loss of $1.18 million, or 15 cents, a year ago.