Dutch Chip-Equipment Maker ASML Was Victim of Corporate Espionage
11 April 2019 - 7:49PM
Dow Jones News
By Max Bernhard
ASML Holding NV (ASML.AE) said Thursday that one of its U.S.
subsidiaries was the victim of corporate espionage several years
ago, but no blue prints for its lithography machines were
stolen.
The Dutch semiconductor-equipment maker said it discovered the
theft itself and "immediately took legal action." The company was
responding to a report by Dutch daily Financieele Dagblad which
said high-level Chinese employees at the U.S. unit stole
technology, which then ended up with a company linked to the
Chinese government.
"This concerns a small part of our company in Silicon Valley
where software programs for machine optimization are developed.
There is no question of theft of blueprints, which would enable
third parties to build a lithography machine," ASML said.
An ASML spokeswoman said that it couldn't confirm that everyone
involved in the theft was Chinese and that the company never found
evidence that there was a link to the Chinese government.
She said more information can be found in a U.S. court case
between an ASML subsidiary and Chinese company XTAL, in which ASML
was awarded $223 million in damages last year.
In it's statement, ASML called the theft an isolated incident.
"Can we do business in China? Of course we can. This was one 'bad
apple'," it said.
Write to Max Bernhard at max.bernhard@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 11, 2019 05:34 ET (09:34 GMT)
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