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research, development and manufacturing facility in South Korea. South Korea is the second largest CMP consumables market in the world, and we have placed strategic emphasis over the past several years on increasing our business there with a focus on memory applications. During fiscal 2012, we commercialized and qualified several Advanced Dielectrics products from our facility in Korea by leveraging our expanded capabilities there to win more business. Our revenue in Korea grew by 22 percent in fiscal 2012. During fiscal 2012, we were delighted to receive Intel’s Preferred Quality Supplier Award for the third consecutive year, demonstrating our sustained ability to provide industry leading technology and performance. In addition, we were awarded SMIC’s Best Supplier Award, for providing CMP polishing slurries deemed essential to its success and for our support of SMIC’s operations in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. We believe these supplier awards reflect the recognition of our unyielding commitment to consistently deliver high-quality, reliable CMP solutions through a robust supply chain. ENGINEERED SURFACE FINISHES BUSINESS Other notable business highlights during fiscal 2012 relate to our Engineered Surface Finishes, or ESF, business, where we are leveraging our technology for perfecting surfaces within the semiconductor industry into other demanding surface applications. Within our ESF business, QED, which is a leader in polishing and metrology systems for precision optics applications, achieved another year of record revenue, following record revenue performance last year. We also made progress during the year commercializing slurries for silicon wafer polish applications to meet the needs of customers in an approximately $200 million market adjacent to the CMP consumables market. CAPITAL MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE The fiscal year was also highlighted by our new capital management initiative, which included the implementation of a leveraged recapitalization with a payment of a $15 per share special cash dividend, or approximately $347 million in total, and a significant increase to our share repurchase authorization. As a result of the leveraged recapitalization, we achieved a more efficient balance sheet while also
distributing approximately 30 percent of our market value to our shareholders through the special cash dividend. This capital management initiative represented a significant change in our capital allocation strategy, and enabled us to provide additional value to our shareholders while maintaining the resources necessary to continue to implement our business strategies and support future growth opportunities. Ultimately, this capital management initiative exemplifies the confidence we have in the future performance of our company. GLOBALLY POSITIONED FOR CONTINUED SUCCESS We participate in a dynamic consumer electronics driven industry by supplying CMP consumables products to the semiconductor industry. The demand for CMP consumables is driven by wafer starts and the increased usage of IC devices as electronic systems increase in complexity. With the continuation of positive trends in mobile connectivity, mobile devices, including tablets and smart phones, cloud computing and emerging markets, we believe these trends should drive growth in demand for CMP consumables in the future. We are excited by the potential long-term growth opportunities associated with these trends and although we remain mindful of the potential impact of global macroeconomic uncertainties on the semiconductor industry and our business, we believe the investments we have made and the progress we have achieved position us well for continued success. I would like to thank our stockholders, customers, suppliers and employees for your continued support and confidence in our company. We believe that Cabot Microelectronics is well positioned as a leading supplier of CMP consumables to the semiconductor industry for continued success as we leverage our global capabilities to consistently deliver highquality, reliable and innovative solutions to our customers around the world. Sincerely,
WILLIAM P. NOGLOWS
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