Strong niche market position; High barriers to entry; No funded debt; and Adequate liquidity. Highly cyclical industry demand; Narrow business profile; Competition from large players; and High customer and product concentration. The rating on Freemont, Calif.-based Lam Research Corp. reflects the company's narrow business focus and high customer and product concentration in the volatile semiconductor capital equipment industry. This is offset partially by Lam's leadership position in its main niche (etch tools), good liquidity, and low debt leverage. Lam is a global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of wafer etch, patterning, and cleaning tools used to manufacture memory, logic, and microelectromechanical systems. Lam has a leading share of the etch market, a niche segment in the semiconductor capital equipment market. Given
