Case Study Merger Integration & Customer Product Technology Roadmap Alignment

Situation: Mykrolis (NASDAQ: MYK) and Entegris (NASDAQ: ENTG) merged as equals, aiming to leverage their respective leadership positions in advanced materials, liquid chemical and gaseous measurement, control, filtration, and purification, products and advanced technology system solutions into the most comprehensive, advanced, advanced node solutions in semiconductor technology. This merger closed in August 2025.  Chad Ruwe became the VP & GM of Liquid Microcontamination; the newly formed business segment with over $250M (TTM) revenues with research & design in Chaska, MN, Billerica, MA, and Tokyo, Japan, and with manufacturing operations in Chaska, MN, Billerica, MA, Yonezawa, Japan, Nanjing, China, Huangzou, China, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

Challenge: The primary challenge was to grow revenue with the top 10 customers by over 20%, in Entegris language this was “by increasing mind share and wallet share.”.  How were we to leverage the sales and application channels in place with deep customer connections, the respective and sometimes complementary product technology platforms, and finally where could we achieve 1+1 = 3 in all instances but especially in profit and revenues?  As VP & GM I was leading a global team of technology and application experts to identify new solutions to the most advanced needs (some not fully vetted yet) of our customers around the world and do this within the next six months.  We had to fully involve our most valued customer touchpoints and align with the customer technology roadmaps opportunistically capturing current design windows but proactively planning and positioning for the next 2-3 years, the current design cycle for next generation technology nodes.

Actions Taken:

1. Alignment with Technology Roadmaps: Both companies moved aggressively in a skunkworks, secretive fashion to align their technology platforms and product development strategies with the top OEMs (CA skunkworks)  and with TSMC, Intel and other IC foundries (Japan skunkworks) with leading positions in sub-6-micron technology roadmaps of key customers.

2. Collaboration with Teams: Fully integrated global application and engineering teams from MYK and ENTG were formed to drive collaboration and innovation with customers and internal sales executives.

3. Internal Advocacy: Internal teams were encouraged to recognize the power and opportunities presented by the merger, leading to the formation of product-based integration teams globally to advance specifically designated platforms to invest in and exploit for the coming 2-3 years.

4. Hands-On Monitoring: For two years, regular visits were made to Asia every month to monitor progress hands-on, fostering new interactions and revealing adaptable and creative solution providers.  Individual contributors of exemplary capabilities in creativity and collaboration were elevated into broader roles to accelerate ideation, design, and test cycles.

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Obstacles: The main obstacles included geographical distance, establishing new working relationships, overcoming egos and breaking down barriers or distrust, and aligning goals across the merged entities.  Aligning resources, establishing and communicating priorities across the organization was critical.  The Office of the President was instrumental to address prioritization and resources but only after this was a tremendous barrier in the first two months.

Results Achieved:

1. Identified Product Opportunity: Identified a significant opportunity in POU (Point of Use) gas monitoring analysis and dispense for dry etch processes, like wet etch dosing and dispensing in wet processes.

2. Secured Spec Position: Achieved a spec position at two OEMs, TEL and AMAT, for a $150 million emerging product solution opportunity that addressed an unmet need in the market.

3. Revenue Growth: Captured $25 million in revenue within the following 12 months.

4. New Product Development: Prioritized new product development and established customer beta-sites to ensure alignment with technology roadmaps and create mutually beneficial solutions.

   
   

Conclusion: The merger integration between MYK and ENTG successfully aligned synergistic aspects of the respective technology platforms to shared customers’ technology roadmaps.  This contributed strongly to 1) the identification of new product and systems solutions opportunities, 2) the securing of new specification positions with key OEM and the advancement of customers’ product and technology roadmaps in alignment with reduction of nodes and furtherance of Moore’s Law.  The combination of these produced significant revenue growth post-merger. This case study highlights the importance of strategic alignment, collaboration, and customer-focused innovation in driving success post-merger.