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Happy Lunar New Year from the Applied Materials Blog Team.

Why is Silicon Valley the world center for innovation? How does innovation continue to thrive there? How do you create and maintain an innovative culture? Why is San Francisco becoming so attractive to startups?

Season's Greetings from the Applied Materials Blog team.

2013 was a transformative and exciting year for Applied Materials. It was also a year filled with important achievements in the semiconductor and display industries.In May, Applied Materials hosted one of the most powerful men in the world, U.S. President Barack Obama. In September we announced that Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron are combining to create a new global innovator for the semiconductor and display industries. It comes to no surprise that these topics are among the most widely read blog posts this past year.

Last week Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron held a media roundtable in Japan to discuss the merger of equals announced on September 24, 2013. Executives from both companies provided updates on the rationale behind the merger, the status of the integration planning, the expected benefits to employees, customers and the industry, as well as answered questions from the audience.  Tetsuro Higashi, Chairman, President and CEO of Tokyo Electron, who will become Chairman of the new company, and Mike Splinter, Executive Chairman of Applied Materials, who will serve as Vice-Chairman, addressed the audience of more than 20 members of the Japanese media.

Applied Materials Executive Chairman Mike Splinter was recognized this week at the Semiconductor Industry Association’s (SIA) 36th annual awards dinner, where he received the Robert N. Noyce Award, the industry’s highest honor, for his significant contributions to the U.S. semiconductor industry in technology and public policy.A well-known and respected industry veteran, Mike successfully led Applied Materials as CEO for more than a decade, expanding the company’s position as a leading global equipment provider to the semiconductor, display and solar industries, and helping to drive critical innovations in transistor design to further Moore’s Law, the foundation of all modern day electronics.

For the past six years, Montana's senior U.S. Senator Max Baucus has brought together some of the world's most important trading partners to visit Montana's top businesses and to participate in an Economic Development Summit, where the delegates meet with Montana leaders to discuss how to create local jobs through overseas trade. This year's summit also included an "Ambassador's Tour," featuring ambassasdors from China, Germany, Japan, Peru, and Canada. This part of the summit commenced at Applied Materials' Kalispell facility last month.

Today, Applied Materials, Inc., and Tokyo Electron, Ltd., announced exciting news – we are combining our companies to form a new global innovator in the semiconductor and display equipment industries. We are bringing together our complementary strengths to create an expanded set of capabilities in precision materials engineering and patterning that are strategically important for customers.

Applied Materials drives innovation in a variety of ways, including investing in internal R&D to continue to offer new products and technologies and collaborating with the world’s leading universities, research institutions, industry associations and consortia as well as government entities.We’ve also developed internal programs to advance technology breakthroughs by encouraging and funding disruptive ideas that can accelerate product development.