Aetrium Adjusts First Quarter Expectations.

Business Editors

ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 28, 2001

Aetrium Incorporated (Nasdaq:ATRM) today announced that the downturn in the semiconductor industry continues to have a negative effect on new equipment orders and planned deliveries in the first half of 2001. The company reports that it now expects its revenues for the first quarter, ending March 31, 2001, to decline by an additional 20 percent from its earlier expectations of $10.0 million to $10.5 million. The reduced revenue level is expected to result in a loss of $1.5 to $1.8 million. This expected loss is exclusive of the impact of unusual charges related to the previously announced closing of the company's San Diego, Calif., operation and other cost cutting measures undertaken by the company during the quarter.

"As we indicated earlier this quarter, we have been anticipating a sharp decline in revenues, particularly for some of our capacity-driven products, as a result of the continuing business downturn in the semiconductor and electronics component industries," said Joseph C. Levesque, president and chief executive officer. "The slowdown in new orders for our capacity-driven products is proving to be somewhat greater than we had earlier anticipated. In addition to the reduction in new orders for this category of equipment, we have also experienced a push-out of requested delivery dates for existing orders in our backlog. Our customers continue to be cautious as they adapt their production capacity to a weaker-than-expected demand for their products and the current excess of inventories in their supply chain. These factors together with our efforts to preserve backlog levels to help sustain us during this difficult period have resulted in our lowered revenue expectations.

"We were hopeful that the increase in order activity that we are experiencing for several of our newer products would be enough to offset the shortfall in orders for our capacity related products. We now believe that this will not be the case, at least during the first half of 2001, and are planning accordingly. We have already implemented several restructuring actions during the quarter to reduce our expense levels and will continue to search for ways to reduce operating costs during the coming weeks and months. The full savings from our already implemented expense reductions and the future savings associated with the closure of our San Diego operation will not be fully realized until the second quarter of 2001."

Aetrium plans to report financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2001 on April 24, 2001.

Certain matters in this news release are forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, slowing growth in the demand for semiconductor devices, changes in the rates of capital expenditures by semiconductor manufacturers, progress of product development programs, unanticipated costs associated with the integration of acquired operations, and other risk factors set forth in the company's SEC filings, including its Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 1999.

Aetrium, based in North St. Paul, Minnesota, is a leading supplier of proprietary technologies and equipment that are used by the worldwide semiconductor industry to assemble and test integrated circuits (IC's) and other electronic components. The company's products are used by customers to advance reliability, improve quality, increase product yield, or improve manufacturing processes. Aetrium has manufacturing facilities in North St. Paul, Minnesota, and Dallas, Texas. Aetrium's common stock is publicly traded on the Nasdaq market under the symbol ATRM. More information about Aetrium is available on the Internet at www.Aetrium.com.