Aetrium Updates Performance Outlook.

Business Editors

ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 28, 2002

Aetrium Incorporated (Nasdaq:ATRM) today announced that it now expects to report revenues for the first quarter ending March 31, 2002, of approximately $3.1 million and a loss of $0.07 to $0.09 per share, exclusive of a previously announced one-time goodwill impairment charge due to a change in accounting principle. Earlier in the quarter analyst expectations had been a loss of $0.12 per share, exclusive of the charge for change in accounting principle, on revenues of $3.8 million.

"The difficult industry conditions and the uncharacteristic uncertainty that have affected semiconductor suppliers throughout 2001 continued to negatively impact our revenues in the first quarter of 2002," said Joseph Levesque, chief executive officer of Aetrium. "Our first quarter revenue plan called for us to book, ship, or recognize revenue on several orders that have been delayed by customers as a result of the continued uncertainty in their own business forecasts. The timing of these delays is especially unfortunate, as we believe that evidence is growing that the semiconductor industry, our customers, and Aetrium are poised for meaningful recovery in 2002.

"We believe the conditions that led to our less than expected revenue levels were unique to the first quarter and due in large part to particular customer situations of a singular nature. Our customers continue to report to us that their capacity utilization levels have greatly improved, that the inventories in their supply chain have decreased sharply, and that the demand for their products is growing. Furthermore, we have experienced a sharp increase in new order quotation activity over the last few months.

"Accordingly, our short-term outlook remains cautiously optimistic and we are hopeful that business conditions in the second quarter will improve over the first quarter. Our long-term outlook remains decidedly more optimistic as we still expect that the industry will return to positive growth in 2002 as a result of a growing demand for semiconductors as the year progresses. The aggressive cost containment and restructuring actions that we implemented in 2001 helped to minimize our loss for this quarter, and we expect to return to profitability and positive cash flow as the industry recovers. We continue to believe that our current products, our soon to be released products, and our growing base of key customers have us well positioned to benefit from the expected growth that industry analysts are projecting for the second half of this year."

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, adverse domestic or global economic conditions, slowing growth in the demand for semiconductor devices, the volatility and cyclicality of the semiconductor industry, changes in the rates of capital expenditures by semiconductor manufacturers, progress of product development programs, unanticipated costs associated with the integration or restructuring of operations, and other risk factors set forth in the company's SEC filings, including its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000.

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.