Bookham buys Nortel assets
Nortel Networks (Toronto, Canada) has agreed to sell certain assets relating to its optical components business to Bookham Technology (Abingdon, United Kingdom). Under the terms of the agreement, Nortel Networks will sell the transmitter and receiver business located in Paignton, England; Ottawa, Canada; and Harlow, England; and the pump laser and amplifiers business located in Paignton, England; Zurich, Switzerland; and Poughkeepsie, New York. The assets include patents, other intellectual property and trademarks. The transaction also includes a three-year supply agreement for minimum purchases of approximately $120 million for the first 18 months.
Test-and-measurement market evolving
The fiberoptic test-and-measurement (T&M) equipment market saw revenues of $1.09 billion in 2001, according to a new report from Frost and Sullivan (San Jose, CA). The report World Fiber Optic Test Equipment Market says that the market is rapidly evolving, marked by intense competition and technical innovations, and that the pace of change is expected to accelerate in the future. Frost and Sullivan projects revenues in this market to reach $1.27 billion by 2008.
Agere gets $40 million for bulk of O/E business
Agere Systems (Allentown, PA) has sold "a substantial portion" of its optoelectronics business to TriQuint Semiconductor (Hillsboro, OR) for $40 million in cash. The transaction includes the products, technology, and some facilities related to Agere's optoelectronics business, which includes lasers, detectors, modulators, passive components, arrayed waveguide-based components, amplifiers, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, transponders, and MEMS. The deal does not include the portion of Agere's business that provides optoelectronics components for cable television transmission systems, for which Agere is continuing to pursue a buyer.
Furukawa Electric to halve fiber capacity
Furukawa Electric (Tokyo, Japan) plans to reduce its Optical Fiber Solution (OFS) workforce from 3000 to 1020 by year end and to cut its optical fiber output capacity in half by March 2003. A facility in Norcross, GA, where most of the employee reduction will take place, will specialize in high-performance mass-produced fibers, while another U.S. factory will specialize in fibers for local area networks. A Denmark plant will focus on special fibers. Furukawa acquired OFS from Lucent Technologies in November 2001 for $2.3 billion.
Verrillon acquires ADC's passive photonics
Verrillon (North Grafton, MA) has acquired ADC's (Minneapolis, MN) passive photonic components business unit in Canberra, Australia, along with the existing management team. Under the deal, ADC transferred to Verrillon its development, production and testing capabilities for tap couplers, splitters, combiners, wavelength division multiplexers, and fiber Bragg gratings. The name of the Canberra, Australia business unit will revert to AOFR, the company's name prior to being acquired by ADC in 1995. AOFR will operate as a subsidiary of Verrillon. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Also in the news . . .
Alliance Semiconductor (Santa Clara, CA) has agreed to acquire Chip Engines (Sunnyvale, CA). . . . Corning (Corning, NY) has entered into a three-year agreement to supply Huawei Technologies (Shenzhen, China) with optical amplifiers and pump lasers. . . . Opto Speed (Rüschlikon, Switzerland) has entered a regional distribution agreement with EL-GEV Electronics (Air-Port City, Israel). . . . Agere Systems (Allentown, PA) has entered a multi-million dollar agreement with Huawei Technologies (Shenzhen, China) to provide a full suite of Agere's integrated circuits for use in high-speed optical networking systems for metropolitan and access networks. . . . Amherst FiberOptics (Nashville, TN), the sole distributor for Ericsson (Stockholm, Sweden) fusion splicers and Seca Photonics (Kista, Sweden) automated fusion splicing solutions in North America, has ceased operations, according to the company's website (amherstfo.com). . . . Lynx Photonic Networks (Calabasas Hills, CA, and Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel) has entered the China market and recently participated at the Asia Pacific Optical Conference with its new distributor, Luster Lightwave (Beijing, China). . . . Agility Communications (Santa Barbara, CA) has also entered the Chinese optical networking marketplace through a distribution agreement and partnership with Luster Lightwave. . . . Fiberoptics Technology (Pomfret, CT) has created a new marketing department.
For more business news, subscribe to Optoelectronics Report. Contact Jayne Sears-Renfer at [email protected].