NASHUA, NH-Venture capitalists and public investors alike are exhibiting renewed enthusiasm for the optics industry, according to John Dexheimer, partner at First Analysis Private Equity and president of LightWave Advisors. Not only has 2006 seen a number of IPOs involving optics, laser, and related companies, but these companies are finding new and increasingly creative ways to drum up investors.
“We are seeing this in the laser industry and the optical telecom industry,” Dexheimer said. “The choices of how you finance a company are broadening in a huge variety of ways-ways that didn’t exist even three years ago. The industry has cleaned itself up post-telecom and as the demand side and diversity and maturity of technologies have improved, so have the financing alternatives.”
Dexheimer will discuss these and related trends in detail during his keynote address, “The Next Decade in Optical Investments,” at the annual Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar, to be held Monday, January 22, 2007 at the Fairmont Hotel (San Jose, CA) during Photonics West. Based on the Laser Focus World annual market review and forecast, which is published in the January and February issues of the magazine, the day-long seminar provides business leaders, investors, and analysts with the only comprehensive applications-oriented review of worldwide laser markets, plus discussions of key business and technology trends for the laser and optoelectronics markets.
New for 2007 is the “World Markets Forum,” where leading executives from companies and organizations in Europe, Asia, and North America will discuss in detail the market opportunities for lasers and optoelectronics in these countries going forward. Slated to participate in the forum are T.P. Pearsall, general secretary of the European Photonics Industry Consortium; Michael Lebby, president of the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association; and Henry Peng, manager of the Manufacturing Processes Lab at GE Global Research Shanghai.
Other highlights of the seminar include an update on the current status of fiber-laser sales by Tom Hausken of Strategies Unlimited; a presentation by David Benaron, CEO of FirstScan, on the market for biomedical optics over the next five years; an overview of the market for high-power disk lasers by Holger Schlüter, general manager and vice president of TRUMPF Photonics; and a look at existing and emerging markets for high-brightness diode lasers by Paul Rudy, vice president of Quintessence Photonics.
For more information or to register, go to www.marketplaceseminar.com.