San Jose, CA--Optical-component provider Oclaro has acquired Mintera Corporation (Acton, MA), a privately-held producer of optical-transport subsystems. The acquisition of Mintera boosts Oclaro's product portfolio for high-speed telecommunications, says Oclaro.
"Through this acquisition, Oclaro has taken another important step forward in building upon our leadership position in 40 Gbps regional and metro networks by broadening our product portfolio and systems expertise to expand into 40 Gbps LH and the 100 Gbps coherent markets," says Alain Couder, president and CEO of Oclaro.
Infonetics Research forecasts the 40 Gbps long-haul optical component market to reach $150 million in 2011, divided almost equally between differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) and differential quadrature phase-shift keying (DQPSK) technologies. Mintera produce a 40 Gbps Adaptive DPSK transmission module that enables ULH transmission compatible with 50 GHz channel spacing.
Beyond 2011 Oclaro believes the 40 Gbps DPSK market will begin to migrate to coherent technologies, enabling lower line costs and simplified deployments. Mintera's 40 Gbps PM-QPSK (coherent) module is planned for production by the second half of 2011. The 40 Gbps coherent module is expected by Oclaro to be the first product of its kind on the market, due to an existing, comprehensive partnership agreement between Mintera Corporation and ClariPhy Communications, a provider of high performance mixed-signal ICs and another Oclaro partner.
Terry Unter, president and CEO of Mintera, has agreed to remain with Oclaro for a transitional period and lead the new 40/100 Gbps modules and subsystems division, reporting to Alain Couder, president and CEO of Oclaro. During this period, Couder and Unter will also explore a longer term role for Unter in Oclaro's executive management team. Unter's experience in the optical communications industry includes executive, engineering, management, and operations positions at companies including Corvis Corporation, AMP, Alcatel, and Northern Telecom.
Revenues of Mintera Corporation were approximately $20M for the twelve months ended June 30, 2010. Terms of the deal call for a payment of $12M in cash upon close, plus a revenue-based earn-out ranging from $0 to $20M payable in cash or stock at Oclaro's option. Achieving cumulative revenues of $70M over the next 18 month period would lead to the maximum $20M earn out. Oclaro believes the Mintera business will generate operating losses (excluding restructuring charges and stock compensation) of between $1M and $2.5M a quarter in each of its remaining calendar 2010 quarters, improving each quarter and with breakeven targeted for the March calendar 2011 quarter. Oclaro's target model for the Mintera related business is to deliver gross margins of 40 to 45% and operating margins of 20 to 25%, well above Oclaro's existing target model.
