NeoPhotonics acquires BeamExpress
Supplier of fiberoptic component and module solutions for long-haul, metro, and FTTX networks, NeoPhotonics (San Jose, CA) announced a significant expansion of its product line for high-capacity enterprise networks through the acquisition of BeamExpress (Sunnyvale, CA). BeamExpress offers multimode transceivers for enterprise and storage applications and has the capability to extend this technology to next-generation applications requiring 40 Gbit/s data rates and beyond.
“The combination of BeamExpress’ product expertise with the global footprint and manufacturing resources of NeoPhotonics will open up new and broader markets for our current and future products,” said Peter O. Clark, CEO of BeamExpress.
Former JDSU CEO to advise Enablence
Jozef Straus-former CEO of JDS Uniphase (JDSU; Milpitas, CA) before and during the telecom boom period and an influential leader in the optical components industry-has agreed to become a strategic advisor to Enablence Technologies (Ottawa, ON, Canada) as the company builds its platform of planar-lightwave-circuit (PLC)-based fiber-to-the-home components.
“Jozef was instrumental in making JDSU a success long before the telecom bubble-he was there from the beginning in 1981 as cofounder of Nepean-based JDS FITEL,” said Enablence president and CEO, Arvind Chhatbar, “We are flattered that he has joined our team. He understands the problems of moving from prototype to production and how to grow a company.” Chhatbar says his company’s diplexers and triplexers provide an integrated solution that eliminates bulk optics including thin-film filters from the equation and lowers end-user costs.
Q2 optical network hardware sales up 20%
Infonetics Research (Campbell, CA), in its quarterly Optical Network Hardware report, said that worldwide optical-network hardware revenue jumped 20% between the first and second quarter of 2006, reaching $3.1 billion in Q2, mainly due to big gains by Huawei (Shenzhen, China) and Alcatel (Paris, France). The market is forecast to grow 14% between 2005 and 2009, when it will reach $12.3 billion.
“Huawei is the big story this quarter, with sales up an amazing 83% and a larger foothold in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions,” said Michael Howard, principal analyst of Infonetics Research. “For the first time in optical-network hardware market history, Alcatel is not in first place. Huawei jumped from fourth to first in one quarter, a rare feat. Next quarter may be a different story.” The report also says that Q2 wavelength-division-multiplexing reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer switch hardware sales are up 23%.
Omron acquires FTTH coupler business
A provider of automation, sensing, and control technologies, Omron (Tokyo, Japan) reached a preliminary agreement with NHK Spring Co. (Yokohama, Japan) to acquire NHK Spring’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) optical-coupler business.
Omron intends to combine NHK Spring’s quartz optical-waveguide technology with its own stacked polymer optical-waveguide technology to create cost-competitive products that will reinforce its product lineup and expand its business in the FTTH optical-coupler market.
Fiberoptic sensor company gets funding
SensorTran (Austin, TX) has landed $5.5 million in venture-capital funding to expand its workforce from 8 to 50 workers over the next year and to increase sales. The company uses fiberoptic sensor technology to head off energy-system breakdowns-including oil pipeline leaks and electric power blackouts-by detecting temperature changes along pipelines or transmission lines. SensorTran started as part of Austin-based Systems and Processes Engineering, which received a contract from NASA in 1996 to develop a compact and lightweight instrument to monitor tanks on future space shuttles. SensorTran began selling its technology product commercially in 1998 and expects to reach $2 million in sales this year.
For more business news visit www.optoelectronicsreport.com.
Also in the news . . .
PSI-TEC (Wilmington, DE) has established a collocation agreement with a New Jersey-based micro-optics company affording PSI-TEC access to a full suite of fabrication facilities to produce commercial quantities of devices such as high-speed (40 GHz) telecom modulators, optical filters, and optical interconnects important to military and civilian markets. . . . Fiberguide Industries (Stirling, NJ), a manufacturer of specialty optical fibers and OEM assemblies, entered into an exclusive distributor agreement with AMS Technologies (Munich, Germany), a distributor representing optoelectronic solutions, to improve response to its European customers. . . . Information Gatekeepers (IGI; Boston, MA) has released several new and updated market studies on fiber-to-the-premise and ROADM markets.