Enablence to acquire ANDevices
Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) transceiver developer Enablence Technologies (Ottawa, ON, Canada) will acquire all the outstanding shares of ANDevices (Fremont, CA), a supplier of planar-lightwave-circuit (PLC) photonic devices for the access, metro, and long-haul communications markets. Under the terms of the agreement, Enablence will acquire – through a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary – all the shares of ANDevices for an aggregate purchase price of $13.5 million and 9 million common shares of Enablence. “The acquisition of ANDevices provides Enablence with a secure wafer fabrication facility for FTTH transceivers; it also gives us the ability to expand our product portfolio and to continue to strengthen our leadership position in PLC-based products,” said Arvind Chhatbar, Enablence president and CEO.
Vytran becomes part of NKT Photonics
NKT (Copenhagen, Denmark) increased its 27% stake to a full ownership of Vytran (Morganville, NJ) for an undisclosed sum. Vytran supplies optical-fiber splicing, cleaving, and recoating equipment. “We have been impressed with the capabilities and unique technologies of Vytran, which we believe will become even more important as the market for specialty-fiber devices continues to expand,” said Søren Isaksen, CTO of NKT Holding. “We see Vytran as providing a key building block to the overall expansion of our photonics business.” Founded in 1989, Vytran has offices in New Jersey, the U.K., and Australia.
New photonics company forming at Pirelli
Pirelli (Milan, Italy) will soon incorporate a new group company that will focus on second-generation photonics based on nanotechnology. The company will integrate the photonics business unit of Pirelli Broadband Solutions and the Optical Innovation division of Pirelli Labs, and will aim to create increasing synergies between research activities and those of business development and will focus on optical components, optical modules, and transportation systems. Both the new photonics company and Pirelli Broadband Solutions will continue to collaborate with researchers at Pirelli Labs Materials Innovation who, in addition, will conduct research in the tire, environmental, and real estate sectors.
OIDA groups to address optical components
With the support of Ciena and Cisco, the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA; www.oida.org) is organizing two special interest groups or “Communities of Interest” intended to reduce costs and improve performance of the communications value chain. The Test and Measurement for Optical Components (TMOC) group will address the high cost of testing in the optical component space, and the Electronics for Optics (EFO) group will look at issues regarding electrical components for next-generation optical subsystems, specifically involving complex modulation formats and higher-speed transmission.
The two groups will develop topics of interest for a workshop jointly sponsored by Cisco and Cienato be held in the second half of the year.
Fujitsu sues Tellabs over patents
Fujitsu has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Tellabs (Naperville, IL) for allegedly infringing on four optics-related patents. Fujitsu is seeking unspecified monetary damages and an injunction against Tellabs. The four patents in question – Nos. 5,526,163; 5,521,737; 5,386,418; and 6,487,686 – are all related to optical communications technologies, including intellectual property associated with synchronous digital hierarchy and dense wavelength-division multiplexing. Fujitsu representatives say the complaint follows numerous attempts by Fujitsu to engage in cooperative discussions with Tellabs in order to resolve Tellabs’ infringement activities.
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Also in the news . . .
Optical-fiber and system manufacturer Sterlite Technologies(Pune, India), earned net revenues of $126 million in Q3 2007-08, up nearly 60% compared to the same period last year. . . . Infinera (Sunnyvale, CA), reported record financial results for its Q4 and fiscal year ended Dec. 29, 2007, with revenues of $76.1 million compared to $62.2 million in Q3 2007 and $43.8 million in Q4 2006. . . . Oplink Communications (Fremont, CA), provider of photonic components, modules, and subsystems, reported consolidated revenues of $48.9 million for its Q2 fiscal 2008 ended Dec. 31, 2007, an increase of 113% over the $23.0 million reported for Q2 2007; the increase was helped by Oplink’s acquisition of the remaining 42% of Optical Communication Products by means of a merger. . . . OE Solutionsopened an office in Fort Lee, NJ, that will serve as its U.S. headquarters to better support its East coast North American, Canadian, and European customers; its Irvine, CA, office will continue to be a main location for applications engineering. . . . According to the latest Transceiver Market Forecast from LightCounting (Eugene, OR), global transceiver sales will grow steadily at 7% compounded annual growth rate, reaching $2.8 billion by 2011.