Commentary

Coherent asks Rofin for its hand in marriage

March 21, 2016

While Coherent (NASDAQ:COHR) and Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI) are clearly very different companies, both have faced the same problems for the last four years.

Allen Nogee

While Coherent (NASDAQ:COHR) and Rofin-Sinar Technologies (NASDAQ:RSTI) are clearly very different companies, both have faced the same problems for the last four years: their laser revenues haven’t grown much--averaging less than 2% growth per year. Admittedly this isn’t really either company’s fault, and it has to do more with the laser industry as a whole. These recent years have seen rapidly dropping laser prices, and a stagnation in some of the growth areas driving lasers. Of large laser companies, only IPG has managed to buck this trend.

This leads us to the recent news of Coherent’s intention to acquire Rofin. Is this a good match or a bad match, and how will this change both companies going forward if the merger is approved? As for fit, I think most people will agree that this is a very good match in terms of product mix and overlap. Coherent gets most of its industrial heritage from the flat panel display area, and its blend of ultrafast lasers, and from scientific and research markets. Rofin is the large industrial processing company with a strong presence in automotive and machine tools. No doubt there is some overlap in the micro processing area, and that is certainly something to watch going forward.

For more analysis of the acquisition of Rofin by Coherent, CLICK here for the full blog by Allen Nogee on the Strategies Unlimited website.

About the Author

Allen Nogee | President, Laser Markets Research

Allen Nogee has over 30 years' experience in the electronics and technology industry including almost 20 years in technology market research. He has held design-engineering positions at MCI Communications, GTE, and General Electric, and senior research positions at In-Stat, NPD Group, and Strategies Unlimited.

Nogee has become a well-known and respected analyst in the area of lasers and laser applications, with his research and forecasts appearing in publications such as Laser Focus World, Industrial Laser Solutions, Optics.org, and Laser Institute of America. He has also been invited to speak at conferences such as the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), Laser Focus World's Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar, the European Photonics Industry Consortium Executive Laser Meeting, and SPIE Photonics West.

Nogee has a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and a Master's of Business Administration from Arizona State University.