Rofin-Sinar to acquire Nufern
Laser and laser solutions provider Rofin-Sinar Technologies (RSTI; Plymouth, MI, and Hamburg, Germany) signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Nufern (East Granby, CT) as a wholly owned subsidiary of RSTI, in a cash transaction, expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.
Founded in 2000, Nufern manufacturs specialty fibers and fiber-laser modules. The company’s product lines comprise standard fibers and custom fiber solutions, including amplifiers, fiber-laser modules for use in material processing and in the telecommunications, military and defense industries. Nufern will continue to operate as a stand-alone company and will provide its products to its existing customers including other laser manufacturers.
Mobius licenses Harvard UV laser technology
Light-source manufacturer Mobius Photonics (Santa Clara, CA) entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) regarding U.S. patent 5,745,284. The patent is based on the pioneering work of Lew Goldberg, Dahv Kliner, and Jeffrey Koplow, and broadly covers ultraviolet (UV) laser sources based on the harmonic wavelength conversion of the output of a seeded amplifier, particularly a fiber amplifier.
Laura Smoliar, CEO of Mobius Photonics, said, “Because of the telecom bubble, the technology described in this patent lay dormant for years, but it is now commercially viable. Mobius has implemented it in products that allow laser-based manufacturers to meet the demands of higher-throughput, higher-quality, smaller feature size, and more-compact packaging.” Current Mobius products offer fundamental (infrared) and harmonically wavelength-converted (green and UV) lasers for applications in wafer singulation, material processing, semiconductor inspection and repair, and medical therapy.
Launch delayed for laser hair-removal device
Palomar Medical Technologies (Burlington, MA) and The Gillette Company (a wholly owned subsidiary of The Procter and Gamble Company) have agreed to extend the launch of a home-use, light-based hair-removal device for women until no later than Feb. 29, 2008. It is anticipated that a new agreement would include the release of Palomar from exclusivity and the retention by Gillette of nonexclusive rights to Palomar’s technology. Palomar anticipates a reduction in the percentage of net sales that Gillette pays to Palomar and a change from annual payments quarterly payments.
NASDAQ delists Coherent stock
Coherent (Santa Clara, CA) announced that its stock would be delisted Dec.19, 2007. In its decision, the Nasdaq board noted that the company has been out of compliance with Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(14), which requires the timely filing of reports with the SEC for a period of one year from the final due date of the company’s annual report. On Dec. 11, 2007, the company filed the 2006 10-K with the SEC, which was within one year from the date the 2006 10-K was due.
“We are puzzled at the Nasdaq’s hard-line approach and think it makes little sense to delist the stock when the company is on the verge of regaining compliance,” said John Harmon, senior financial analyst with Needham & Co (New York, NY). The delisting does not change Needham’s positive thesis or valuation of the stock.
LED Lighting Fixtures raises $16.5 million
Developer and marketer of what it calls “the first and only” viable light fixtures for general illumination from light-emitting-diode light sources, LED Lighting Fixtures (Morrissville, NC), raised $16.5 million in an equity financing round to significantly expand its product line and accelerate research and development efforts.
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Also in the news . . .
Novalux (Sunnyvale, CA) sold its Sunnyvale wafer fabrication facility and is now outsourcing its Novalux extended-cavity surface-emitting laser (NECSEL) wafer processing to large-capacity contract manufacturers in Taiwan as it transitions from low-volume prototype manufacturing to mass production of lasers. . . . Klaus Streubel and Stefan Illek from Osram Opto Semiconductors (Santa Clara, CA), together with Andreas Bräuer from the Fraunhofer Institute for Optics and Precision Engineering (Jena, Germany), were awarded the 2007 German Future Prize for thin-film chip technology and its application in the OSTAR family of LEDs. . . . Laser Energetics (Mercerville, NJ) and Lantis Laser (Denville, NJ) signed a memo of understanding to form a 50/50 joint venture to market and distribute Laser Energetics’ BrightStar alexandrite laser for dental applications. . . . Newport (Irvine, CA) opened its first manufacturing facility in China at Wuxi in order to offshore more mature, less differentiated products and gain substantial manufacturing economies. . . . Fiber-laser manufacturer SPI Lasers (Southampton, England), launched a new Web site at www.spilasers-china.cn that provides information on SPI’s lasers in the Chinese language.