Commentary

Goodbye Rofin and Newport…

May 4, 2016

In the last few months, I have seen a very different type of acquisition taking place--large public laser companies being acquired by large public companies.

Allen Nogee

Laser companies come in all sizes, with a handful of laser companies being very large and generally publicly owned, a few others that could be considered medium sized, and many others that are very small. Most of the small and medium ones have been around many years and they typically quite happily serve one or more niche laser segments. Occasionally one of these smaller laser companies get gobbled up by a larger laser company in an effort by the larger laser company to acquire new technology and potentially enter new markets

But in the last few months, I have seen a very different type of acquisition taking place: large public laser companies are being acquired by other large public companies. In February, MKS Instruments (NASDAQ: MKSI) announced that it was acquiring Newport (NASDAQ: NEWP) for $980M, and in March, Coherent (NASDAQ: COHR) announced it was acquiring Rofin-Sinar (NASDAQ: RSTI) for $942M. If large companies acquiring small laser companies are a good sign, then large companies acquiring large laser companies must be even better, right? Unfortunately that isn’t true--in fact it could be a ominous sign for the laser industry.

For more analysis of the impact of these acquisitions on the laser market--and the potential pitfalls--CLICK here for the full blog by Allen Nogee on the Strategies Unlimited website.

Related article:Coherent asks Rofin for its hand in marriage

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.