EXFO records sales growth for two quarters in a row
EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering (Quebec City, Canada) recorded sales growth for a second consecutive quarter with the release of fourth quarter and fiscal 2002 financial results. Sales increased 5% to US$17.2 million in the fourth quarter ended Aug. 31 from US$16.3 million in the third quarter. These latest sales figures, however, are still down from US$35.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2001. Overall for fiscal 2002, sales reached US$68.3 million compared to US$146.0 million in 2001. "Fiscal 2002 has been the most challenging in my 17 years at the head of EXFO due to the unprecedented upheaval in the telecommunications industry," said Germain Lamonde, chairman, president and CEO.
Communication Dynamics files for Chapter 11 relief
Communication Dynamics (CDI; Anville, PA), parent company of TVC Communications, a leading distributor of products used to build and maintain cable television systems and of Amherst FiberOptic, exclusive North American distributor for Ericsson Network Technologies (Stockholm, Sweden) announced that it has begun the process of restructuring its debt and operations by filing for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The filing will enable CDI and its operating subsidiaries to focus on its core operations and serving the needs of customers while it develops and implements a plan of reorganization to provide a suitable capital structure for long-term growth.
Lumenon Innovative Lightwave to reduce work force
Citing the protracted downturn in the fiberoptic communications market and the uncertainty surrounding the pace of the recovery, Lumenon Innovative Lightwave Technology (Montreal, Canada) plans to reduce its workforce by 37 through temporary layoffs. This announcement comes just two weeks after Lumenon secured a $14 million financing commitment from a private institutional investment fund. The company expects to incur an additional accounting charge in connection with the layoffs; however, the magnitude and timing of the accounting charge will depend upon the duration of the layoff.
HighWave Optical cuts workforce by two-thirds
HighWave Optical Technologies (Lannion, France), a supplier of dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) subsystems for high-speed optical telecommunication infrastructures, will reduce its workforce by 109, leaving the company with 58 employees. According to Eric Delevaque, chairman and CEO, sales revenue forecasts for the current fiscal year (ending March 31) include 80% prototype shipments, which are needed to build the second generation of optical networks, resulting in significant volume orders after 2004.
Bookham collaborates with Cierra Photonics
Bookham Technology (Oxfordshire, England) and Cierra Photonics (Santa Rosa, CA) are collaborating to boost the functionality of WDM products. The two-part technology and commercial collaboration, which runs for two years, is intended to bring the benefits of high integration-based functionality to optical add/drop multiplexers (OADMs) and other WDM devices. Bookham Technology is contributing its ASOC design and manufacturing technology for fabricating integrated optical circuits on a silicon substrate, plus its integrated GaAs and InP tunable lasers and modulators. Cierra Photonics brings to the association its range of thin-film filters, based on the company's Advanced Energetic Deposition (AED) technology. In the second part of the collaboration, Bookham Technology will exclusively distribute Cierra Photonics' complete range of optical channel filters in Europe.
Also in the news . . .
Cube Optics (Munich, Germany) has raised $9.86 million in a second round of financing. . . . The board of directors of Finisar (Sunnyvale, CA) has adopted a stock purchase rights plan intended to guard against any potential use of take-over tactics designed to gain control of Finisar without paying all stockholders full and fair value. The distribution of the rights is not in response to any proposal to acquire Finisar nor is the board aware of any such effort. . . . ADC (Minneapolis. MN) has decided to exit its optical components business and will sell or close these product lines. . . . ITF Optical Technologies (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) was awarded a contract by Corvis (Columbia, MD) to test the response of optical fiber to high-power in conjunction with mechanical stresses. . . . OMM (San Diego, CA), has announced that Vectronics (Herzelia, Israel), will become the sole distributor for OMM products in the Israeli market. . . . 3SAE Technologies (Woburn, MA) has announced that Linsang Manufacturing (LMI; Beltsville, MD), will be the exclusive contract manufacturer of 3SAE's automated optical fiber solutions through 2004.