Fiberoptics Industry Report

Bookham buys Measurement Microsystems to strengthen product linesIntegrated-optical-component specialist Bookham Technology (Oxfordshire, England) acquired privately held Measurement Microsystems A-Z Inc. (Quèbec City, Que., Canada) in a deal worth up to $47.5 million in cash and stock. Bookham says it will combine Measurement Microsystems' algorithms for optical signal extraction with its own dense wavelength-division-multiplexing technology to enable the production of cheaper and smaller optical components. Bookham designs, manufactures, and markets components that integrate optical processing functions on a single silicon chip. Measurement Microsystems spun off from the University of Quèbec in late 1997 to develop solutions for light spectrum measurement. The integration of its optoelectronic technology with Bookham's is expected to hasten development of all-silicon optoelectrical circuits.Agilent acquires Silicon Microsystem to extend fiberoptic capabilitiesAgilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA) will acquire Gefran Silicon Microsystem S.r.l. (Provaglio d'Iseo, Italy), a fiberoptic-technology laboratory, for approximately $55 million in cash. Silicon Microsystem is an operation of Gefran Sensori S.r.l., part of Gefran S.p.A. (Provaglio d'Iseo, Italy). The northern-Italy-based Silicon Microsystem will become a natural extension of Agilent's Turin Technology Center (TTC), itself a recent acquisition within the Network Solutions Division of Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group.Physical Optics spins off Broadata for fiberoptic products focusPhysical Optics Corp. (Torrance, CA) spun off its fiberoptic communications group by creating Broadata Communications (Torrance, CA), a privately held company that manufactures and markets fiberoptic communication products. This move is the fourth technology company created by POC to fully focus on commercial product offerings. Broadata will expand its products, including fiber-route protection switch-mode converters, transceivers, and WDM links with a new StarWeb line to meet rapidly growing metro and enterprise access demands in the optical network market.CODEON's new facility launches high-speed component productionCODEON Corp. (Columbia, MD) opened a new 55,000-sq.-ft. state-of-the-art headquarters and manufacturing facility to aggressively expand production of its core product portfolio, including its 10-Gbit/s and 40-Gbit/s external amplitude modulators. The new facility adds expansive clean rooms for much-needed wafer fabrication and component assembly.Flextronics acquires Wave Optics and Fico Fiber OpticsFlextronics International (Singapore) has expanded its photonics business through acquisition of Wave Optics Inc. (Mountain View, CA) and Fico Inc. (Westford, MA). "We are building the most technologically comprehensive service offering in photonics and optics and are uniquely positioned to fully capitalize on the explosive growth in optical networking," said Ron Keith, VP and general manager of Flextronics Photonics (San Jose, CA).Also in the news . . . Hitachi Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) transferred its fiberoptic components business to OpNext Japan (Tokyo, Japan), a subsidiary Hitachi first established in 2000. . . . Startup nLight Photonics gained $44 million in second-round financing to develop its pump-laser technology and expand its manufacturing in Seattle, WA and Vancouver, Canada. . . . JDS Uniphase (San Jose, CA) opened a 320,000-sq.-ft. facility in Shenzhen, China to expand its variety of passive optical components into additional lines of active components and modules. . . . Confluent Photonics (Andover, MA), a newly formed developer of wafer-scale integrated optical components, raised $11 million in first-round funding led by InnoCal Venture Capital. . . . Semiconductor and communications systems provider Mitel Corporation (Kanata, Ont., Canada) acquired a stake in Optenia, a new photonics company that pools financial, technological and human resources from Mitel, the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, and other investors, to reduce bandwidth-distribution costs in optical networks. The new company will initially be located in Mitel headquarters.

John Grady