June 16, 2005, Anaheim, CA--Multi-Fineline Electronix (M-Flex), a provider of flexible printed circuit and value-added component assembly solutions to the electronics industry, has entered into an agreement with Applied Image Group (Rochester, NY) and its subsidiary, Applied Optics (Tucson, AZ), to purchase for approximately $6.3 million in cash substantially all of the assets of Applied Optics, which designs and manufactures optical and photonic imaging solutions.
M-Flex plans to operate the business as a wholly-owned subsidiary under the name Aurora Optical Inc. M-Flex also expects to hire the employees of Applied Optics and to continue to manage the business in a 45,000 square-foot facility in Tucson, AZ, where Applied Optics had been operating prior to the acquisition.
According to Philip Harding, M-Flex's chairman and chief executive officer, the purchased assets of Applied Optics include intellectual property comprised of patents and expertise related to the engineering, prototyping and manufacturing of optical components and photonic modules--such as those used in cell phones.
"This acquisition significantly expands our engineering expertise and manufacturing capabilities aimed at capturing a portion of the substantial market opportunity for high-quality cameras in cell phones, which continues to evolve," Harding said. "This additional optics design expertise and manufacturing capability, combined with our new wire-bonding assembly capability in China, will make it possible for us to offer cell phone manufacturers a competitively-priced, higher-quality, and eventually smaller-sized camera solution than what is currently available."
According to Harding, M-Flex's strategic objective with the acquisition is to become a major camera module integrator and assembler for leading OEMs and to capture a substantial portion of the expanding camera cell phone market, which is expected to include estimated shipments of over 600 million camera phones in 2007.