Emcore sees light at end of tunnel
Emcore Corp. (Somerset, NJ) reported revenues for its fiscal 2002 first quarter ended Dec. 31 of $19.1 million and a net loss of $17.7 million. In the corresponding quarter of fiscal year 2001, the company had revenues of $39.1 million and a net loss of $7.8 million. Emcore CEO and president Reuben F. Richards commented, "We anticipated that this quarter would be challenging as a result of delays in customer deployment of communications networks using Emcore's newly introduced fiberoptic transponders and transceivers, and customer cancellations and deferrals on MOCVD equipment. However, we are pleased to report a 108% sequential increase in sales of wireless materials and see encouraging signs of a recovery in this market. The company is also on track with its initiatives to decrease manufacturing costs and operating expenses in the new fiscal year." Based on current market conditions, the company anticipates that second-quarter revenues will increase 15% to 20% sequentially.
Missile-detection system completes tests
BAE Systems (Nashua, NH) tactical-aircraft directable infrared-countermeasure system (TADIRCM), a low-profile, laser-based IR countermeasure system, has successfully completed key tests for the U.S. Navy—including hostile-missile detection and jamming of both air-to-air and surface-to-air missile seekers. "TADIRCM will overcome a critical vulnerability for jet fighters operating in hostile territory," said Paul Egbert, infrared technology development manager for BAE Systems Information and Electronic Warfare Systems. "It will allow fighters to execute their missions more effectively at lower altitudes, with greater protection for the aircraft and flight crew."
Slight profit decrease at Rofin-Sinar
Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc. (Hamburg, Germany and Plymouth, MI) reported $48.7 million in net sales for the first quarter ended Dec. 31, a 9.4% decrease over the comparable quarter of fiscal 2001. Gross profit totaled $17.8 million, or 36.5% of net sales, compared to $21.0 million, or 39.0% of net sales in the comparable period of fiscal year 2001. The slight decrease in gross profit margin was caused by the product mix shift toward lasers for macro applications. Net income amounted to $300,000, or 0.6% of net sales, compared to $3 million, or 5.6% of net sales in the same period last fiscal year. "Under the given market conditions our results were very reasonable," said chairman and CEO Peter Wirth.
LaserComm secures $21 million in funding
LaserComm (Plano, TX) has secured $21 million in fourth-round funding from internal investors, led by Morgan Stanley Venture Partners (New York, NY and Menlo Park, CA) and Index Ventures (Geneva, Switzerland). The new capital will allow LaserComm to support its growing customer base, scale manufacturing, expand its dispersion-management product line, and introduce new products based on the company's core technology. In addition to the round's leaders, many of LaserComm's previous investors joined in, including Cedar Fund (Needham, MA), GE Equity (Fairfield, CT), Gilde Investment Funds (Utrecht, The Netherlands), Giza Group (Tel Aviv, Israel), and SSM Ventures (Memphis, TN). This additional funding brings LaserComm's cumulative financing to $77 million. Giuseppe Zocco, general partner at Index Ventures, joined LaserComm's board of directors with this round of funding. "Based on its unique technology, LaserComm provides a powerful and elegant solution to the problem of chromatic dispersion, which is already a key issue in today's 10-Gbit/s optical networks and will become even more critical in the emerging 40-Gbit/s optical networks environment," Zocco said.
Also in the news . . .
JDS Uniphase Corp. (Ottawa, Ont., Canada and San Jose, CA) has announced a family of temperature-tunable, directly modulated lasers (DMLs) and has added to its fixed-wavelength product line for metro, access, and CATV markets. . . . The IEEE (Piscataway, NJ) has named 2000 Nobel Physics Laureate Herbert Kroemer as recipient of the 2002 IEEE Medal of Honor for his pioneering work in heterostructure-based transistors and light-emitting devices. . . . Picolight Inc. (Boulder, CO) announced availability of the first long-wavelength (1310-nm) optical transceivers for metropolitan-access network and optical Ethernet applications. . . . Lumenis Ltd. (Tel Aviv, Israel) has signed an agreement with Boston Scientific Corp. (Boston, MA) for the exclusive distribution of its holmium lasers and accessories in Japan. . . . Cabletel Communications Corp. (Markham, Ont., Canada) has been appointed by fSONA Communications Corp. (Richmond, BC, Canada) as a prime distributor of fSONA's free-space optical transmission products to the cable television, broadcast, and enterprise markets in Canada and portions of the United States.