Infinera finds success with IPO
In its initial public offering Infinera (Sunnyvale, CA) raised $182 million, with share prices jumping 52% on the first day of trading. The company’s stock, which trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol “INFN,” was originally offered at $13 per share but traded as high as $19.70. The offering price gives the company an initial market capitalization of $1 billion.
Infinera, which makes all-optical chips and networking equipment, plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to augment working capital, for general corporate purposes, and for possible acquisitions. The company’s prospectus states that it is leading a market that will “change optical communications networks in a fashion similar to the integrated circuit’s impact on electronics beginning in the 1950s.” The company currently has 28 customers, including Qwest Communications and Level 3 Communications (the latter accounting for 75% of the company’s revenues).
RED-C and JDSU expand collaboration
JDSU (Milpitas, CA), an enabler of broadband and optical-networking technologies, and RED-C Optical Networks (RED-C; Tel Aviv, Israel), a provider of integrated optical subsystems based on optical-amplification technology, announced a strategic supply agreement to strengthening cooperation and business relations between the two companies. Pursuant to the agreement, RED-C has selected JDSU to be its main supplier for a broad line of optical components to be incorporated in its optical amplifiers and subsystems.
“Our growing business with JDSU is due to the top quality and reliability of JDSU optical components, which is consistent with RED-C’s own strong commitment to excellence in our integrated optical subsystems,” said Yossi Boker, RED-C president and CEO.
OFS invites optical-fiber collaboration
Optical fiber manufacturer OFS Specialty Photonics (Avon, CT) is inviting collaborators to develop new applications that are based on two breakthroughs from its laboratories in higher-order-mode (HOM) technology. According to David DiGiovanni, president, these new technologies help overcome barriers for advanced applications. “Fiber lasers are now optimized to the point where conventional approaches are running into some fundamental issues,” he said. “The way around these roadblocks is to exploit propagation in higher-order modes. There are two ways we are doing this: one is dispersion control and the other is ultra-large-mode-area (ULMA) fibers.”
Based on OFS Laboratories’ HOM fiber and mode-conversion technologies, the HOM-FemtoComp module has recorded the shortest pulse generation (60 fs) with the broadest spectrum (57 nm) from passively modelocked ytterbium fiber lasers demonstrated by Laser Zentrum Hannover. And, preliminary ULMA fiber has demonstrated the largest effective areas for robust propagation over long fiber lengths. OFS Specialty Photonics is now welcoming partners to guide designs for specific applications in the next stages of development. Potential collaborators should visit www.ofsoptics.com.
Infinera network helps XO win award
XO Communications’ (Reston, VA) Inter-City Network won an Eos Excellence of Achievement Award for Best Backbone/Core Network. The Eos Awards are awarded by NXTComm, a leading telecom industry trade show, to honor those companies that have developed the most promising new technologies or provided the best new network services and strategic support. XO Communications won this award for its nationwide deployment of advanced digital optical-network technology from Infinera (Sunnyvale, CA).
In related news, Deltacom (Huntsville, AL), a provider of integrated communications services to customers in the southeastern U.S., selected an Infinera Digital Optical Network for its 15,500-route-mile regional network, and EWE TEL (Cologne, Germany) selected Infinera as the optical backbone for its German network.
Also in the news . . .
Optical fiber manufacturer Sterlite Optical Technologies (Pune, India) was granted a U.S. patent for invention of its DOF-LITE (LEA) single-mode dispersion-optimized fiber having a higher spot area. . . . Avago Technologies (San Jose, CA) announced that it has closed its acquisition of Infineon Technologies’ polymer optical-fiber business unit based in Regensburg, Germany. . . . Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan (San Jose, CA) selected Foundry Networks (Santa Clara, CA) as the recipient of the 2007 Most Valued Product Award for its highly dense and feature-rich backbone and metro router families. . . . According to the “Passive Optical Network (PON) and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Equipment and Subscribers” report from research firm Infonetics (Campbell, CA), worldwide PON equipment sales sequentially grew 9% in the first quarter of 2007, reaching $336 million, and worldwide Ethernet FTTH equipment revenue was up 10% from the fourth quarter of 2006, hitting $81 million in the first quarter of 2007.