Coherent acquires product lines From StockerYale

Oct. 15, 2009

Coherent, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) has acquired the North American operations of StockerYale, Inc. (Salem, NH) in an asset purchase for $15 million dollars in cash.

John Wallace

Coherent, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) has acquired the North American operations of StockerYale, Inc. (Salem, NH) in an asset purchase for $15 million dollars in cash. Coherent acquired all the assets and certain operating liabilities of StockerYale's laser-module product line in Montreal, Canada and the specialty-fiber product line in Salem, New Hampshire. As part of the transaction, StockerYale retired its senior debt, totaling $3.6 million, as well as its line of credit for $3.5 million.

StockerYale will continue to operate both StockerYale Ireland (SYI; Cork, Ireland), which manufacturers LED systems based on its proprietary chip-on-board LED technology, and Photonic Products, Ltd. (PPL; Hertfordshire, England), which distributes premium laser diodes and manufactures custom laser modules. SYI and PPL represented approximately 47% of total StockerYale revenues in 2008.

"In acquiring these two product lines, we gain access to the machine vision market and expand our bioinstrumentation opportunities through the laser diode module business," said John Ambroseo, president and chief executive officer of Coherent. "We also add core fiber technology, which will improve our time to market and enhance both the performance and reliability of our fiber-based product platforms."

Mark W. Blodgett, chairman and CEO of StockerYale, said that "this transaction enables the Company to significantly reduce debt and focus its resources on growing both our LED systems and PPL businesses. With increased focus, we are confident that we can improve both growth and profitability of these two businesses."

About the Author

John Wallace | Senior Technical Editor (1998-2022)

John Wallace was with Laser Focus World for nearly 25 years, retiring in late June 2022. He obtained a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and physics at Rutgers University and a master's in optical engineering at the University of Rochester. Before becoming an editor, John worked as an engineer at RCA, Exxon, Eastman Kodak, and GCA Corporation.