17 June 2003 Eatontown, NJ Lightwave--Hitachi component spin-off Opnext today announced that it has acquired Pine Photonics Communications, a transceiver maker headquartered in Fremont, CA. This acquisition provides Opnext with advanced technologies in SONET/SDH and Ethernet optical transceivers, allowing the company to expand its portfolio of XAUI-based transponders and small-form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceivers, including modules for SONET/SDH (OC-3/STM-1 to OC-48/STM-16), Gigabit Ethernet, and Fibre Channel applications. Through this acquisition, existing Opnext and Pine Photonics customers will benefit from an extensive pluggable product portfolio and higher levels of customer service.
"The merger of Opnext and Pine Photonics brings together the strengths of two significant industry players," says Harry Bosco, Opnext president and chief executive officer. "Opnext is augmenting its proven track record in high-end optical components by leveraging Pine Photonics' expertise in low-cost design and manufacture. The acquisition allows Opnext to further expand its pluggable portfolio of products to include a complete range of high performance, low-cost, pluggable transceivers for datacom and telecom applications, such as, SFP, XFP and X2 transceivers. Most importantly, Pine Photonics shares our commitment to quality manufacturing processes that ensure reliable products. We are proud to offer our customers innovative optical-to-electrical solutions that will not only reduce costs but deliver efficiencies that help drive productivity gains."
Pine Photonics offers module-level products for metro and regional network system providers such as transceivers, transponders, and modulator bias controllers. The range of products includes SFP transceivers available with transmission distances ranging from 300 m to 80 km. SFPs give systems vendors the flexibility to design communications boards without the need to fuse transceivers onto the board during the manufacturing process. This benefit can significantly improve manufacturing efficiency and give service providers the flexibility to "plug-in" transceivers based on the speed or distance required. Pine Photonics also produces high quality XAUI-based 10-Gbit/sec pluggable transponders at a low cost. By integrating with Pine Photonics, Opnext can offer a comprehensive transceiver/transponder product family.
"The Pine Photonics team is very excited about joining forces with a global leader in high performance optical components," says Dr. Hsing Kung, chief executive officer and president of Pine Photonics. "The acquisition rounds out Opnext's product portfolio and will allow existing Pine Photonics customers to tap into the expertise and resources of Opnext. We believe this development is good for both Pine Photonics and Opnext, and will significantly benefit our telecom and datacom customers."