OMRON to acquire NHK Spring's optical components business

AUGUST 31, 2006 -- OMRON Corp. (search OMRON) has reached a preliminary agreement with NHK Spring Co., Ltd. to acquire NHK Spring's fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) optical coupler business.

NHK Spring's optical coupler business includes the component micro-fabrication technologies and film deposition technologies required to produce high-performance quartz optical waveguides, as well as the development, manufacture, and sale of optical coupler modules that incorporate these optical waveguides.

NHK Spring is a key supplier of optical couplers in North America, with total sales of 1.3 billion yen in fiscal 2005. OMRON claims to be the first company to commercialize an optical coupler module incorporating proprietary stacked polymer optical waveguide technology and expects to enjoy substantial synergies through the NHK acquisition.

The FTTH market is expanding rapidly in Japan and the United States, and in future this growth is expected to extend into Europe and Asia. OMRON intends to combine NHK Spring's quartz optical waveguide technology with its own stacked polymer optical waveguide technology to create new high-performance, cost-competitive products that will reinforce its product lineup and expand its business in the FTTH optical coupler market. This agreement also is expected to help stimulate sales of OMRON's optical switches and CWDM mux/demux modules.

As a result of this acquisition and the synergies it is expected to generate, OMRON forecasts that its optical communications component business will achieve total sales in fiscal 2006 of approximately 2 billion yen. NHK Spring and OMRON are now working to finalize the details of this agreement, which is scheduled to take effect on November 1, 2006.

Visit OMRON

Find more FTTx news at Lightwave's FTTx Resource Center.