JDSU acquires Picolight

FEBRUARY 27, 2007 -- JDSU (search for JDSU) today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Picolight Inc. (search for Picolight), designer and manufacturer of optical pluggable transceivers. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter ending June 30, 2007, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals. Â
 
Per the agreement, JDSU will acquire Picolight for approximately $115 million in JDSU stock, plus up to an additional $10 million in cash subject to the achievement of certain revenue targets during calendar year 2007.
 
The acquisition supports JDSU growth and margin expansion initiatives with what the company claims is a best-in-class vertically integrated manufacturing model. With the addition of Picolight's high-growth pluggable optics technology, JDSU strengthens its ability to address the fast-growing market for optical interconnect applications in the data center, enterprise, storage area, and metro networking markets.Â
  
With over 1 million small form-factor pluggable products shipped, Picolight has been an active player in the development of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (search for VCSEL), a key technology used in high-speed and short-to-medium distance optical interconnects. The addition of Picolight's 850- and 1310-nm VCSEL-based transceiver products to JDSU's current data communications product portfolio brings innovative technology with the performance, reliability, and manufacturability needed to address a range of markets, say company representatives.
 
In an emailed response to Lightwave editors this morning, company spokesperson Noel Bilodeau confirmed that JDSU will continue to pursue Picolight's long-wavelength VCSEL work. (When JDSU acquired E2O Communications in May 2004, the company shelved E2O's long-wavelength VCSEL program.) Bilodeau noted that the previous IBM and E2O acquisitions enabled JDSU to enter the datacom space and positioned JDSU as the #2 player in the storage area networking space. "With Picolight, we will be acquiring an asset that has well-established vertical integration, key strategic partnerships on IC development and manufacturing, and an already established off-shore contract manufacturing-based footprint. Picolight will further strengthen JDSU's datacom business from a product, technology, and business model," she wrote.
 
"The combination of Picolight's VCSEL and datacom expertise with JDSU's global reach and resources will put a compelling new competitive presence in the market," adds Steve Hane, Picolight's president and chief executive officer. "We believe we have an opportunity to alter the datacom optics landscape by creating a best-in-class product portfolio for data centers and enterprise networks worldwide."
 
Mike Ricci, senior vice president of JDSU's optical communications group, believes that the Picolight acquisition "puts JDSU in an excellent position to serve existing and near-term requirements for 8- and 10-Gigabit network data management. By adding to our vertically integrated photonics platform, we also will provide our customers a clear pathway and solid foundation to scale to 100 Gigabits in the future," he says.

 
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