EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. announced today that its affiliate, Burleigh Automation Inc., has signed an agreement to purchase substantially all of the assets of Vanguard Technical Solutions Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of DT Industries Inc.Vanguard, an automation equipment manufacturer in Tucson, Ariz., with about 20 employees, has been in operation since June 1999. It will be integrated into Burleigh Automation, a subsidiary of Burleigh Instruments Inc., which was acquired by EXFO in December 2000. This transaction fits with EXFO's overall corporate strategy to provide customers with a comprehensive solution for the assembly, alignment and testing of optical components and subsystems, said EXFO."As we are moving toward more complex, second-generation optical components, the combination of optical testing, automated process control and placement is the only option available to provide the required volume-cost curve required by manufacturers of optical components and subsystems," said Germain Lamonde, chairman, president and CEO of EXFO. "Combining Vanguard's technology and expertise in automation with Burleigh's nanopositioning fiber alignment systems and EXFO's automated test systems will allow component manufacturers to significantly increase yields and reduce costs on the production floor.The parties expect the transaction to close within 30 days. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The highlights of this transaction are available on EXFO's Web site, www.exfo.com, under Acquisitions in the Investors section.