News Briefs (March 21, 2006)

Iridex Corp. of Mountain View, Calif., a provider of semiconductor-based laser systems for the ophthalmology and dermatology markets, has appointed Deborah Tomasco as its new vice president of product innovation. Tomasco most recently served as president of InSync Solutions. Iridex also said it has completed the recruitment of its new marketing team with the hiring of Gregory Halstead and Laurel Burk. Halstead has seven years of marketing and engineering experience in the ophthalmic laser industry, including four with Visx Inc. Burk joins Iridex from Kyphon Inc., a company that makes devices to treat spinal fractures, where she worked in marketing for six years. . . . Telecommunications and consumer electronics components and subassemblies maker Nam Tai Electronics Inc. (Nam Tai) announced that it has increased the capacity of its surface mount technology (SMT) production lines to meet expansion of its fast-growing key component subassemblies business. Nam Tai has invested $3.4 million in three additional SMT production lines, increasing its production capacity from 910 million resistor capacitor chips per month to over one billion. On March 9, the company entered into a purchase and sale agreement to dispose of its unoccupied office space in Hong Kong for approximately $20 million. . . . Spirent Communications of Rockville, Md., and Adva Optical Networking, based in Mahwah, N.J., announced yesterday they will partner to provide Ethernet services. Spirent will integrate its service management and test operations support system with Adva's Etherjack demarcation and extension devices to cost-effectively manage automated, end-to-end testing for Ethernet services. The companies said the system will allow service providers to quickly isolate problems and determine whether they originate on the provider or customer network. The companies also said they plan to partner to develop solutions for advanced IP-based services such as voice over IP (VoIP).