JDSU Acquiring Picolight

JDSU today announced it will acquire Picolight Inc. of Louisville, Colo., a manufacturer of optical pluggable transceivers, for as much as $125 million in a stock-and-cash deal.

Under the agreement, JDSU, a maker of communications test and measurement solutions and optical products for the telecommunications industry, will acquire venture-funded Picolight for approximately $115 million in JDSU stock, plus as much as $10 million in cash if the company achieves certain revenue goals during 2007. The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close by June 30.

Picolight developed vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL technology, which is used in high-speed and short-to-medium distance optical interconnects. JSDU said the addition of Picolight's 850-nm and 1310-nm VCSEL-based transceivers to JDSU's data communications products will strengthen its ability to address the fast-growing market for optical interconnect applications in the datacenter, enterprise, storage area and metro networking markets.

"By adding Picolight's vertically integrated VCSEL-based transceivers, JDSU will offer our enterprise customers an even broader product portfolio and an exceptionally strong roadmap to address the steep demand for reliable data management and delivery. This will put JDSU in an excellent position to serve existing and near-term requirements for 8- and 10-Gigabit network data management," said Mike Ricci, senior vice president of JDSU's optical communications group. "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."

For more information, visit: www.jdsu.com