Enablence to Buy Albis

Enablence Technologies Inc., an Ottawa developer of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) transceivers for optical modems, announced Monday it will acquire Albis Optoelectronics AG, a Zurich, Switzerland, supplier of photodiodes for data-communications and FTTH markets, effective March 21.

Under their agreement, Enablence will acquire all the shares of Albis for $4,127,028.54 in cash and 1,889,686 in Enablence stock, at the average 10-day closing price of $1.10 per share, said Arvind Chhatbar, CEO of Enablence.

“This acquisition is part of Enablence’s plan to expand related product lines with a view to taking advantage of growing opportunities in the fiber-to-the-home market,” Chhatbar said. “Albis Optoelectronics is a well-established manufacturer of high-performance photodiodes that are critical for low-cost planar lightwave circuit (PLC) solutions. Albis‘ product lines complement Enablence’s PLC-based transceivers and business strategy in the expanding FTTH market.”

He said the transaction will provide Enablence with a portfolio of photodiode product lines, a diversified worldwide customer base, a fab capable of shipping 10 million chips per year and a presence in the European marketplace.

Enablence completed a a $15 million private-funding round in March that it said it would use to expand product lines, pursue new opportunities in the ftth market and for general working capital. The financing was led by Paradigm Capital Inc. and included Wellington West Capital Markets Inc. and Raymond James Ltd as syndicate partners.

Albis was founded in 2003 by Markus Blaser and Joerg Wieland after they acquired all of the assets associated with the photodiode business line of the former OptoSpeed. Albis products support 2.5, 4, 10 and 40 Gbit/s communication links as well as analog microwave applications. It offers full in-house production from front-end to back-end and includes a class 100 clean room and extensive test and qualification laboratories.

Enablence products are used in optical modems that are located inside homes for the delivery of high speed data/voice/video. Enablence designs and manufactures optical components, in particular triplexers and diplexers, using its PLC “dispersion bridge” platform. These devices are filters embedded on a chip that are capable of processing optical signals.

For more information, visit: enablence.com