Intel Sells Optical Assets

Emcore Corp., a maker of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the broadband, fiber optic, satellite and terrestrial solar power markets, announced it will acquire the enterprise and storage assets of Intel's optical platform division and its Connects Cables business, for 3.7 million shares of stock.

The assets include intellectual property, inventory, fixed assets and technology relating to optical transceivers for enterprise and storage customers and optical cable interconnects for high-performance computing clusters. Intel's silicon photonics and USB 3.0 IP are not included in the agreement. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.

Emcore said the acquisition will enhance its optical communications business, especially in the areas of 10 Gigabit Ethernet and storage area network transceivers.

Emcore acquired the telecom-related portion of Intel's Optical Platform Div. in February in an $85-million cash/stock deal. (See Emcore to Buy Intel's Telecom)

"Following the successful acquisition of the telecom-related assets of Intel's optical platform division., this second acquisition from Intel enables Emcore's Fiber Optics to be a significant supplier for both telecom and datacom products," said Reuben F. Richards, executive chairman of Emcore. "This acquisition will provide additional manufacturing efficiencies through economies of scale and vertical integration, benefiting our enterprise, storage, telecom, cable and high-performance computing customers."

The company said it projects the acquisition will add $45 million in revenue for the next 12 months, increase its gross margin from 23 to 29 percent and be accretive to earnings. It projected that the Intel Connects Cables business, provides technology for high-performance computing cluster interconnect applications which uses embedded parallel optical transceivers with a multimode fiber ribbon, to have gross margins over 50 percent and to be the fastest-growing segment of the acquired assets.

"Customers are driving consolidation and vertical integration in the optical communications market segments," said Doug Davis, vice president, Intel Digital Enterprise Group and general manager of its Embedded and Communications Group. "We will work together to complete a smooth transition of these businesses, building on the experience in the telecom optical components acquisition."

Intel said the sale will allow it to focus its investments on core communications and embedded market segments in line with its platform strategies. It said it will continue its efforts on the universal serial bus (USB) 3.0 specification, which it said will support optical and silicon photonics research and development.

Emcore also announced recently that Reuben Richards was elected to the newly created position of executive chairman. Thomas Russell, previous chairman, will remain on the board as chairman emeritus. Hong Hou, currently president and chief operating officer, succeeded Richards as CEO and will continue to report to Richards.Richards and Hou will be active in different aspects of running the company, Emcore said. It also announced that Thomas Werthan, a member of its board, has resigned.

For more information, visit: emcore.com