STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 7 -- Transmode announced it has launched a new company, Transmode Inc., in Plano, Texas, where it has already established a sales office. Transmode and Lumentis, both Stockholm, Sweden-based optical equipment vendors, merged in March. Anders Lundberg, former CEO of Lumentis, will be CEO of Transmode Inc. and will relocate to Plano. "Developing our business in North America is the next major strategic step for Transmode following our merger with Lumentis," said Isaac Olasoko, Transmode CEO. "The region represents 39 percent of our global addressable market of $1.7 billion and is growing at 20 percent CAGR. We see strong signs of a sustained recovery in the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) market, driven by triple-play infrastructure build, demand for business Ethernet services and the growth of storage area networks. Now is the time to capitalize on this trend." Olasoko said the company also intends to enlist the support of its US-based investor, HarbourVest, to build relationships with North American customers and partners. Through the merger with Lumentis, the new Transmode brings a broad portfolio of optical networking products based on WDM technology that it says is well-suited to the North American market. "Transmode's WDM solution allows network operators to build metro rings in densely populated urban areas that require a high number of wavelengths delivered to a large number of network nodes," it said in a statement. Transmode is launching a product that allows the deployment of metro WDM nodes, enabling more economical backhaul of Gigabit Ethernet traffic generated by DSL and cable-based broadband access systems, at Supercomm 2005, being held this week in Chicago. For more information, visit: www.transmode.com