NeoPhotonics agrees to acquire Santur

NeoPhotonics Corp. (NYSE: NPTN) says it has agreed to purchase Santur Corp. for approximately $39.2 million in cash with an eye toward expanding its photonic integrated circuit (PIC) capabilities. Santur is best known for its Indium Phosphide (InP) work, particularly in tunable lasers as well as laser arrays.

In addition to the $39.2 million, the agreement calls for NeoPhotonics to pay as much as $7.5 million in additional cash contingent on the financial performance of Santur products through the end of 2012.

The privately held Santur most recently made the news as the first company to supply 100-Gbps transceivers that comply with the 10X10 MSA (see “Santur 10X10 MSA 100-Gbps CFP optical modules now generally available”). The fiber-optic transceiver modules benefit from Santur’s laser array technology and will complement NeoPhotonics’ activities in this area. However, NeoPhotonics also sees synergies between Santur’s coherent technology expertise and its own.

“Santur has developed innovative InP-based photonic integration products that are critical elements in 100G coherent transmitters and that complement the NeoPhotonics PIC-based 100G coherent receiver product line,” said Tim Jenks, chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “By combining active InP PICs from Santur with our hybrid PICs, we can provide our customers with new products for 100G coherent systems that feature higher levels of integration, higher performance, and greater functionality. Furthermore, Santur’s advanced tunable laser products also fit with our Speed and Agility product lines, enabling us to provide customers more complete solutions for reconfigurable networks.”

“Our InP PIC technologies form the foundation for our line of innovative products that we have successfully developed and sold to leading customers around the world. We believe that the combination of our technology and products with complementary technology and products from NeoPhotonics can provide compelling value to our customers. This is a case of the sum being much greater than the parts, and we believe that NeoPhotonics represents an excellent strategic fit for Santur,” said Paul Meissner, president and CEO of Santur.

Santur generated revenue of approximately $21 million for the six months ending June 30, 2011. The board of directors and stockholders of Santur have approved the transaction. The parties expect the transaction to close in the fourth calendar quarter of 2011.