10 November 2003 Reston, VA and Petach-Tikva, Israel Lightwave--Civcom Inc., a provider of solid-state optical switching technologies, and XLight Photonics Inc., a supplier of widely tunable transponders, announced that the completion of their merger, which was first unveiled at the Supercomm tradeshow in June. The merger includes the closing of an additional round of financial investment from the companies' original venture capital investors.
Civcom and XLight have combined forces to focus on dynamic opto-electronic components and sub-systems. In contrast to traditional active and passive components, dynamic components are an emerging class of devices that allow customers to upgrade, migrate, and enhance their networks quickly, reliably and economically. The combined company's optical switches and transponders fill this niche by providing communications, test and measurement, and military customers increased flexibility through cost-effective solutions.
The company's products have been consolidated under three separate product lines. The Free-X family of all-optical switches supports high-performance optically switched networks, DWDM transport solutions, network monitoring, and test and measurement equipment. The Free-Light family of tunable transponders supports cost-effective inventory management as well as dynamic provisioning, burst switching and next generation protection and restoration applications. Custom Dynamic Solutions deliver innovative opto-electronic designs and products ranging from components, to modules to sub-systems.
The combined company has already made significant progress on streamlining the operations of both companies in an effort to reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and increase customer responsiveness. The companies have consolidated into a single facility in Israel that includes corporate headquarters, research and development labs, engineering, operations and manufacturing. The companies' global marketing efforts have also been combined to service its worldwide customer base for switches, transponders, and custom dynamic solutions.
Since the merger was announced, Civcom's Free-Light FL-TT-10G 10-Gbit/sec 300-pin MSA widely tunable transponder received the NFOEC Lightwave Attendees' Choice Award in the "Subsystems" category at the 2003 NFOEC show in Orlando, FL.
"The world is a different place now than when we launched Civcom and XLight several years ago. Instead of technology for technology's sake, today's focus is on providing products and solutions that improve performance and reduce costs, both from a capex [capital expenditure] and opex [operating expenditure] perspective. Civcom is committed to help its customers do just that, by offering increased flexibility through dynamic solutions" said David Mendlovic, Civcom's founder and chief executive officer.
"We are very pleased with the combined offering that Civcom and XLight bring to the market. Not only are their products, technologies, and management capabilities complementary, but the operational synergies and strengthened financial position ensure that Civcom will be a player in the optical market for many years to come," stated Avi Domoshevizki, general partner with Concord Ventures and an investor in the company.
The company will retain the Civcom name and Delaware incorporation, though the XLight moniker has been added to the company's new logo. Civcom will continue to maintain its U.S. headquarters in Reston, VA.