Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX), a semiconductor company, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Catamaran Communications Inc., San Jose, California, a provider of integrated circuits for the next generation 40 Gbps and 10 Gbps segments of the optical networking market. Infineon will pay $250 million in common stock in connection with the acquisition.
Together with Catamaran, Infineon will have a complete line card solution, from the optics to the network processor interface. With the emergence of the optical transponder concept driving the convergence of the optical and IC technologies, strong synergies exist between Infineon's fiber optics and high-speed communications solutions and Catamaran's innovative synchronous digital hierarchy / synchronous optical network (SDH / SONET) and 10G Ethernet ICs. Together, these devices form the core of the complete end-to-end solutions for next generation optical networking systems.
Catamaran's multi channel 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps framer/mapper as well as 10 Gbps Ethernet digital wrapper products are positioned to address the fastest growing segments of these markets, including the emerging metropolitan area network (MAN) application.
Catamaran Communications is a Silicon Valley-based fabless communications semiconductor company focused on OC-768 (40 Gbps) and OC-192 (10 Gbps) SDH/SONET solutions. Catamaran is a supplier of system silicon solutions for high speed multi service optical networking systems. Catamaran has over 50 employees with a core competence in SDH/SONET, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), time division multiplexing (TDM), packet over SONET (PoS), and Ethernet, along with the capability to develop very large scale integration (VLSI) devices and system reference board designs. The company's products are targeted at the high-growth markets of terabit routers, add drop multiplexers (ADMs), dense wave division multiplexers (DWDMs), and digital cross connects (DCS). Catamaran's investors include Telesoft Partners and Redwood Ventures. Telesoft's investments include Cerent, Promatory and VxTel, and Redwood's portfolio includes Cyras, SwitchOn Networks and Stratum One.
Subject to approval by the relevant authorities, Catamaran will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Infineon. This will allow it to maintain its start-up approach, while capitalizing on the synergies with Infineon's existing wide area network (WAN), fiber optic and high-speed communication business units, as well as benefiting from Infineon's worldwide sales channels and global presence.
About Infineon:
Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for applications in the wired and wireless communications markets, for security systems and smartcards, for the automotive and industrial sectors, as well as memory products. For more information, visit www.infineon.com.