After pressure from Deutsche Telekom's 20-strong supervisory board Ron Sommer resigned after seven years as CEO. DT is Europe's largest telecoms operator. But, after a two-year expansion strategy of costly acquisitions and investments in German 3G mobile phone licenses, it has EUR67.3bn of debt and its share price has dropped almost 90%. The company lost EUR3.5bn last year (its first annual loss since partial privatisation) and EUR1.8bn in Q1/2002 alone. Ex board head Helmut Sihler, 72, has been appointed as caretaker CEO.
Administrators KPMG were aiming to sell the business and assets of the Optical Micro Devices, Swindon, UK, (www.omd-fab.com) by 31 July. Formed in September 1999, OMD was the first 8-inch wafer foundry dedicated to optoelectronics. Its GBP15m facility was only opened in May 2001. Products include silica-on-silicon planar lightwave circuits and silicon-based microbenches.
Infineon Technologies' sales for its fiscal Q3/2002 (to end-June) were EUR1.4bn (up 1% on Q2 and 10% on a year ago). Net loss was EUR76m (down from EUR108m in Q2 and EUR371m a year ago). Its Impact cost savings program targets have now been achieved. "We increased revenues as well as improved our earnings in communications and automotive electronics," said president and CEO Dr Ulrich Schumacher.
Bookham Technology is closing two of its four manufacturing facilities in Maryland, USA and Swindon, UK, by end-Q3/2002, involving the loss of about 70 jobs and exceptional charges of GBP8 to 12m. It is currently trying to sell the properties. Bookham says that it can now handle component production rates of GBP200m at Milton, Abingdon, UK, and similar levels at Caswell, UK.
UK components start-up ProtoDel International Ltd has laid off its entire staff and may go into administration. This comes after the withdrawal of its existing investor, venture capitalist MTI, from second-round funding.
The quality management systems of Pandatel AG, Germany, has been certified in compliance with the DIN EN ISO 9001: 2000 standard.
Livingston Group has agreed to provide NetTest's CMA5000 Multi-Layer Network Test Platform to the UK marketplace. Livingston specialises in managing the outsourcing of technology tools and services for electronics and communications test equipment and IT systems.
Alcatel has a multi-million euro frame agreement with H3G to implement its backbone and metro transmission networks in Italy. Alcatel will supply its DWDM and SDH multi-service transport systems and its new generation of SDH microwave radio systems to support broadband and UMTS-based third-generation mobile services. Spanning about 6,000km from Turin to Palermo, the national backbone will deploy Alcatel's DWDM system - supporting up to 32 channels at up to 10Gbit/s - and SDH Optical Multi-Service Node systems.
CyOptics is to provide foundry services for 1310nm and 1550nm indium phosphide laser wafers to Zia Laser, a developer of quantum dot laser technology for 1310nm GaAs-based and 1550nm InP-based QD semiconductor lasers. CyOptics will collaborate with Zia Laser to develop the processes required to commercialise QD-based 1550nm tunable gain lasers and 1310nm uncooled lasers.
Optune, Montreal, Canada, has been spun off from StockerYale Inc. It has also begun discussions with a potential shareholder. Optune exhibited its new class of tunable optical filters at SuperComm 2002. StockerYale formed Optune Technologies to develop a new class of tunable optical filters (see the ECOC 2002 technology preview on page 28).
Anritsu US has announced an OEM agreement to integrate Sniffer technology into the company's MD1230A Data Quality Analyzer. The OEM agreement creates a premier test instrument solution for manufacturers, service providers, government agencies and system integrators worldwide, the company claims.
London-based Interoute has chosen Cisco Systems' next-generation Internet routers and switches to deploy multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology at the core of its pan-European IP network, which connects 45 cities in nine countries across the continent.
Meanwhile, Interxion is to provide co-location services in its facilities within the footprint of Interoute's network to support the roll-out of the latter's metropolitan area networks (MANs).
OpsiTech SA has expanded its measurement and test capability. New environmental and endurance test equipment enable the entire OpsiTech AWG Mux/Dmuxes and high-port interleavers product range to be tested for compliance with customer requirements such as the Telcordia GR-1221 standard.