Emcore, Fabrinet seal JDSU acquisitions
May 31, 2005 Somerset, NJ and San Francisco, CA -- Emcore, a provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the broadband, fiber-optic, satellite, and wireless communications markets, announced that it has acquired JDS Uniphase's (JDSU's) analog cable TV (CATV) and radio frequency (RF)-over-fiber specialty businesses. In a separate announcement, Fabrinet, an engineering and electromechanical manufacturing services company, announced the closing of its acquisition of three JDSU manufacturing sites in Mountain Lakes and Ewing, New Jersey, and in Fuzhou, China.
According to a press release, Emcore acquires the assets of JDSU's CATV business, which had revenues of approximately $20 million over the prior completed four quarters. Emcore paid JDSU $1.5 million at closing and has agreed to purchase between $2.8 million and $3.8 million of components and parts for use in the manufacture of the acquired products over the next two years. Emcore will also assume some open purchase orders for inventory components, and will pay JDSU a royalty on licensed intellectual property. The acquired businesses will be a part of Emcore's fiber-optic operating segment; Emcore's management anticipates that the transaction will increase projected fiscal 2006 revenues by $10 to $15 million. The JDSU product lines involved in the transaction include: hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) 1550-nm broadcast transmitters, in both legacy and linearized optical modulated designs, to link between cable network head ends and hubs; 1310-nm transmitters linking cable network hubs and nodes; 1550-nm DWDM quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) transmitters; associated analog receivers; amplifiers for extending fiber network reach for FTTX applications, and radio frequency (RF) and microwave-over-fiber specialty products for defense and satellite communications. Emcore says it will continue to support all product lines.
As part of the transaction, Emcore and JDSU also entered into a bilateral "preferred supplier" commercial agreement, under which the companies will supply each other with various optical components.
Emcore says it will integrate the acquired businesses into its existing organization, which will be augmented by a select team hired from JDSU to continue the product design, marketing, sales, and application engineering functions for the acquired products. Emcore says it plans to establish a small design center in northern Pennsylvania, near several of its major CATV product customers.
Fabrinet says its acquisition of JDSU manufacturing sites in New Jersey and China serves to strengthen its position as a manufacturer of optical sub-assemblies, components, and modules by establishing it in the Chinese market, where it adds a manufacturing center of approximately 225,000 square feet. Fabrinet says the transaction also enhances its engineering and manufacturing technology base in optical amplification, optical bonding, crystal fabrication and standard borosilicate, clear fused quartz, and synthetic fused silica.
JDSU's Fuzhou operation, which employs over 500 engineers, technicians, and skilled operators, will retain the name Casix and continue in its present state to primarily manufacture crystals and precision optics for Fabrinet's internal consumption and external customers throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. The New Jersey sites are expected to consolidate into one location specializing in standard and synthetic glass products for the optical communications, medical, and industrial markets.