Mellanox to acquire IPtronics A/S

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX; TASE: MLNX) is getting serious about its optical transmission capabilities. A little more than two weeks after announcing its intention to buy silicon photonics stalwart Kotura (see “Mellanox to buy silicon photonics developer Kotura”), the storage networking company says it will write another large check for an optical technology company, privately held IPtronics A/S. Mellanox says its will pay approximately $47.5 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments, for the Danish developer of transmitter and receiver technology best known for its work in parallel optical array applications.

The boards of Mellanox and IPtronics have approved the details of the transaction, which Mellanox expects will close in the second half of this year. The company expects the transaction to be accretive to its full fiscal year 2014 earnings by approximately $0.01 to $0.03 per share on a non-GAAP basis.

IPtronics offers multichannel vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) drivers, modulator drivers, and transimpedance amplifiers (see, for example, “IPtronics intros four-channel 25G chipset for parallel interconnects”). IPtronics has already supplied products that Mellanox has used in its platforms. As was the case with Kotura, Mellanox believes the acquisition of IPtronics will help it support growing demands for optical interconnect at data rates of 100 Gbps and higher.

“The proposed acquisition of IPtronics is highly complementary with our recently proposed acquisition of Kotura. IPtronics’ parallel optical interconnect ICs further solidify our strategy to have a full end-to-end solution for the server and storage interconnect,” said Eyal Waldman, president and CEO of Mellanox Technologies.

Mellanox plans to establish its first R&D center in Europe at IPtronics’ current location in Roskilde, Denmark, and further expand its customer support presence within Europe. The company says it also will retain IPtronics’ existing product lines.

“This acquisition is important for both companies because it enables interconnect innovation for data centers that look for solutions that move data faster and more efficiently,” said Niels Finseth, co-founder and CEO, of IPtronics A/S. “We are delighted to join the Mellanox team and look forward to working together to drive the combined company’s further growth.”

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