On the heels of the acquisition of Broadband Communications Products Inc. (BCP--Melbourne, FL) that

On the heels of the acquisition of Broadband Communications Products Inc. (BCP--Melbourne, FL) that established Uniphase Broadband Products, Uniphase Corp. (San Jose, CA) and JDS FITEL Inc. (Nepean, ON) announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement to combine the companies in a merger of equals. Based on January 27, 1999, closing prices, the transaction is valued at $6.1 billion. The merged company, JDS Uniphase Corp., will serve all major fiber-optic communications markets with global operations in eight countries. In addition, JDS FITEL is exercising an option to increase its ownership in IOT Integrierte Optik GmbH & Co. KG (Waghaeusel-Kirrlach, Germany) from 49% to 51%, obtaining a majority interest. Schott Glas (Mainz, Germany) will hold the remaining 49% of IOT. IOT designs and manufactures monolithic integrated optical couplers and splitters for telecommunications networks. JDS FITEL also completed the acquisition of assets from the Akzo Nobel Photonics business unit from Akzo Nobel Business Developments B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Akzo Nobel N.V. (the Netherlands). Finally, JDS FITEL will enter into a strategic alliance with AlliedSignal Inc. (Morristown, NJ) to further exploit the technology purchased from Akzo Nobel.