December 2, 2005 Sunnyvale, CA -- Finisar, a provider of Gigabit fiber-optic platforms for data networks, has acquired all of the optical transponder assets of Big Bear Networks, for $1.9 million in cash.

The assets purchased include equipment, inventory, and intellectual property associated with Big Bear's 10-Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Xenpak and X2 transponders, as well as Big Bear's 40-Gbit transponder, which has already been qualified by a number of telecom equipment companies.

"This acquisition expands our 10-Gigabit product offerings and adds new 40G transponders to our product line. The 10G transponders include the industry's most effective dispersion compensation solution that extends the transmission distances over both multimode and singlemode fibers," comments Jerry Rawls, Finisar's president and CEO. "Furthermore, the 40G transponders put us at the forefront of higher speed optical transmission products. Industry analysts predict that sales of 40-Gigabit transponders will expand dramatically by 2008, and we will be there to meet that demand."