Business briefs

14 Feb 2003

Including news from Coherent, Positive Light, Quantel, GSI Lumonics, Kopin and more.

•  Coherent is to acquire fellow US laser maker Positive Light for an undisclosed cash sum. The transaction is expected to close at the end of March 2003. Positive Light, which specializes in advanced solid-state lasers, will continue to operate from its base in Los Gatos, California.

•  Quantel, the French laser manufacturer, has announced annual sales of EURO 34.5 million for 2002, up 8.7% from the previous year. The company saw the biggest increase during its fourth quarter, when sales rose 20% compared with the same quarter in 2001. Big Sky Laser, the company's US subsidiary, recorded annual sales over USD 10 million for the first time.

•  Kopin, a US maker of device wafers, has reported a fourth quarter revenue of USD 16.5 million, representing a 6.8% increase year-on-year but a sequential drop of 24.6% from the previous quarter. The company's annual revenue came in at USD 76.8 million, an increase of 48% over the 2001 figure of $51.9 million.

•  Eblana Photonics of Ireland has secured USD 4.5 million in venture capital funding. This brings the total funds raised by the company up to USD 7.75 million. Eblana, which was founded in December 2000, makes advanced laser products for broadband access communications.

•  GSI Lumonics, Canada, has moved all its laser product lines to its facility in Rugby, UK. "The goal was to bring the design, development and manufacture of our laser sources portfolio under one roof, which has allowed us to reduce costs," said GSI's laser group engineering manager Emrys Jones. The move does not affect the company's components and systems manufacturing.

•  Newport, US, has opened a 42 000 sqr. ft. optics manufacturing facility in Irvine, California. The new factory will support the manufacture of standard and high-precision optic products.

•  Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and BenQ of Taiwan have teamed up to establish an optical storage company. The joint venture company, called Philips BenQ Digitial Storage, will be based in Taipei and will begin operating in March. The company will define product roadmaps and research new optical standards.