Business briefs

08 Aug 2003

Including news from Coherent, Avanex, GSI Lumonics, Rofin-Sinar and more.

•  Coherent, US, has completed its tender offer for the outstanding shares of its Germany-based subsidiary Lambda Physik. Coherent says it now owns a total of 93.95% of Lambda’s registered shared capital and is pushing to achieve 95% ownership. If Coherent gets past this mark, it can call a special shareholders meeting where it can “adopt a squeeze-out resolution to acquire 100% ownership.”

•  Avanex, the Californian maker of optical components, has reported its financial results for its fourth quarter ended June 30. The firm, which recently purchased Alcatel Optronics and Corning's photonic technology business, achieved a revenue of $5.5million, a decrease of $2.5million over same period last year. Net loss for the quarter was $6.6million.

•  Rofin-Sinar, the German provider of industrial lasers, has reported net sales of $64 467 for the three months ended June 30, a rise of 16% over the same period in 2002. However, much of the rise can be attributed to the weakness of the US dollar against the EURO which Rofin says had the effect of increasing net sales by $8million.

•  GSI Lumonics, the Canadian supplier of materials processing equipment, has withdrawn its plans to become a public-traded US-domiciled corporation. GSI had planned to have a meeting with shareholders to vote on the matter on August 4, but cancelled it when it became apparent that the motion would not have sufficient votes to pass.

•  Screen Technology, UK, has received a EURO 1.07 million grant from the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry. The company will use the cash to develop its ITrans know-how, a seamless tiling technology used to produce large-screen liquid-crystal displays.

•  Genoptix, a US developer of optical technologies for cellular analysis, has received a $750 000 phase 2 contract from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The San Diego-based company will plough the funds into developing its optophoresis technology, which uses a near-infrared laser to sort complex biological, cellular and environmental samples, including biological warfare agents.