Business briefs

07 Jan 2005

Including news from Corning, Highwave, StockerYale, UDC, Konarka and more.

General company news:

•  Photop, a Chinese designer and manufacturer of photonics products, has established a European sales & marketing office in Traunstein, Germany. The office will support the firm's range of optics, fiber optics, laser, crystal materials and other photonics products, as well as OEM contract manufacturing.

•  The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has ruled that materials specialist Corning was not dumping standard single-mode optical fiber into the Chinese market. The ruling will see the immediate removal of the dumping margin of 16 percent applied against Corning imports since June 2004.

Acquisitions:

•  France-based fiber-optic component specialist Highwave has announced plans to buy out Northlight Optronics, the Swedish manufacturer of InP-based transmitters and receivers. Highwave Optical Technologies revealed that it has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Swedish firm's major shareholders in a deal expected to be worth 16 million Euros. Highwave's CEO Sylvain Boj said that Northlight's expertise in active optical components would complement his firm's knowledge in the passive device area.

•  Navitar, a manufacturer and supplier of optical lens systems with offices and subsidiaries in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, has announced its decision to end discussions with StockerYale, a US developer of optics and illumination components. The firms agreed to explore the feasibility of combining the two companies in November 2004. "Although we will be open to further discussions with Navitar, we will continue to search for other acquisition candidates," stated Mark Blodgett, chairman and CEO of StockerYale.

•  Advanced Photonix (API) of the US has acquired the outstanding stock of fellow Californian firm Photonic Detectors, an optoelectronic manufacturer, for the purchase price of $1,075,000 cash and 113,572 shares of API's common stock. "This acquisition furthers our strategy to broaden API's customer base in our target markets, specifically the commercial, industrial, medical and military segments," commented API's president Paul Ludwig.

Awards:

•  Universal Display Corporation, a US developer of organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology has won a US Army small business innovation research phase I award. The $69,999 award will be used to develop infrared phosphorescent OLEDs on metal foil for the military's current generation of night vision systems. If the technology proves feasible, the award could lead to a phase II program worth up to $750,000.

•  Konarka, a developer of flexible polymer photovoltaics with sites in the US and Europe, announced that it has been named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world. "We want to make portable renewable power practical, affordable and universally available for both the developing and developed worlds," said Konarka's chairman and CEO Howard Berke.

•  Canadian firm EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering's proprietary test method for characterizing polarization mode dispersion (PMD) has been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). "This method is the only test approach that is truly applicable, without any limits or restrictions, in all field-related PMD measurements," said EXFO's chief technology officer Gregory Schinn.