LASER 2005: Coherent acquisition

13 Jun 2005

LASER 2005 opens to the news that Coherent has acquired TuiLaser.

Coherent of the US has acquired TuiLaser and its subsidiary Bavarian Photonics, both of Germany, for EURO 22.5 million. The deal does not include TuiLaser’s other subsidiary Toptica Photonics, a diode laser specialist.

TuiLaser makes excimer lasers and recorded sales of EURO 24 million for its fiscal year ended September 2004. Bavarian Photonics specialises in OEM diode-pumped solid-state lasers.

Coherent booth

According to Julia Otto of Coherent, TuiLaser’s range of products is an ideal complement to Coherent’s existing offerings. “Coherent already produces high-power excimer lasers for applications such as TFT [thin-film transistor] annealing,” she told Optics.org. “TuiLaser makes low-power excimer sources so there is no product overlap.”

The deal gives Coherent a route into low-power medical applications such LASIK eye surgery.

“Joining forces with Coherent allows TuiLaser to further exopand its customer base and provides the scale necessary to grow the business faster than as a stand-alone entity,” said Martin Hohla, TuiLaser’s president.

The final details of the deal, such as future branding of TuiLaser and Bavarian’s products, have yet to be decided.

TuiLaser was founded in 1993 and is based in Munich. The company can be found in Hall B3 at stand 345. Coherent is also exhibiting in Hall B3 at stand 239.