News in Brief

17 Jun 2002

This week's news in brief includes promising revenues, new facilities and industry mergers.

France-based Memscap has reported first-half 2001 revenues of Euro 6.1 million, a five-fold increase from the same period last year. The optical MEMS manufacturer has also cut losses by 73%.

Irish manufacturer of optical glass wafers for DVDs, Xonen Technologies, has opened a 20,000 sq. ft manufacturing facility in Ireland. Xonen's chief executive, John Quinn, says that company sales will reach Euro 173 million by 2004.

Stratos Lightwave, a US-based manufacturer of optical components, has opened a technology center in Seattle, US. The center will develop technologies for high-end fiber-optic communications in the storage-area network market.

US network infrastructure and optical components manufacturer MRV Communications plans to absorb its 92.3% owned fiber-optics subsidiary, Luminent. MRV's chief executive, Noam Loran, will lead Luminent and aims to enhance the company's technology.

Veeco Instruments, a US manufacturer of tools and equipment for optical telecommunications and semiconductors, is to buy molecular beam epitaxy equipment makers Applied Epi. Veeco, offering 4 million shares and USD 30 million, hopes to close the deal by the end of September.

US start-up Circadiant has won USD 10 million in its second round of funding. The developer of optical network testing equipment plans to deliver an automated, intelligent testing platform that is expected to cut vendor's manufacturing costs.