NEWS BUSINESS
Marlin-backed start-up Elenion targets silicon photonics
Elenion Technologies, a company backed by global investment firm Marlin Equity Partners, has emerged from stealth mode to reveal that it is developing silicon photonics technology and associated products. Elenion is developing next-generation
photonic integrated circuit technologies and products for a broad range of datacom and telecom applications. No technology or product details have been provided at this stage, but the seasoned team has strong credentials in silicon photonics, lasers, electronics and advanced optical packaging. Elenion has been incubated
alongside another Marlin property, Coriant, a global supplier of packet- optical networking and data centre interconnect (DCI) systems. Elenion continues as a separate business but Coriant appears well positioned to become its first customer. ‘Following over two years of focused
R&D, including extensive coordination with Coriant, we are excited with the progress that Elenion’s experienced team has demonstrated in the development of next-generation photonic integrated circuit products,’ said Doug Bayerd, a principal at Marlin. ‘Elenion is uniquely positioned to capitalise on one of the industry’s most promising technologies and accelerate the introduction of commercially-ready advanced communications solutions.’ The company appears to be an
evolution of another company from the Marlin portfolio, Silicon Lightwave Services, a photonics design services company that Marlin purchased in 2014. Elenion’s chief executive officer Larry Schwerin previously held the same role at Silicon Lightwave. The executive roster also includes
Michael Hochberg as Elenion’s chief technology officer. Hochberg co- founded two previous start-ups in the silicon photonics space – Simulant and Luxtera – and was also the director of the OpSIS foundry-access service, which created a global community of silicon photonic designers. OpSIS was the first organisation to offer silicon photonic multi-project wafer runs, which allows organisations to share the prototyping cost of silicon photonics integrated circuits. Elenion is headquartered in New York
with offices in San Jose, California and Munich, Germany.
10 FIBRE SYSTEMS Issue 14 • Winter 2017
Broadcom is broadening its business again. The semiconductor and fibre-optic
specialist plans to acquire Brocade, a leading vendor of storage networking equipment, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $5.5 billion, plus $0.4 billion of debt. The deal comes less than a year after the
company formerly known as Avago closed its $37 billion acquisition of Broadcom, creating the Broadcom we know today. Though this acquisition isn’t on the same scale, it represents a significant move up the value chain, as Brocade sells storage area networking (SAN) switching hardware rather than chips and components. Together, the companies hope to create one of the industry’s broadest portfolios for enterprise storage. ‘This strategic acquisition enhances Broadcom’s
position as one of the leading providers of enterprise storage connectivity solutions to OEM customers,’ stated Hock Tan, president and chief executive officer of Broadcom. ‘With deep expertise in mission-critical storage networking, Brocade
increases our ability to address the evolving needs of our OEM customers.’ The deal is all about storage networking;
Broadcom doesn’t plan to retain Brocade’s IP networking business. The companies will work together to find a buyer for that business, which consists of wireless and campus networking, data centre switching and routing, and software networking solutions, including the recently acquired Ruckus Wireless. The boards of directors at Brocade and
Broadcom have unanimously approved the transaction, expected to close in the second half of Broadcom’s fiscal year 2017. It is subject to the usual regulatory approvals and closing conditions as well as the approval of Brocade’s stockholders. The acquisition does not depend on the
successful divestiture of Brocade’s IP networking business. ‘We are confident that we will find a great home for Brocade’s valuable IP networking business that will best position that business for its next phase of growth,’ said Broadcom’s Hock Tan.
@fibresystemsmag |
www.fibre-systems.com
Broadcom buys Brocade for storage network switching
Semiconductor and optical supplier M/A-COM Technology Holdings are to buy AppliedMicro Circuits, in a cash and stock deal worth approximately $770 million. AppliedMicro develops semiconductors for connectivity and compute applications. MACOM wants to keep the connectivity business, but plans to divest the non-strategic compute business.
MACOM to acquire AppliedMicro AppliedMicro’s connectivity
portfolio includes OTN framers and MACsec Ethernet networking components and what they describe as the industry’s leading single- lambda PAM4 platform. The IEEE has recommended the adoption of AppliedMicro’s single-lambda PAM4 platform as an industry standard for enterprise and data centre connectivity. John Croteau, president
and CEO, said: ‘MACOM will now be able to provide all the requisite semiconductor content for optical networks – analogue, photonic and PHY – from the switch to fibre for long haul, metro, access, backhaul and data centres. … We expect that this will establish MACOM with an incumbent position supplying strategic components and enterprise and cloud data centre customers.’
Ken Wolter/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
