NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
KEY DEVELOPMENTS OF 2021
Some of the most-viewed and industry-shaping stories of 2021
JANUARY Looking back at this very same
feature from last year, it was apparent that there was an appetite for news surrounding mergers and acquisitions. Aſter 12 months, several lockdowns, supply chain issues and other pandemic- related challenges, it’s clear that the acquisition trail is still one of the hotest topics for our readers, as evidenced by the most popular stories in January. It may be litle surprise to
note that the most-read story on the Fibre Systems website in January 2021 was the news that Lumentum had bid to acquire Coherent for $5.7bn, bringing the later’s photonics and lasers businesses into the former’s telecom, datacom, and 3D sensing photonics businesses. Alan Lowe, Lumentum
president and CEO said at the time: ‘Coherent brings one of the most recognisable and respected brands in the photonics industry and a very talented and innovative team. By increasing our scale, expanding our portolio, and bolstering our R&D capabilities at a time when global markets are increasingly relying on photonics products and technologies, we are confident in our combined ability to pursue exciting new growth opportunities.’ Of course, this was not to be
the end of the story, and there will be more on that as we move through the year. But it was interesting to note that the other story with which our readers most widely interacted was the news of a report published by Bloomberg Intelligence (BI), which said that consolidation could make a comeback in the European telecom market for 2021. Te Europe
Telecommunications 2021 Outlook report said that the sector could see the return of market consolidation with carriers looking to test EU regulators following the court challenge to the EU’s decision to block the Tree-O2 deal. Due to the pandemic, it was predicted that the previously strict merger and acquisition (M&A) regulation could be loosened a litle, with mergers in the telecom sector looked upon ‘more favourably’ by regulators than before.
FEBRUARY Te race to acquire Coherent
took another turn in February as both MKS Instruments and II-VI announced that they too had made an offer for the laser technology firm. MKS Instruments made a $6bn acquisition proposal, and under II-VI’s initial proposal, Coherent’s shareholders would receive $130 in cash and 1.3055 II-VI common shares for
each Coherent share. Te deal would work out at around $6.4bn. Vincent Matera, chief
executive officer at II-VI said: ‘We firmly believe our proposal is far superior to Coherent’s existing merger agreement with Lumentum and the recent acquisition proposal from MKS Instruments, as it is a more compelling strategic fit and would provide Coherent’s shareholders with meaningful upside opportunity. Moreover, we are confident that our transaction would have greater certainty of closing. In particular, we have not identified any competitive overlaps between Coherent’s and II-VI’s respective businesses in China. We believe we would have significant and diversified opportunities to accelerate our growth through complementary technology platorms, to increase our competitiveness by using scale across the value chain, to demonstrate deeper market intelligence and expertise, and to further diversify our businesses and revenue streams.’ However, this story was set to
run for a litle while longer... Also widely-read in February
was the news that EllaLink completed the marine installation stage of its trans-Atlantic cable system between Europe and Latin America. Te EllaLink submarine cable
system is a four-fibre-pair submarine system designed to satisfy the demand for traffic between Europe and Latin America. Linking data centres in Madrid, Lisbon, Marseille, Fortaleza and São Paulo, it provides express subsea connectivity, and offers what the company claimed to be the first ever direct fibre pair between the two continents. Te project was announced in 2018, with work beginning the following year. With installation work
complete, the next stage was to light the network, for which EllaLink selected Infinera’s ICE6 technology to provide a direct single hop transmission path between data centres in each continent. Te ICE6 800G coherent technology was chosen to help enable EllaLink to offer advanced customer products and services, supporting over 100 terabits between Portugal and Brazil.
MARCH Following the aforementioned
lengthy bidding batle, March was the month that saw II-VI Incorporated successfully bid to acquire Coherent for approximately $7.01bn. Due to the terms of the merger
agreement previously signed with Lumentum, Coherent was required to pay a $217.6m termination fee to the firm. ‘In making its determination,
the Coherent board of directors evaluated the comparative benefits and risks of the II-VI and Lumentum proposals, including the near-term and long-term financial opportunities and risks presented by each proposal, the potential synergies available through a combination with each company, and the complementary
28 Fibre Yearbook 2022
Shutterstock / Crosssun
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