JDSU sells transceiver manufacturing plants
Optical component and subsystem vendor JDS Uniphase of San Jose, CA, is to sell two facilities to the manufacturing services company Fabrinet.
The deal is part of JDSU s strategy to streamline its overall manufacturing base as it struggles to return to profitability.
The agreement includes the sale of two datacom transceiver manufacturing sites to Fabrinet for an undisclosed sum. These facilities are located in Bintan, Indonesia, and Singapore, and affect 450 employees at the two plants.
In return, the two companies have signed a "long-term" supply agreement.
JDSU, which is the market leader for optical components used in fiber-optic telecommunications applications, said in its first-quarter earnings call last month that it planned to further reduce its manufacturing footprint.
The company said then that it had identified two partners that would help it rationalize its manufacturing operations. Meanwhile Giorgio Anania, the CEO at JDSU s rival Bookham Technology, recently acknowledged that the industry still had capacity "duplication" and that he expected further consolidation among the larger component manufacturers.
Fabrinet, which has its manufacturing headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, has similar agreements with Northlight Optronics from Sweden and Opnext, which is based in New Jersey.
JDSU has also taken steps towards rationalizing its component operations, with the merger of its previously-separate "components" and "transmission" product groups.
Michael Ricci takes charge of the merged entity, as the company s new senior VP of the "components and modules" product group. The group has over 200 product lines, and is said to be the broadest portfolio in the industry.
