News Article
Mintera Joins the Oclaro Family
Mintera will broaden Oclaro's 40 Gbps Portfolio by accelerating 100 Gbps coherent development and deepen telecom subsystems expertise.
Oclaro, a tier-one provider of innovative optical communications and laser products has acquired Mintera Corporation, a privately-held leader in high-performance optical transport sub-systems solutions.
The acquisition of Mintera broadens Oclaro's product portfolio for high-speed telecommunications, and will reinforce Oclaro's position in optical communications. As a result of the acquisition, Oclaro will offer components and sub-systems covering all of the major modulation technologies necessary for high-performance 40 Gbps data transmission in regional, metro, long-haul (LH) and ultra Long-Haul (ULH) networks.
"Oclaro's acquisition of Mintera is the latest in a series of strategic moves to increase our addressable market, better serve our customers and outdistance our competition," said Alain Couder, president and CEO, Oclaro. "Through this acquisition, Oclaro has taken another important step forward in building upon our leadership position in 40 Gbps regional and metro networks by broadening our product portfolio and systems expertise to expand into 40 Gbps LH and the 100 Gbps Coherent markets."
Infonetics Research forecasts the 40 Gbps long-haul optical component market to reach $150 million in 2011, divided almost equally between DPSK (Differential Phase Shift Keying) and DQPSK (Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) technologies. Mintera has achieved noticeable market acceptance of its 40 Gbps Adaptive DPSK(TM) transmission module, which enables ULH transmission compatible with 50 GHz channel spacing. By adding Mintera's DPSK technology and products to Oclaro's existing portfolio of DQPSK components and modules, Oclaro will now offer its customers a complete line of solutions for the full range of 40 Gbps networks, maximizing the internal use of its discrete optical engines.
Beyond 2011 Oclaro believes the 40 Gbps DPSK market will begin to migrate to Coherent technologies, enabling lower line costs and simplified deployments. Mintera's 40 Gbps PM-QPSK (Coherent) module is planned for production by the second half 2011. Mintera's 40 Gbps Coherent technology development is expected to further enhance Oclaro's competitive lead in the development of 100 Gbps components and modules.
The 40Gbps Coherent module is expected to be the first product of its kind on the market, due to an existing, comprehensive partnership agreement between Mintera Corporation and ClariPhy Communications, a leading provider of high performance mixed-signal ICs and also an Oclaro strategic partner.
Based in Acton, Massachusetts, Mintera's team are expected to significantly augment Oclaro's own systems-level capabilities. Terry Unter, president and CEO of Mintera, has agreed to remain with Oclaro for a transitional period and lead the new 40/100 Gbps modules and subsystems division, reporting to Alain Couder, president and CEO.
During this period, Couder and Unter will also explore a longer term role for Unter in Oclaro's executive management team. Unter brings to Oclaro over 20 years experience in the optical communications industry including executive, engineering, management and operations positions at companies including Corvis Corporation, AMP, Alcatel, and Northern Telecom.
"As one of the top providers to the optical communications industry, Oclaro's products and technologies are highly complementary to Mintera. We serve different but complementary segments of the telecommunications supply chain," said Terry Unter. "Through this acquisition, Mintera can leverage Oclaro's strong customer relationships and recognized brand to accelerate sales of our products and technologies. In addition, the Mintera team will contribute significantly to helping Oclaro create a leadership position in 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps LH and ULH telecommunications markets."
