Alcatel to purchase optical components firm for $117.9M in stock

Alcatel Optronics announced today it is acquiring Kymata, a privately held Scottish firm specializing in hybrid passive-active optical components. Alcatel Optronics, for which Alcatel recently issued a tracking stock, will close the deal in late August, purchasing the company for $117.9 million (134 million euros) in Alcatel stock.

Kymata produces arrayed wavelength gratings multiplexers/demimultiplexers using planar processes. The process is similar to that used in manufacturing semi-conductors, leading to highly reproducible performance and larger manufacturing yields. The waveguide technology also allows active optical components to be integrated with passive components on a single chip. Alcatel officials said the technology is one of the fastest growing areas of metro optical networking and compliments its current line active optical components and research into hybrid components.

“It’s a way [for Alcatel] to leap forward in the market of hybrids,” said Jean-Christophe Giroux, CEO of Alcatel Optronics.

Founded in 1998 in Scotland’s “Silicon Glen” near Glasgow, Kymata now also has facilities in the Netherlands, the U.S., and Canada, including a 14,500 square-meter manufacturing plant in Ontario. The company employs 407 workers. Under the proposed deal, Alcatel will buy up all shares of Kymata for 9 million shares of class O stock (which represents the Alcatel stock in the Optronics unit) and an additional 2.2 million shares of Alcatel common stock.

Giroux said that Alcatel Optronics would take a hands-off approach to Kymata’s operations after the acquisition, letting them develop their technology at their current pace.

“Kymata has chosen the exact same kind of approach we have chosen at Alcatel,” Giroux said. “We’re not changing anything about their strategy. We’re offering some financial backing and credibility, but they will maintain their independence.”