The one-stop shop

摘要

Divestment by telecoms system makers and bankruptcy of opto start-ups is leading to consolidation of complementary manufacturing capabilities into more cost-efficient 'one-stop shop' suppliers of not just opto components, but also modules and subsystems for both telecom and non-telecom applications. The near-50% growth in the optical communications system market during the tele-corns 'bubble' of 2000 led to frenzied acquisition of opto component suppliers by equipment makers, funded by their inflated stock values, eg ADC of tunable laser maker Altitun for $872m; Nortel Networks of tunable VCSEL maker CoreTek and Lucent Technologies of Ortel for $2.95bn. After the $6.1bn merger of JDS FITEL and Uniphase (makers of passive and active components, respectively, with combined annual sales of $587.9m), JDS Uniphase acquired more than a dozen opto suppliers, culminating with the $41bn for SDL Inc, and invested $125m to expand manufacturing and staffing to over 17,000. But since the bubble burst and system sales fell by 60% in 2002, the components sector has contracted as large, diversified manufacturers of systems (Marconi, Nortel, Ericsson, Alcatel, Corning, ADC), modules (Finisar) and ICs (Agere, Vitesse) have divested or closed their opto components operations to focus on core business.