Corning Inc. Approves $225M Expansion of its Lasertron Division

Electronic News, July 24, 2000 by Carol Haber

The board of Corning Inc. approved a $225 million expansion of Corning Lasertron in order to increase the company's capacity for its amplification and transmission products, including pump lasers, transmission lasers and receivers, and build its position as a major optical layer company. "This expansion enables Corning to broaden its manufacturing capability from wafer fabrication through packaging," said Gerald J. Fine, vice president and general manager for Corning Photonic Technologies. Corning already announced a $45 million investment to expand Corning Lasertron's Oak Park facility in Bedford, Mass., doubling its existing capacity. These two expansions, with a total investment of $270 million, will increase existing capacity for Corning Lasertron products "by six times over the next two years and create approximately 1,150 new jobs," the company said. A new factory will be constructed at a site to be revealed by August. Currently, Corning Lasertron manufactures semiconductor chips for state-of-the-art pump lasers with powers as high as 225 milliwatts. "We have demonstrated powers nearly twice as high and expect to commercialize these products as part of this expansion plan," said Fine. As optical systems become more complex, the integration of active components such as pump lasers into optical amplifiers and transmission lasers and receivers is becoming increasingly important.

Cicada Wraps Round

Cicada Semiconductor Inc., Austin, a provider of silicon products for high-speed digital communications, completed its first round of venture funding. The company raised $15 million from a group of investors led by Sevin Rosen and including ESM Investments, Perot Investments and SwitchCore AB of Lund, Sweden. The funds will be used to expand product development and marketing programs for Cicada's advanced mixed signal and DSP-based transceiver products. Funds will also be used to enhance production capacity to meet requirements of key customers.

Picture of Wealth

PictureTel Corp., Andover, Mass., revealed that Intel Capital and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board have executed an agreement for each to invest $9.5 million in a new series of nonvoting class B preferred shares. The shares are convertible into common stock after 90 days from closing on a 1-for-1 basis for a purchase price of $2.50 each. Additional investments in the new shares have been agreed to by Halpern Denny, a Boston-based equity fund, and by a group of PictureTel directors and senior management. The new equity amounts to $22 million. The transaction is "the first step in our efforts to strengthen our balance sheet," said Lewis Jaffe, president. The company focuses on integrated visual and audio collaboration and streaming-video products.

Lattice Works at Offer

Lattice Semiconductor, Hillsboro, Ore., filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed offering of 4,000,000 shares of common stock, all to be offered by the company. In addition, Lattice granted underwriters an option to purchase up to 600,000 additional shares to cover underwriters' over-allotments. Net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including expansion of working capital, potential future investments to maintain and expand wafer supply capacity and possible acquisitions. Co-managers of the transaction are Goldman, Sachs & Co.; Morgan Stanley Dean Witter; and others.

Triton Completes IPO

Triton Network Systems Inc., Orlando, Fla., completed an IPO of 5,500,000 shares of common stock at a price of $15 per share. The underwriting group is led by Credit Suisse First Boston with Deutsche Banc Alex Brown and U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray acting as co-managers. Triton's mission is to provide broadband wireless equipment that enables communications service providers to deliver high-speed, cost-effective voice, video and data services to its business customers.

Energy to Grow

Advanced Energy, Fort Collins, Colo., reported revenues of $80.6 million for its second quarter ended June 30, up 86 percent from $43.3 million in the year-ago quarter and 15 percent from $70.3 million in the just-prior quarter.