Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Newport Swaps Businesses With Oclaro

Irvine-based Newport Corporation, a supplier of semiconductors and optical technology, said Wednesday that it is swapping assets and cash with Silicon Valley firm Oclaro. According to Newport, it will acquire Oclaro's New Focus business, which develops opto-electronics, high-resolution actuators, opto-mechanics, tunable lasers, vacuum and ultraclean solutions,and other producuts. In exchange, Newport will transfer its high power diode laser manufacturing operations to Oclaro. In addition to the swap, Newport said it will pay $3M in cash to enable the transaction. Newport said the move was made because its laser diode business was "less aligned with the focus and profit model" of its laser division, and that Oclaro's New Focus business will "serve our core markets."