Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical transport networking systems incorporating its own indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs), says the public offer that it initiated on 9 April to acquire Transmode AB of Stockholm, Sweden (a provider of packet-optical networking solutions) has been accepted by shareholders representing about 95.8% of the outstanding shares and votes in Transmode. The transaction is now slated to close on or around 20 August.
Of the shares tendered, about 63% were tendered under the cash and stock mix alternative, and about 37% under the all-cash alternative. The final consideration will hence consist of about 7.9 million shares of Infinera common stock and the remainder in cash.
Infinera says that combining the firms brings together into one company a complementary set of customers, products and technologies. Transmode's strength in metro packet-optical applications complements Infinera's long-haul and metro Cloud solutions. The combination enables Infinera to offer an end-to-end portfolio addressing the metro aggregation market including metro core, metro edge and metro access with solutions optimized for fast-growing applications including mobile front-haul and back-haul, broadband aggregation, and business Ethernet services with Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) certification.
"The combination of Infinera and Transmode makes sense from both a market and cultural perspective," comments Andrew Schmitt, research director, Carrier Transport Networking, at market analyst firm IHS Research. "This acquisition positions Infinera to capitalize on the growing metro market as it begins a transition to 100G," he adds.
"By bringing together two highly successful teams, we can offer an end-to-end portfolio to fully address the metro and long-haul optical transport markets," says Infinera's CEO Tom Fallon. "The deal accelerates our entry into the emerging 100G metro market, building upon our leadership position in long-haul and metro Cloud," he adds.
