Similarly to CSCO, JDSU was built from a series of mergers which initially started with divisions from IBM(pump lasers for erbium-doped fiber amplifiers), Philips(continuous-wave infrared lasers) and United Technologies(fiber gratings).
They are the leading component manufacturer of Wave Division Multiplexing, the core technology of the Internet fiber backbone.
The next large merger came with the addition of passive component manufacturer JDS Fitel, thus enabling component bundling for modules.
They seem to buy a new company every few months to expand the product portfolio and technological lead. The latest is passive component manufacturer ETEK for around 15 billion. ETEK was the third largest independent component manufacturer.
JDSU is at least 50% larger than all independent competitors combined. The biggest threats could come from the optoelectronics units of NT and LU, who are also there largest customers. However, due to the scarcity of optical physicists, if your not in the game now, chances are, you never will be. SDLI would be the next largest pure play out there in this space, and they just reported stellar earnings.
The key to continued success is manufacturing expansion and the continuation of the module technology. Additionally, large opportunity lies in the metro backbone if prices can come down far enough.
If you believe in the net and streaming video, you have to believe in JDSU. They own the prime real estate: Bandwidth, Bandwidth, Bandwidth...
Best of luck,
Kent |
