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Technology Stocks : JDS Uniphase (JDSU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lee who wrote (4747)	1/19/2000 8:41:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24042

JDSU makes the London Financial Times: <<< Wednesday January 19 2000 Philip Coggan JDS: Parts maker laps up data demand By Edward Alden Since last July's merger of JDS Fitel and Uniphase in a US$4.7bn stock swap, the share price of the new company, JDS Uniphase, has risen eight-fold and it has had three share splits and made half a dozen acquisitions. The world's leading making of optical components for telecommunications networks capped that remarkable run on Monday with a US$15bn all-stock acquisition of its California rival, E-Tek Dynamics. The deal will further consolidate the company's position in its fast-growing market. The Ottawa-based company's growth has been driven by insatiable demand for higher-speed bandwidth to carry the growing volumes of data over telecommunications networks. JDS Uniphase makes many of the components that allow signals to be transmitted efficiently over fibre optic networks. The acquisition is the largest high-technology deal in Canadian history. JDS Uniphase will acquire all outstanding E-Tek shares, with each E-Tek shareholder receiving 1.1 shares of JDS Uniphase. E-Tek shares were up 36 per cent to $185 by midday on Nasdaq on Tuesday, while shares in JDS Uniphase rose by 2 per cent to $195«. While JDS Uniphase was already larger than all its competitors put together, the acquisition of E-Tek will further extend its lead over such rivals as SDL and Corning, the glass maker that has transformed itself into a supplier of optical communications products. In a research report to clients that was made public yesterday, RHK, the US telecommunications consultancy, forecast that the global market for optical components, which reached $1.4bn in 1999, would grow by about 50 per cent a year and reach $7bn by 2003. Despite efforts by telecommunications providers to build additional capacity to carry the new data traffic, JDS Uniphase estimates that only about 5 per cent of US transmission routes have been upgraded with the highest capacity optical technology, known as dense wave division multiplexing. Kevin Kalkhoven, co-chairman and chief executive of JDS Uniphase, said the deal would give the company greater resources "to continue our strategy of expanding our scale and scope to enable the industry to fulfil the optical promise of unlimited bandwidth". Analysts are optimistic that the latest deal will address short-term supply problems. E-Tek has been an industry leader in packaging optical networking components for sale to systems manufacturers such as Nortel, Lucent and Alcatel, its largest customer. JDS Uniphase is a leader in the manufacturing of a variety of components. The two companies also announced a mutual supply agreement would be implemented immediately to speed supply to customers. While the scale of the acquisition seems daunting, the company's buoyant stock leaves it well positioned to lead further consolidation in the industry. Despite significant dilution of the stock, with two splits in the last month alone, shares in JDS Uniphase are still trading just a fraction below their all-time high.