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Technology Stocks : Optical Networks and Components, DWDM and Tunable Lasers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Johnstone who wrote (149)	2/24/2000 8:33:00 AM
From: BDR	Respond to of 275

There seems to be some disagreement about Lumenon's future. Here is something from lightreading.com: lightreading.com FEBRUARY 22, 2000 Is Lumenon's Share Price Set to Soar? The Next Intel? Investors in Lumenon Innovative Lightwave Technology Inc. lumenon.com -- a company aiming to be "the Intel of optical integrated circuits" -- are hoping to see its share price shoot skyward in the next few weeks. They say breakthroughs are imminent that could lead to Lumenon being the next optical component vendor to see its market cap soar to many billions of dollars. On the marketing front, Lumenon is planning to demonstrate rapid progress toward developing a low-cost way of manufacturing optical integrated circuits at the Optical Fiber Communication (OFC)conference osa.org in early March. Specifically, it will show some DWDM (dense wave division multiplexing) chips made with its "Phasic Hybrid Sol-Gel Glass" technology. In this process, silicon substrate is coated with a polymer and then circuitry is imprinted on it by placing it under a mask and blasting it with ultraviolet light. The DWDM chips that Lumenon will be showing will enable equipment vendors to pack a lot of wavelengths into a single fiber, because they support a spacing between wavelengths of 50 Gigahertz (Ghz), according to Reginald Ross, the company's vice president of corporate development. Although that sort of wavelength spacing is state of the art for DWDM, Lumenon is demonstrating the chips at OFC for another reason --to underscore how quickly manufacturing facilities can be built when using its technology. The company is less than a year old and has only spent about $20 million building a plant that can produce up to 1,000 optical devices a day. In comparison, semiconductor foundries have much higher capacity, but they take two or three years to build and require an investment of $1-2 billion, according to Ross. Moreover, semiconductor foundries need thousands of skilled workers, while Lumenon's factory has 250, the majority of whom are semi-skilled. Ross says Lumenon's production process also results in very short development cycles. "It's a matter of days between getting a new design and having the silicon product in our hands," he says. On the financial front, Lumenon appears close to solving some problems that have kept its share price in the doldrums since last December. It had risen rapidly from 25 cents to $42 in a matter of 11 months, but then it bumped down to between $20 and $25, where it's oscillated ever since. The fundamental problem was that regulations covering trading on NASDAQ's Over The Counter Bulletin Board (OTC BB) were tightened up and Lumenon, along with a lot of other companies listed on the Board, had to register new documents with the Securities Exchange Commission. Getting approval of these documents has been a long winded process, partly because the SEC has been swamped with work and partly because Lumenon's massive increase in market capitalization led to the SEC going over its documents with a fine tooth comb. While this has been sorted out, Lumenon's listing on the OTC BB has been suspended and the only way of trading shares has been via the unauthorized "pink sheet" market. As a result, it discouraged a lot of reputable investors. Further, Lumenon's stock price has been buffeted by rumor mongering among chat groups. Lumenon has filed the latest revision to its documents to the SEC last Friday (Feb 18) and thinks it's close to getting approval. "We're working with the SEC to tidy up the last details," says Ross. Once it gets approval, trading will recommence on the OTC BB within a few days. Lumonen plans to apply for a listing on NASDAQ's main board as soon as this takes place. by Peter Heywood, international editor, Light Reading lightreading.com