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

To: Glenn McDougall who wrote (12495)	9/4/2000 7:46:31 AM
From: John Carragher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24042

For one fiber-optics giant, Bucks County is a place in which to grow JDS Uniphase has increased its local staff from 90 to 170 in the last 10 months. It expects to be at 300 in a year. By Claire Furia Smith FOR THE INQUIRER Fast-growing JDS Uniphase Corp. is gearing up for a major expansion of its Philadelphia-area operations. After increasing its staff in Bucks County from 90 to 170 during the last 10 months, the San Jose, Calif., maker of fiber-optic components will begin shifting some of the employees from Chalfont to a second, larger facility in Horsham, said Scott Kramer, senior manager of human resources locally. JDS Uniphase has signed a seven-year lease for the new 126,500-square-foot manufacturing and office facility at 200 Precision Drive with Liberty Property Trust, owner of the building. Kramer said the division's crowded staff could not be more eager to make the move. "We have been jamming four people into one office," he said. "People are sitting in hallways." Over the next year, JDS Uniphase expects to increase its staff in Horsham and Chalfont to about 300, he said. Like the current site, the Horsham operation will be used to manufacture transmitters and amplifiers for the cable-television industry, and transceivers (which include a transmitter and receiver) for the telecommunications industry, said Jeff Wild, the company's vice president of corporate communications. Engineers and manufacturing employees will each continue to make up about 40 percent of the staff, and the remaining 20 percent will consist of support personnel. The local expansion is in keeping with JDS Uniphase's rapid rise. With operations around the world, the company is now considered the largest maker of fiber-optic components for telecommunications networks. It was formed last year with the merger of the Canadian firm JDS Fitel Inc. and Uniphase Corp., of San Jose. On June 30, the company completed its $17 billion purchase of E-Tek Dynamics Inc., a San Jose maker of filters for fiber-optic networks. The company also plans to buy SDL Inc., another San Jose firm focusing on products for fiber-optics networks. The stock swap that would complete that deal was worth $41 billion at the time of the July 10 announcement. Analysts expect the merger to be complete by year's end if the Justice Department does not raise antitrust objections. Growth and the acquisitions to date increased the company's net sales to $1.43 billion for its fiscal year ended June 30, up from $283 million the previous year. The company's aggressive acquisitions strategy and the increased demand for its products with the Internet's growth have helped boost its shares by 350 percent, from $27.50 on Sept. 1, 1999, to $123.81 Friday. The stock market currently values the company at $119.8 billion. JDS Uniphase hopes to increase its worldwide production fourfold over the next 18 months, Wild said. The Chalfont division is headed by Eitan Gertel, who started it as part of Uniphase in January 1996. A native of Israel who came to the United States in 1984, Gertel worked for the former American Electronics Laboratories Inc., a defense electronics supplier, for 11 years before joining Uniphase. During his career at AEL, Gertel also earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Drexel University, and acquired several patents in fiber-optic transmission. "This operation was started from scratch in 1996," said David Renner, director of finance and administration at the Chalfont unit. "We've started with a little, and created a lot." Because the expansions have come at a time when workers, especially technical ones, are in short supply, JDS officials say they must be creative to continue filling job openings quickly. "Recruiting is war," Kramer said from a job fair in Colorado. JDS Uniphase's local division has sent representatives to trade shows, job fairs and college campuses; has hosted its own job fair; and has advertised on the Internet and in various publications, Renner said. The Chalfont division has also launched an employee referral program that pays a staff member $750 to $2,500 for bringing on a new employee. Hard-to-fill positions, including senior engineering posts, bring the $2,500 reward, Kramer said.