Perkin-Elmer Sale of Applied Optics Unit Agreed Upon

Perkin-Elmer Corp. said Monday that it has agreed to sell its Applied Optics unit to a Massachusetts firm for an undisclosed sum.

Applied Optics, which has 250 employees and yearly revenue of about $25 million, is part of Perkin Elmer’s government systems division, one of three units that the company decided to sell last year as part of a broad restructuring. Another piece of the government systems group was sold to Hughes Aircraft Co. last year.

George Olmsted, vice president of privately held, Westport, Mass.-based Optical Corp. of America, or OCA, said Applied Optics will operate as a separate subsidiary with current management. OCA, with about 70 employees, is actually much smaller than Applied Optics, which will be renamed OCA Applied Optics.

Michael J. Devlin, currently general manager of Applied Optics, will become president of the OCA Applied Optics subsidiary. He said no layoffs or other consolidations are expected.

OCA manufactures electro-optical components that are used in imaging systems for the medical, defense and telecommunications industries. Applied Optics primarily supplies optical sub-systems to defense contractors for use in weapons and space systems.

Devlin said OCA’s focus on the commercial market will complement Applied Optics’ strength in the military market. He added that despite cuts in the defense budget, he is “very bullish” about the company’s prospects for at least the next two years.

OCA, which has a large corporate partner that Olmsted declined to identify, will pay for Applied Optics with a combination of cash and stock.