Corning in Deal With NetOptix, 2 Other Firms

Corning Inc. announced three more deals Monday as it aggressively builds its position in a hot market for optical network technology.

Corning, the world’s leading supplier of glass fiber, said it’s acquiring NetOptix Corp. of Sturbridge, Mass., for about $2 billion. NetOptix makes filters that divide light into different wavelengths, a technology known as DWDM, multiplying the amount of data that can be sent through each strand of a fiber-optic cable.

Also on Monday, Corning said it formed a venture with Samsung Electronics to manufacture micro-optic products and a partnership with British Telecom focusing on photonics research.

Samsung Corning Micro-Optics, located at a Samsung facility in South Korea, will produce DWDM components using robotics and other technology developed by Samsung to automate key manufacturing steps that are now done manually.

As part of the British Telecom deal, Corning, based in Corning, N.Y., is paying $66 million to acquire BT’s Photonics Technology Research Center in Suffolk, Britain.

Separately, Nortel Networks of Canada said it plans to spend $260 million to expand its optical networking business, on top of a $400-million investment announced in November. The company will expand facilities to triple production capacity and create 3,400 jobs, mostly in Canada and Britain.

Corning’s acquisition of NetOptix marks its third major purchase in the last few months, part of a concerted effort to keep pace with soaring demand for more speed and capacity on the communications networks that make up the Internet.

That demand has sparked an arms race among the leaders in the network equipment industry: Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and JDS Uniphase have announced purchase after purchase over the last year.

Investors applauded Monday’s moves. Corning shares rose $14.25 to close at $180 on the New York Stock Exchange. NetOptix shares rose $20 to close at $156.