MRV Gets Jolt in 1st of Several Acquisitions
MRV Communications said Monday it had closed a deal to acquire Israel-based optical company Jolt Ltd., the first in a series of acquisitions it announced last week with the release of first-quarter earnings.
The company also said last week that it will spend more than $250 million in company stock to acquire three companies that would become part of Luminent.
Company executives said they will file for an initial public offering within the next three months to spin off the company’s optics division, to be called Luminent Inc.
The announcement came as MRV executives announced first-quarter earnings showing widening losses.
For the quarter ended March 31, the company reported losses of $5.8 million, or 21 cents a share, on revenue of $65.1 million. For the like quarter last year, the company had losses of $909,000, or 3 cents a share, on revenue of $70.1 million.
Chief Executive Noam Lotan said losses were the result of acquisitions and the costs of funding more than a dozen optics firms that are start-ups or spinoffs.
“The model of MRV is that we are funding entities that are going public or will be sold, and we have a lot of costs associated with that,” Lotan said.
The company said it signed deals to buy Jolt Ltd., an Israel-based wireless optical firm, as well as laser diode maker Optronics International Corp. and optical component manufacturer Quantum Optech Inc., both of Taiwan. The Jolt deal was completed Monday, company officials said.
MRV stock, which hit a high of $194.88 in March, closed Monday at $76.06.
The deals mark a busy year for MRV, which also acquired Fiber Optic Communications Inc. of Taiwan in February for $263 million in stock and cash.
The company’s core business is optical components, including fiber optics and devices that direct traffic on fiber-optic networks.
More recently, MRV has been positioning itself as an optical incubator, with plans to create and eventually spin off at least 14 companies, including Zaffire, Charlotte’s Networks, Hyporium and Zuma Networks.
