Heard from a very reliable/inside source: JDSU is to lay off 1/3d of its workforce in its European headquarter, based in Eningen, Germany.
Provided that Eningen is the former home base of Wandel & Goltermann, specialized in everything Protocol Testing, one can guess the outcome: JDSU will probably close the operation within the next 12 months or so.
For an industry veteran like myself, the JDSU story is worth a book. Take the Fiber Optic Test product line, for instance - the famous OTDR: when I started my career back in 1983, we bought our OTDRs to the french company Schlumberger. In the early 90's, the business was acquired by the american T&M specialist TTC. Then, at the end of the 90's, during the Bubble, Wandel & Goltermann merged with TTC, to form Acterna. Which almost died in 2001, filling for the Chapter 11 protection. Last, JDSU bought Acterna in 2005. That is five company names for the same product line over the last twenty five years. You can consider this story either a success for the guys running this particular business, because they're still there, or either as a failure for the "company" at large because it keeps changing heads each and every five years. I choose the later option.
ps: now that JDSU is doomed and Agilent focusing on Lab & Prod Testing, who's gonna run the show on the Telecoms Field Testing arena? My take: EXFO is well structured to play this role, whilst the Japanese may come back in the game pretty soon.
