FiberGeneration

Personal Xmas Gift, Seven Days Ago

Last week in Lightwave Online Mag : "Sunrise Telecom completes two divestitures", this news made my day : "The Company also announced it has completed the divestiture of its high- resolution OTDR business in Switzerland. The company sold the business to its former managers and will share in any future upside potential."

I'm so happy the bozo is now forced to find money by himself. Of course, there won't be any upside potential with those guys : somebody who didn't "live and sleep" at Boeing' s HQ when the giant was evaluating his product don't deserve success. Alleluia.

Say Goodbye Farewell To The Luciole

Rumor confirmed by a source who was dealing with Sunrise Telecom (SRT) on a *advanced fiber monitoring system* : SRT's Swiss-based subsidiary is no longer part of the company.

Optical Network Test : The Sun Rise Again ?

Rumor is spreading around the Test & Measurement small world : some interesting news coming soon from Sunrise Telecom, San Jose, California, and its swiss subsidiary.

It seems that SRT' management finally realized that the R.O.I. of the former startup could have been way better.

Stay tuned for more, as I wait for one last confirmation before publishing the whole story.

Okay, They Got It Right (well, almost)

Sunrise Telecom just announced its new TriplePlay tester. See here.
The good thing : it does all TriplePlay Services tests. The bad one : it does the tests from the CO.
Question : how about testing the link FROM the subscriber' s home ?

JDSU vs. EXFO : How 'bout This One, T&M Folks ?

Silicon Valley-based Sunrise Telecom seems to enter a heavy disturbance zone. That's what you get when you do Product Marketing the wrong way (shall I add that Product Marketing and Business Development - hence sales - are part of the same virtuous circle ?). IMHO, SRT will be gone by end 2009 the latest, except if they decide to change their strategy and restart from scratch. Means that's one (small) player less on the Communications Networks Test & Measurement battlefront.

Now, think of this one : what if Agilent Technologies decides to come back on this market, as they did back in late '99 ? My bet : they would go with a couple of M&A deals. Agilent should buy EXFO. Because : a) EXFO' s products portfolio is complementary to the actual Agilent' s one (which is 80% on R&D and Manufacturing, whilst EXFO is 80% Installation & Maintenance), and b) EXFO' s model is HP Test & Measurement, aka Agilent Technologies.

Such a deal would definitely position Agilent as the number one leader on the I&M Testing marketplace, whilst JDSU and Anritsu would be forced to fight hard (read: innovate) to survive in between Agilent and Fluke+Tektronix.

Test & Measurement Industry : The Consolidation Still Goes On

According to Lightwave earlier this week, Danaher Corp. and Tektronix Inc. announced they have reached a definitive agreement under which Danaher will make a cash tender offer to acquire all outstanding common shares of Tektronix for $38.00 per share. The aggregate purchase price is approximately $2.8 billion, including debt, transaction costs, and net of cash acquired.

With the acquisition of a venerable company, Tektronix, which is a reference in the T&M Test & Measurement world  together with Agilent Technologies (formerly Hewlett-Packard), the industry landscape is going to change once again. The alliance between Fluke - another pretty strong reference at every Telecoms & Datacoms network installer on the Planet - and Tek is creating a new  one-stop-shopping center covering the whole spectrum of typical applications, from lab & manufacturing (Tek) to installation & maintenance (Fluke), from low-end/high quality/mainstream test gear (Fluke) to high-end/high quality/advanced (Tektronix).

Whilst T&M market leader Agilent Technologies  has to face three major competitors : JDSU, Anritsu, and the new Fluke+Tek actor now, the French-Canadian firm EXFO is left alone as a small player in front of giants. EXFO, whose role model was HP Test & Measurement (aka Agilent) will most probably be set ready for a merger with another group.

   

Note that EXFO's stock slipped quite heavily yesterday, and that Tek's raised rose nicely at the official announcement.
Charts available at Yahoo!Finance here.

post-scriptum : For you who are not familiar with the Telecoms Test & Measurement, I'll publish a brief history of the sector, to show how the T&M folks are still surfing on the ripples of the Internet Bubble' implosion.