Lucent Technologies has announced plans to acquire Ortel, which makes optoelectronic components for cable TV networks, in a stock deal worth approximately $US2.95 billion.
Ortel's fibre-optic technologies help boost the bandwidth of cable networks, which is necessary to meet the increasing demand for services, such as Internet telephony and high-speed access.
`This [purchase] bolsters Lucent's overall optical portfolio and it gives Lucent a stronger presence in the cable access market, which they needed,' said Ron Westfall, a senior analyst at Current Analysis in the US.
`On the down side, I'm not sure that Lucent will get $3 billion worth,' Westfall said.
`[Ortel's technology] has a specific application for the cable access market, but Lucent still needs other key pieces for the cable access space, like routing sys-tems for the backbone of cable access networks, cable modems, and cable head-end systems.
`They don't yet own a lot of tech- nology if they are serious about being a stronger player in the cable access market.'
Ortel will become part of Lucent's optoelectronic components division. The acquisition is expected to be completed in June.
