Nokia is acquiring silicon photonics specialist, Elenion Technologies.
The aim is for Elenion’s technology, design platform and services to enable Nokia to expand its market footprint by addressing the critical and rapidly evolving optical connectivity requirements of 5G, cloud and enterprise networking.
By taking ownership of these key assets, Nokia will benefit from both time-to-market and cost advantages across its portfolio of networking solutions by applying the scale and economies of silicon design and manufacturing to the optical supply chain.
Founded in 2014, Elenion develops highly integrated, low-cost silicon photonics technologies for short-reach and high-performance optical interfaces. It has a design toolset that enables a simplified, low cost, scalable manufacturing process. The platform also simplifies integration with optical chipsets, lowers power consumption, improves port density and helps to lower the overall cost-per-bit for network operators.
Sam Bucci, head of optical networking at Nokia, said: ‘Elenion provides a strong strategic fit for Nokia. Its solutions can be readily integrated into Nokia’s product offerings and address multiple high-growth segments including 5G, cloud and data centre networking. When combined with Nokia, Elenion technologies will accelerate the growth and scale of Nokia’s optical networking business, while enabling us to cost-effectively address new markets.’
Larry Schwerin, CEO of Elenion Technologies, said: ‘Elenion benefits by having its technology incorporated into an industry-leading portfolio and with a company offering solutions across a wide array of networking applications. Nokia’s strong optical industry leadership, size, scale, global reach, and ongoing commitment to investment in key technologies vastly accelerates the adoption of Elenion silicon photonics technology.’
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year.
