Mellanox to Acquire Kotura for Silicon Photonic Interconnects

Mellanox Technologies agreed to acquire privately held Kotura, a developer of advanced silicon photonics optical interconnect technology, for a total cash purchase price of approximately $82 million. Both the Mellanox and Kotura boards of directors have approved the deal.

Kotura holds over 120 granted or pending patents in CMOS photonics and packaging design.  The company has made a number of ground breaking innovations in optical interconnects by integrating multiple high speed active and passive optical functions onto a silicon chip. The company is based in Monterey Park, California.

Mellanox said the acquisition enhances its ability to deliver cost-effective, high-speed networks with next generation optical connectivity for servers and storage systems.

Mellanox expects to establish its first R&D center in the United States at Kotura’s current location. Further, Mellanox intends to retain Kotura’s existing product lines to ensure continuity for customers and partners.

“Operating networks at 100 Gigabit per second rates and higher requires careful integration between all parts of the network. We believe that silicon photonics is an important component in the development of 100 Gigabit InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions, and that owning and controlling the technology will allow us to develop the best, most reliable solution for our customers,” said Eyal Waldman, president, CEO and chairman of Mellanox Technologies.

http://www.mellanox.com/page/press_release_item?id=1024