Lumentum to acquire Cloud Light, expanding provision for data centres
Optics and photonics company Lumentum has announced it will acquire Cloud Light Technology, a manufacturer of optical modules for automotive sensors and data centre interconnects for approximately $750 million. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and by Cloud Light’s shareholders.
Lumentum expects its acquisition of Cloud Light to accelerate its push into the fastest growing segments of the multibillion-dollar opportunity for optical modules used in cloud computing data centre infrastructure. The company said that Cloud Light has a demonstrated track record of developing and manufacturing the highest-speed connectivity solutions at the leading edge of new and rapidly growing technology transitions. Nearly all of Cloud Light’s more than $200 million revenue in the last 12 months was derived from 400G or higher-speed transceiver sales. In the most recent quarter, over half of Cloud Light’s optical transceiver revenue was derived from 800G modules.
With this acquisition, Lumentum is positioning itself to serve the growing needs of cloud and networking customers, particularly those focused on optimising their data centre infrastructure for the demands of AI/ML. The company is aiming to deliver immediate customer value with a more comprehensive product and technology portfolio, enabling customers to more effectively manage the escalating compute and interconnect requirements of AI workloads. Lumentum added that the combination also brings best-in-class design and assembly, test, and packaging capabilities together with its global scale and customer reach.
"With Cloud Light, we are making a strategic investment to significantly expand our opportunities in the cloud data centre and networking infrastructure space," said Alan Lowe, Lumentum president and CEO. "Cloud Light provides us with the highest-speed transceiver solutions at scale and complements our advanced component capabilities. This results in a broad product and technology portfolio that addresses a wide range of cloud operator needs."
"We are confident that this transaction will deliver substantial, long-term value to our stockholders, with immediate earnings accretion and accelerated revenue growth. We look forward to welcoming Cloud Light’s very talented team to Lumentum," concluded Mr. Lowe.
Dr. Dennis Tong, Cloud Light founder and CEO, said that the announcement "is a pivotal milestone in the history of Cloud Light, and a testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees. We founded the company with a vision that our deep expertise in high-volume precision manufacturing would result in a superior value proposition for cloud data centre customers. Having worked closely with the technology teams within leading cloud operators, we believe we can build upon our success to date and further accelerate cloud data centre growth by combining Lumentum’s advanced photonic integration and transmission technologies with our highly automated packaging and manufacturing processes. We look forward to joining the Lumentum team and beginning an exciting new chapter."
