Mellanox To Acquire Kotura in Photonics Deal

Mellanox (MLNX) announced its intent to acquire privately held Kotura, a leading innovator and developer of advanced silicon photonics optical interconnect technology for high-speed networking applications.

The approximately $82 million deal will boost Mellanox’s ability to deliver high-speed networks with next generation optical connectivity. Kotura holds over 120 granted or pending patents in CMOS photonics and packaging design. When combined with Kotura technology, the Mellanox interconnect products will reach 100Gb/s and beyond, and have longer reach optical connectivity at a lower cost, allowing users to further reduce their capital and operating expenses.

"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. "We expect that the proposed acquisition of Kotura’s technology and the additional development team will better position us to produce 100Gb/s and faster interconnect solutions with higher-density optical connectivity at a lower cost. We welcome the great talent from Kotura and look forward to their contribution to Mellanox’s continued growth."

Kotura launched its low-power 100 gigabits per second (Gb/s) optical engine to support the interconnect fabric at the OFC/NFOEC conference last year. Mellanox expects to establish its first R&D center in the United States at Kotura’s Monterey Park, California location, and retain Kotura’s existing product lines to ensure continuity for customers and partners.  It also believes the proposed acquisition will enhance its competiveness and its position as a leading provider of high-performance, end-to-end interconnect solutions for servers and storage systems.

“This acquisition is important for both companies to enable interconnect innovation for data centers that require solutions that move data faster and more efficiently. Together, we can execute faster and deliver better solutions based on Kotura’s silicon photonics platform that delivers the demands of 100Gb/s interconnects and beyond,” said Jean-Louis Malinge, president and CEO of Kotura, Inc. “We are delighted to join the Mellanox team and look forward to working together to propel the combined company’s further growth.”