LuxN rounds up $55 million to keep it flush with cash for another year

April 10, 2001

2 Min Read
LuxN Finds More Funding

This week LuxN Inc. announced it has secured some $55 million in fresh funding. This latest combination of $45 million in equity and $10 million in debt brings LuxN's total financing to date to more than $150 million (see $55 Million Falls in Lap of LuxN).

Credit Suisse First Boston helped LuxN round up money from several investors, including Firsthand Capital Management, Wheatley Partners, Berger Funds, Sands Brothers & Co. Ltd., and GE Capital. The company's previous funding round, a $50 million financing announced 11 months ago, was supplied by Azure Capital Partners, Credit Suisse First Boston Private Equity, E-TEK Dynamics [now JDS Uniphase Inc. (Nasdaq: JDSU; Toronto: JDU)], CommVest, and Storm Ventures (see LuxN Raises $50M+ In 3rd Round).

LuxN makes DWDM (dense wavelength-division multiplexing) transport products that service providers can use to carry OC3, OC12, OC48, gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, 10/100 BaseT, and T1 traffic. It targets points of presence (POPs) with its WavStation product, multi-tenant buildings with its WavFarer box, and enterprises with its WavPortal box.

The company started out selling to enterprise customers but eventually found that service providers were calling the shots on the equipment businesses use to improve their public network access.

LuxN has more than 35 customers, including Metromedia Fiber Network Inc. (MFN) (Nasdaq: MFNX), Widener University, Tacoma Power's Click! Network, and the Hawaii Institutional Network, which provides connections among Hawaii University, the Hawaii Department of Education, and other state offices (see MFN to Deploy LuxN Platform, Click! Network to Deploy LuxN Gear, and Hawaii I-Net Upgrades With LuxN).

The company's biggest competitors include Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), ONI Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ONIS), ADVA AG Optical Networking (Neuer Markt: ADV), and Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE/Toronto: NT), according to Agnes Imregh, LuxN's Harley-riding marketing boss (see Cisco Marches Deeper Into the Metro).

LuxN's not profitable, but expects to be by the end of this year. The company hauled in less than $50 million in revenue last year and has seen 100 percent sequential quarter-to-quarter revenue growth for the past couple of quarters, Imregh says.

A public offering will come when the market relaxes, Imregh says. But as of now the company has enough cash -- $80 million in the bank -- to keep it going for another year.

-- Phil Harvey, Senior Editor, Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com

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