Tellabs CEO Dan Kelly is on his way out as Marlin Equity moves ahead with its plans to merge its Tellabs and Coriant businesses under the Coriant brand.

Marlin Equity Partners said in a press release this week that Kelly has stepped down as chairman and CEO of Tellabs Inc. (Nasdaq: TLAB; Frankfurt: BTLA) but will take an advisory role during the transition. (See Tellabs Delivers Final Earnings Fizzle.)

Marlin closed its acquisition of the troubled optical equipment vendor Tellabs for $891 million in December. Marlin, an emerging optical powerhouse, had been expected to roll some or all of the Tellabs assets into Coriant. (See Tellabs' Last Hope: Marlin's Optical Ambition and Tellabs to Be Sold to Marlin for $891M.)

In February of last year, Marlin created Coriant by combining optical units from Sycamore and NSN. (See Sycamore + NSN Optical = Coriant.)

A Light Reading regular, brookseven, even predicted on our message board in December that the Tellabs CEO was on the way out. "I expect Dan... to be gone within 90 days." (See Tellabs: To Be Continued.)

Marlin has appointed Bob Leggett as chairman of the board, Pat DiPietro as CEO, and Herbert Merz as president and chief operating officer of the unified organization. It has also said that it will establish an independent business for the Tellabs Access product portfolio.

The PE firm hasn't specified how long combining the two optical units will take.

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading