The Weight of InfineraThe Weight of Infinera

2:15 PM -- Could the Infinera IPO drag optical components down even further?

It's possible, if Infinera tanks. Wall Street tends to group companies in buckets, and a few sources around optical think Infinera -- which, yes, sells systems -- could color the thinking around optical component IPOs.

We already know MRV Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: MRVC) plans to spin off LuminentOIC Inc. as a public company. (See MRV Buys Fiberxon, Preps IPO.) And, like rookies in the minors, NeoPhotonics Corp. (NYSE: NPTN) and Santur Corp. are said to be waiting their turn at bat for IPOs.

But the optical sector hasn't done much to gain Wall Street's favor lately. Recent IPO filers, IPG Photonics Corp. (Nasdaq: IPGP), Optium Corp. (Nasdaq: OPTM), and Opnext Inc. (Nasdaq: OPXT), got off to good starts but have been gliding downward.

Table 1: Optical IPOs: Down to Earth

It hasn't helped, either, that market king JDSU (Nasdaq: JDSU; Toronto: JDU) stumbled last quarter and might even want out of the business. (See JDSU Regresses in Q3 and JDSU May Be Mulling Optical Exit.)

Maybe I should stop being so gloomy and ask the question the optimistic way: Could a successful Infinera IPO lift the optical sector?

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading