Multilink Technology Corp., a component company, sold its shares publicly for the first time today, less than a week after telecom giants Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE/Toronto: NT), JDS Uniphase Inc. (Nasdaq: JDSU; Toronto: JDU), and Tellabs Inc. (Nasdaq: TLAB; Frankfurt: BTLA) pre-announced negative news that had the entire market reeling.

A year ago, Multilink might have seen first-day gains in triple-digit percentages, but today, with the optical market hungover from the lingering aftertaste of the negative announcements, the company did well to end the day up 2.19 (24%) at 11.19 a share from an opening price of $9 a share.

All told the company raised $89.5 million, a little more than half the $150 million it originally expected to raise when it filed for its IPO back in October, according to its S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company, which designs and sells optical components, like integrated circuits and modules for next-generation networking systems, has three main customers: Alcatel SA (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA), Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), and TyCom Ltd. (NYSE: TCM; BSX: TCM) together accounted for about 73 percent of last year's revenue.

For all of 2000, the company brought in about $72.7 million, with a net loss of $3.6 million. And in the three months ending March 31, the company’s S-1 states, it had $31.0 million in revenue and a $4.5 million net loss.

While it’s encouraging that the company ended its first day on a positive note, it still has a long road ahead. Lucent spinoff, Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR), another component company, went public back in March. Since that time, the company’s stock has dropped about 16 percent below its IPO price of $6.00, ending today at $5.10.

- Marguerite Reardon, Senior Editor, Light Reading
http://www.lightreading.com