Mellanox Technologies Ltd. announced Thursday morning that it is acquiring Kotura Inc., a components vendor specializing in silicon photonics, for US$82 million in cash.

Mellanox says the deal is a play for 100Gbit/s Ethernet and InfiniBand products and for speeds beyond 100 Gbit/s. The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.

Why this matters
While the deal shows the potential importance of silicon photonics, it also shows where the initial impact is likely to be: more in the data center and in system interconnects than in telecom networks. Mellanox's calling card has been InfiniBand, the interconnect of choice for some data centers. And Kotura's first 100Gbit/s transceiver is due to be in the QSFP+ format, which is aimed at the short reaches in data centers and enterprises.

The deal gives Kotura the backing to ensure that QSFP+ emerges in 2014, as promised.

Kotura is the second optical components acquisition in a little more than a month. In April, Avago Technologies Pte. announced it's acquiring CyOptics Inc. for $400 million in cash -- which, as one reader pointed out, is more than the combined valuations of Emcore Corp. ($92 million), NeoPhotonics Corp. ($204 million) and Oclaro Inc. ($97 million).

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— Craig Matsumoto, Managing Editor, Light Reading