Chorum Technologies Inc. is finally winding down its operations, according to two sources close to the company. The company, which once employed more than 800 people and raised more than $213 million in venture capital funding, dropped out of the telecom side of the components biz early last year (see I Want You!). The board will distribute some money back to the company's investors and is mulling now whether to sell the company as a whole or in pieces.

Xtera Communications Inc. has hired Jon Hopper as its new CEO. Hopper was the former senior VP of sales at Photon Dynamics, a post he had held since July 2001. In the 90s, Hopper held chief executive posts at several companies including Dynamotion, IRSI, and Xtreme Devices. In the 60s, he appeared in the film Easy Rider. No wait, that was a different Hopper.

Passavé Technologies Inc. (now spelled très français, apparently) says it will double its staff size, to 50. The chip maker says it has 20 customers, but won't disclose names. Equipment makers noticed the company recently when it nabbed a place an upcoming NTT Group (NYSE: NTT) fiber-to-the-premises buildout (see Chip Startup Claims NTT Coup).

MegaSense Inc. has shut its doors and cut its final 22 employees, but the technology lives on, chairman and CEO Vladimir Vaganov says. The company gave up on optical components last year to make components for the handset and video game markets. Nintendo Co. Ltd. (Tokyo: 7974) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) liked the idea, Vaganov says, but investors balked at the high-volume, low-margin business plan. Vaganov, meanwhile, is hitting the funding market again on behalf of Siantis, a new company pursuing handset technology.

Quick hits: Kotura Inc. is the name of the new company that came from the Arroyo Optics and Lightcross merger (see Arroyo, Lightcross to Merge)... Chuck Harris (not to be confused with Chuck Norris), formerly of Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE), Tachion, and Gluon, has landed at CopperCom in a product marketing role... Force10 Networks Inc. just hired Ralph Harms as its CFO. Harms was involved in at least three IPOs in recent years (Autonomy Corp., Flycast Networks, and ESS Technology), in case you're wondering what Force10's exit strategy might be.

That's all for now. Until next time, keep those news tips coming to [email protected]. And don't forget to put your merger suggestions on the boards. The more far out, the better. We'll toss some Light Reading schwag to the authors of our favorite posts.

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, and Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor, Light Reading