re: Enablence Acquires Wave7Stanley, you are probably correct in regard to cost advantage at present. As a neophyte this technology is extremely difficult for me to understand so I take a layman's approach and view this in the macro sense. The world changed the day the cable companies got into the telco business. If VZ is is committing $23B by 2010 for FIOS/FTTH, globally this represents one heck of an opportunity for the right companies.
Voice, video, data & wireless (triple, quadruple play) "Next Generation" or one size fits all so to speak, appears to be the game. Planar Technology may not be there now but who knows about tomorrow? GPON looks to be the standard and I view Enablence/W7 as trying to reinvent themselves and carving out a niche as a "Hybrid" components/equipment company that differentiates itself from a Chinese components/equipment company. The same would stand true for W7 access equipment for both telco and cable. I am guessing at some point in time AT&T along with Cable Companies and others will all run fiber to the home as technologies bring the cost down.
In the case of Enablence/W7, if you can't compete on the manufacturing side you have to compete and control the market on the technology side. If Enablence has the technology IE Erbium Doping (EDFA) Dense WaveLength Multiplexing (DWDM) etc. and can produce low cost highly efficient components for long haul optical applications you need a vehicle to put them in and maybe that's the logic with W7 OLT & ONT.
I suspect or more of a guess that is what Enablence/W7 are doing in order to survive. Both companies reinvent themselves as a Hybrid and create a line of hybrid OLTs and ONTs, license and private label the product. Either that or this is a consolidation of something larger to come but I would guess that it is for survival purposes in a highly competitive environment.
re: Enablence Acquires Wave7This still doesn't explain why Enablance bought Wave7. If they have a good and cost competitive product, i.e. optical transceiver, they will be able to command a good market share in a rapidly expanding market. If they can do that at a good GM, they can be very successful. In this case, they don't need Wave7, which are not a very successful GPON vendor. If Enablance doesn't have the technology and the product, I fail to see how Wave7 van help them.
If somebody has a better perspective, I would love to learn from them. :-)
re: Enablence Acquires Wave7This seems like a total failure from before it is even closed! First clue Enablence's CEO thinks "MBA" is a title or professional designation. It is not and does not belong on a business card!
From there, JDSU selling into carriers went over like a lead balloon, and take this and put it on a smaller scale in the Tier 2-3 market. Add two lead balloons and you have the new Wave7. Too bad for their employees and customers, but this acquisition makes NO sense at all...
re: Enablence Acquires Wave7 Interview with Chhatbar in Ligthwave. I must admit that I am not too impressed. 1. Defining existing w7 installed base as niche market which w7 shall stay in to avoid competitive conflicts with Enablance potential customers in main markets (US and Asia). I wonder if he was making this up on the fly? 2. Going after W7 business outside US requires a global sales and support organisation. Neither Wave7 nor Enablance can support that.
----------------- "Nor is this a case of having to acquire a systems house to ensure that there's a customer for Enablence's FTTH transceivers, Chhatbar insists. Enablence will continue to develop and market FTTH transceivers to systems houses, he says. While the company hasn't announced any customers, Chhatbar says they do exist. "I think if you call us in two or three months, we'll be able to give you more," he says.
He also isn't concerned that his FTTH equipment customers will be concerned about competitive conflicts. "Some of the areas that Wave7 [sells in] are areas that others don't go -- they're niche areas and stuff like that. So we don't see that as competition." Those "niche areas" include a preponderance of its sales being in Europe, the Caribbean, and countries like New Zealand, Chhatbar says GÇô in other words, outside of Asia and North America. Rather than trying to grow Wave7's business in these two major markets ("They do have some North American things, but it's not as extensive," according to Chhatbar), "I think our intention is to consolidate where they currently are," he reveals," and then see how things play out before making significant changes to the current core strengths." -------------
re: Enablence Acquires Wave7Dear LReaders and LPosters,
I think it is true that GÇ£there is still no cost advantage ... of using planar technology".
I think the accent should be put in the "still". I believe that the road of cost reduction will arrive sometime to touch that of planar technologies (InP or SOI). I think there are still several years of R&D.
If Enablence is committed to planar technology development (that for me means a long term strategy), the acquisition makes sense only from the opportunity to have direct contact to systems (their customer) and the market (customer's customer) information base. I think it is an acquisition for building up the know-how to be a serious player, hopefully, in the future, in development of transceivers, blades, and subsystems.
I think that should not be underestimated the need of a close contact to final applications and the value to have a foot in it.
On the other side, I think that the "vertical integration" game is not a credible option.
re: Enablence Acquires Wave7A thought experiment: Lets see now....I am the purchasing agent from Cisco/SA and I can buy my components from a successful, PURE PLAY component manufacturer with a strong china manufacturing capability.....OR.....I can buy from an untested former component company that has never gotten a customer, and now has integrated system level OEM product that I certainly compete with.
re: Enablence Acquires Wave7yea- but 'still'.... avdnce SOI on PON margins? They don't fund the R&D for my company to upgrade the toilettes! See Tellabs
re: Enablence Acquires Wave7I have a vague recollection (and I would be the first to admit that it may be corrupted) that W7 was a lead customer for Optinetric's low-price transceivers, and then later a significant customer for Xponent's low-price transceivers. Perhaps they were tired of their key suppliers ceasing business without them.
Voice, video, data & wireless (triple, quadruple play) "Next Generation" or one size fits all so to speak, appears to be the game. Planar Technology may not be there now but who knows about tomorrow? GPON looks to be the standard and I view Enablence/W7 as trying to reinvent themselves and carving out a niche as a "Hybrid" components/equipment company that differentiates itself from a Chinese components/equipment company. The same would stand true for W7 access equipment for both telco and cable. I am guessing at some point in time AT&T along with Cable Companies and others will all run fiber to the home as technologies bring the cost down.
In the case of Enablence/W7, if you can't compete on the manufacturing side you have to compete and control the market on the technology side. If Enablence has the technology IE Erbium Doping (EDFA) Dense WaveLength Multiplexing (DWDM) etc. and can produce low cost highly efficient components for long haul optical applications you need a vehicle to put them in and maybe that's the logic with W7 OLT & ONT.
I suspect or more of a guess that is what Enablence/W7 are doing in order to survive. Both companies reinvent themselves as a Hybrid and create a line of hybrid OLTs and ONTs, license and private label the product. Either that or this is a consolidation of something larger to come but I would guess that it is for survival purposes in a highly competitive environment.