2:15 PM -- SAN DIEGO -- OFC/NFOEC -- Stray thoughts on consolidation in the optical components industry:

On the odds of a deal actually happening soon: "A year ago, it was maybe 50/50. I think it's crossed that point now," says Ed Cornejo, director of product marketing at Opnext Inc. (Nasdaq: OPXT).

One possibility: Someone from the outside could collect several companies to create a challenger to JDSU (Nasdaq: JDSU; Toronto: JDU). That implies the participation of public equity firms -- and the executive who mentioned this idea to me went on to say the public equity guys haven't been coming around calling.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading

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