Lucent boosts chip business with cable TV buy

Lucent has further beefed up its microelectronics group by paying $2.95 billion for a company with technology that it claims can turn cable television into a two-way interactive communications medium.

The move follows the telecoms equipment giant's announcement last week that it had acquired the chip group of semiconductor components supplier, VTC, for $100 million.

Ortel, however, develops optoelectronic components for cable TV networks, which enable them to handle Internet telephony and provide high speed Web access.

John Dickson, executive vice president and chief executive of Lucent's microelectronics and communications technologies unit, said: "This acquisition marries our communications optoelectronics leadership with Ortel's expertise in optoelectronics for cable television, and positions us to support the converging needs of these markets."

Lucent will inherit Ortel's 10Gbps transmitter-receiver components that are used in optical communications networks and its 980nm uncooled pump lasers, which Lucent will include in amplifiers for metro fibre optic networks.