Date: 1st Sept 2010

Atheros acquires Opulan to expand into PON and MUX areas

Atheros has completed the acquisition of Opulan, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in solutions for passive optical networking (PON) and broadband access aggregation (MUX). Athero says that this acquisition expands Atheros' platform solutions for its networking customers worldwide, and enhances its strong R&D capabilities and customer relationships in Asia.

Atheros plan to use Opulan's 1G/10G EPON (Ethernet PON) and MUX technologies to provide carriers with an end-to-end (WAN-to-LAN) broadband architecture for the home and multi-dwelling unit (MDU) using. By tightly integrating the carrier transport mechanisms with its high-performance Gigabit Ethernet solutions, Atheros offers a carrier-class fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) platform that delivers Gigabit optical broadband access from the central office to the gateway, and then intelligently routes the traffic within the home using Atheros' Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Powerline and hybrid connectivity solutions.

According to Infonetics Research, the market for PON equipment will more than double between 2009 and 2014. The ramp in PON demand is being driven by the global upgrade of existing broadband infrastructure to support ever-increasing bandwidth needs for video delivery and content sharing from the network cloud into and around homes and MDUs.

Atheros paid approximately $72 million to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Opulan, and may pay additional cash to Opulan shareholders subject to the attainment of earn-out objectives applicable to the acquired business during a 12-month period following the closing date. The purchase price was paid in cash, with a portion placed into escrow pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement.