Avago Technologies, a US-based networking technology company, has agreed to buy CyOptics, an optical chip maker backed by peers such as Cisco and Intel, for $400m.
Avago said the acquisition of CyOptics would help its fibre optics product portfolio for emerging 40G and 100G enterprise and data centre applications. Last year, CyOptics had net sales of $210m, up 21% from 2011.
Cowen and Company provided a fairness opinion to Avago on the deal and law firm Latham & Watkins was legal counsel, with Raymond James & Associates as CyOptics’ financial adviser and Goodwin Procter as the company’s law firm.
CyOptics had reportedly previously stopped its stock market flotation plans and raised about $180m in private funding
Its largest investors were reported to have included growth capital firm TA Associates with a 35% stake, although venture capital firm Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) owned 50%, according to news provider Haaretz.
CyOptics was founded in 1999 by JVP and Semi-Conductor Devices, a joint venture between Elbit Systems and Israel state-owned Raphael Advanced Defense Systems.
In June 2011, CyOptics completed its targeted $50m offering, according to a regulatory filing.
In October 2005, CyOptics raised $27m in its series F round, including $7.5m of debt from Comerica Bank, from a consortium of venture capital firms Birchmere Ventures, JVP, Sprout Group, TowerBrook Capital Partners, and Eurofund.
A year earlier, CyOptics’ series D round raised $10m from a consortium that included France Telecom’s then-corporate venturing unit, Innovacom.
In October 2000, CyOptics raised $57m from Cisco Systems, Corning, Intel Capital, Vitesse Semiconductor and ll CyOptics original investors that had previously provided $20m, including Jerusalem Venture Partners, SCD, Soros Private Equity Partners, Sprout Group, Innovacom, Natexis, and Eurofund.