CORNING, N.Y., April 25 -- Corning Inc. has agreed to acquire the remaining equity in NZ Applied Technologies Corp. (NZAT) of Woburn, Mass., for up to $150 million in Corning common stock. Under the terms of the agreement, a significant portion of the purchase price is contingent upon NZAT achieving certain product development milestones following the completion of the transaction. Corning acquired an initial 20-percent share in NZAT in 1999.
In making the announcement, Jean-Louis Malinge, Corning's business director for passive components, stated, The rapidly growing demand for broadband communications services, such as high-speed Internet connections and on-line video, is outstripping the capacity of communications service providers. To achieve greater functionality, companies are accelerating the deployment of dense wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems. NZAT is developing a line of high speed, solid-state, OptoCeramic components for dense WDM systems, such as variable optical attenuators , that will meet industry demands for speed, quality and reduced size. Malinge said that Corning intends to leverage NZAT's expertise in micro-optic component development to create new products required in photonic networks.