NEPEAN, Ontario, Canada, July 1 -- JDS FITEL Inc. and Uniphase Corp. have announced that their respective shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposed merger that will form JDS Uniphase Corp. At the Uniphase meeting, shareholders approved proposals to change the company's name to JDS Uniphase, to double the number of authorized shares of common stock from 100 million to 200 million, and to increase the number of shares of common stock available under the employee stock purchase plan from 1 million to 2.5 million. The merger is expected to be complete by early July, and is conditional upon a final order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Jozef Straus, president and CEO of JDS FITEL, said, I am gratified by the strong show of support by our shareholders for the merger. Kevin Kalkhoven, chairman and CEO of Uniphase, added, With the overwhelming endorsement of our stockholders, we are looking forward to completing the merger and providing our customers with a broader range of solutions. The voting results show that our stockholders support us in creating a company with a greater depth and breadth of products and technologies to support the rapidly growing fiber optics industry.