June 6, 2002 — Alcatel Optronics said it’s selling its MEMS operation in the Netherlands as part of a massive cost-cutting plan.

A spokeswoman for the independently operated optical parts business of French-based Alcatel SA said it would sell its 40-person unit in Enschede, which makes MEMS and planar waveguide software. The Dutch operation’s management is expected to buy the business by month’s end.

The site became part of Alcatel Optronics last year, when it bought Kymata Ltd., a Scottish developer of planar waveguides for optical networking. In 2000, Kymata acquired a Dutch firm, then known as Twente MicroProducts, which specialized primarily in MEMS-based gas sensors.

“We took the telecom-related MEMS (from Kymata) and it’s now part of Alcatel Optronics UK,” said Charlotte Laurent-Ottomane, vice president of investor relations and corporate communications. “What’s left is non-telecom, and not core to Alcatel Optronics’ business.”

She said the other part of the Dutch operation, the planar software design team, will work exclusively with Alcatel Optronics for at least one year.

Overall, the company plans to cut its global workforce by 25 percent to 1,350 people by year’s end. The company will take a $56.4 million charge for the restructuring.