April 15, 2005 – TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. has entered into an agreement to sell its optoelectronics operations in Breinigsville, PA, and Matamoros, Mexico, to CyOptics, a private optical components manufacturer headquartered in Lehigh Valley, PA, according to a joint company annoucement.
The sale is an asset sale including the products, manufacturing equipment, inventory, the Mexican entity, related IP rights and other assets that constitute the operation that manufactures InP optical chips and components for the optical networking market.
TriQuint will continue to support current optical customers and products based on GaAs not associated with the operations in PA and Mexico. CyOptics plans to employ the vast majority of TriQuint’s approximately 100 employees in Pennsylvania and approximately 150 in Mexico.
Separately, TriQuint announced on March 11, 2005, that it had entered into an agreement to sell its nearly 850,000 sq ft optoelectronics facility and surrounding property in Breinigsville, PA, to Anthem Partners, LLC, an affiliate of MRA Group of Plymouth Meeting, PA. MRA intends to transform the existing facility into an advanced technology center, featuring a combination of technology research and development, bio-medical engineering, high-tech manufacturing, and a related education advancement and conference center.
CyOptics will lease approximately 90,000 sq ft of space in this facility for its operations once it has completed its purchase of the business from TriQuint.
Completion of both transactions is subject to customary closing conditions; TriQuint anticipates the sale to CyOptics will close by the end of this month and the sale to Anthem by the end of May 2005.
Commenting on the sale, Ralph Quinsey, TriQuint president and CEO, stated, “TriQuint’s total consideration from the sale of the building and the business will be approximately $32 million and will result in a one-time gain of between $7 million and $8 million. We will also receive a minority ownership share in CyOptics. We now intend to turn our full attention to our growing businesses in the wireless handset, base station, defense and wireless broadband access markets building on our portfolio of successful semiconductor and filter products.”