OPXT Opnext, Inc. (MM)

Opnext Inc. (OPXT) recently announced that the company has rejected an unsolicited offer to be acquired for $1.40 per share on May 23, 2012. The company declined the offer as the merger offer with Oclaro Inc. (OCLR) was much superior to this offer. 

In March 2012, Oclaro announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire its peer Opnext Inc. for approximately $176 million.

Under the terms of agreement, Opnext shareholders will receive a fixed ratio of 0.42 shares of Oclaro common stock for every share of Opnext common stock they own.

Meanwhile, Opnext also stated that significant progress has been made on the pending merger with Oclaro and it is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2012.

The combined company will attain its much needed scale of economies to supply a wide range of products to telecom service providers. The merged entity can significantly reduce their costs of operations by shifting production facilities to the low-cost Asia Pacific region. Oclaro has already started moving its test and assembly facilities to Malaysia and Thailand. 

The merged entity is expected to achieve annualized cost synergies of $35 million to $45 million within 18 months of the close of the transaction. 

Chairman and CEO of Oclaro, Mr Alain Couder, will serve as chairman and CEO of the combined company. Upon closing, Harry Bosco, Chairman and CEO of Opnext will join the combined company's board of directors.

In tandem with other industries, the optical component industry is currently going through a downtrend. Major telecom carriers are making inventory correction and this scenario is expected to continue till mid 2012.

 
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