Nokia announced an agreement to acquire Elenion Technologies, a US-based specialist in silicon photonics technology, for an undisclosed sum. The takeover is expected to help Nokia strengthen its business in optical connectivity equipment for growing segments such as 5G, cloud and enterprise networking.
Ownership of the Echelon silicon design and packaging assets will bring time-to-market and cost advantages, Nokia said. Its products can be readily integrated into Nokia’s offerings and address multiple high-growth segments, while Nokia's scale should help Elenion ramp up its development.
Elenion develops highly integrated, low-cost silicon photonics for short-reach and high-performance optical interfaces and has pioneered a design toolset which enables a greatly simplified, low cost, scalable manufacturing process. The Elenion platform simplifies integration with optical chipsets, lowers power consumption, improves port density and helps to lower the overall cost per bit for network operators, Nokia said.
Founded in 2014, Elenion is privately held and headquartered in New York. The planned transaction is expected to close in Q1, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
