Acacia Communications History: Everything Investors Need to Know

When, in 2010, Oclaro (NASDAQ: OCLR) acquired optical networking supplier Mintera for $12 million in cash plus other incentives, it laid the groundwork for what would become one of its most successful upstart competitors: Acacia Communications (NASDAQ: ACIA).

"Oclaro's acquisition of Mintera is the latest in a series of strategic moves to increase our addressable market, better serve our customers, and outdistance our competition," said Alain Couder, former president and CEO of Oclaro, in a press release at the time. "Through this acquisition, Oclaro has taken another important step forward in building upon our leadership position in 40 Gbps [gigabit per second] regional and metro networks by broadening our product portfolio and systems expertise to expand into 40 Gbps LH [long haul] and the 100 Gbps Coherent markets."

Translation: Mintera is going to allow us to serve bigger networks with faster service over longer distances. Sounds good, right? There's just one problem: Key members of the team that developed Mintera's technology, including founder Benny Mikkelsen, had already started work on Acacia the year before the Oclaro deal.

Source: Fool.com