Broadcom will acquire Teknovus, a leading supplier of Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) chipsets and software for approximately $123 million in cash.
Teknovus offers silicon for EPON at 1G, 2.5G and 10G speeds. It offers both Central Office (OLT) and the Customer Premises (ONU) solutions. The company claims its products are deployed by more than 35 service providers around the world. 
The companies note that EPON represents approximately 94% of the FTTx (e.g. Fiber-to-the-Home) connections in the Asia Pacific region. According to the Dell'Oro Group, the Asia Pacific PON market is expected to grow from 22.8 million to 94.5 million subscribers by 2014, a CAGR of 33% (2009-2014).
"Broadcom is known globally for its Ethernet switching expertise," said Greg Caltabiano, President and CEO, Teknovus. "As the EPON market segment evolves and expands, technologies from both companies can be combined to enable a higher performance, lower cost EPON-based access infrastructure."
Broadcom expects that the acquisition of Teknovus will be approximately neutral to earnings per share in 2010.
http://www.teknovus.com
http://www.broadcom.comIn December 2009, Teknovus introduced its the Intelligent EPON Node Controller, a system-on-chip solution that facilitates evolution of the PON network by extending central office (OLT) to subscriber (ONU) distances up to 100 km and by supporting connections to over 1,000 subscriber ONUs. Teknovus' TK3401 Intelligent EPON Node Controller also supports remote management, configuration and upgrade, protection switching, and low power operation. Key features of the TK3401 Intelligent EPON Node Controller include:
- Up to 100 km extended service coverage to reach remote subscribers and support consolidation of central office and cable head-end facilities.
- High OLT port efficiency and cost savings through aggregation of lightly-loaded and geographically dispersed subscriber ONUs; particularly important for cable MSOs supporting subscribers in rural deployments
- Maximized fiber capacity for multiple dwelling unit (MDU) deployments, supporting up to 1,000 subscribers with FTTH (fiber to each unit).
Teknovus noted that China will end 2009 with more than 16 million EPON subscribers (according to China Telecom), slightly exceeding the 15 million forecast for Japan. With several million additional subscribers in Korea, Eastern Europe and the US, the total EPON subscriber forecast is well over 35 million for year-end 2009.
