INTEL SAID it has agreed to sell the enterprise and storage bits of its Optical Platform Division and its Connects Cables business to Emcore.

The deal includes intellectual property, bits and bobs relating to tunable lasers, tunable transponders, 300-pin transponders and integrable tunable laser assemblies as well as optical cable interconnects for high-performance computing clusters, the firms announced today. The transaction is subject to regulatory review yet is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008,

If we understand the deal correctly, Emcore will hand Intel 3.7 million shares of restricted stock for the acquisition, depending on what the outfit is worth twelve months after the closing of the transaction.

Both firms were being very nice about each other in the statements they made today.

Reuben F. Richards, Executive Chairman, of Emcore said this second acquisition from Intel - it earlier bought up some telecoms equipment from the chip maker - "enables Emcore’s Fiber Optics to be a significant supplier for both telecom and datacom products.”

His firm expects the deal will be worth $45 million in revenue for the next 12 months, if it incrreases gross margin from 23 to 29 per cent. The firm expects the Connects Cables business to be even more lucrative, delivering gross margins exceeding 50 per cent "and to be the fastest growing segment of the acquired assets.”

Intel committed to working together with Emcore "to complete a smooth transition of these businesses, building upon the experience in the telecom optical components acquisition."

The sale will enable Intel to focus its investments on core communications and embedded market segments in line
with its platform strategies, the firm said. This includes efforts on the universal serial bus 3.0 specification, which is slated to support optical, and silicon photonics research and development.

Emcore also makes solar cells. µ