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FNSR
Finisar Corporation

5/19/2013, 10:43 PM ET
Quote & Headlines Market Currents StockTalk Description

We are a leading provider of optical subsystems and components that connect short-distance local area networks, or LANs, and storage area networks, or SANs, and longer distance metropolitan area networks, or MANs and wide area networks, or WANs. Our optical subsystems consist primarily of transmitters, receivers, transceivers and transponders which provide the fundamental optical-electrical interface for connecting the equipment used in building these networks. These products rely on the use of semiconductor lasers and photodetectors in conjunction with integrated circuit design and novel packaging technology to provide a cost-effective means for transmitting and receiving digital signals over fiber optic cable at speeds ranging from less than 1 gigabits per second, or Gbps, Gbps to 40 Gbps, using a wide range of network protocols and physical configurations over distances of 70 meters to 200 kilometers. We supply optical transceivers and transponders that allow point-to-point communications on a fiber using a single specified wavelength or, bundled with multiplexing technologies, can be used to supply multi-gigabit bandwidth over several wavelengths on the same fiber. We also provide products for dynamically switching network traffic from one optical wavelength to another across multiple wavelengths known as reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers, or ROADMs. Our line of optical components consists primarily of packaged lasers and photodetectors used in transceivers for LAN and SAN applications and passive optical components used in building MANs. Our manufacturing operations are vertically integrated, and we utilize internal sources for many of the key components used in making our products including lasers, photodetectors and integrated circuits, or ICs, designed by our internal IC engineering teams. We also have internal assembly and test capabilities that make use of internally designed equipment for the automated testing of our optical subsystems and components.

We sell our optical products to manufacturers of storage systems, networking equipment and telecommunication equipment or their contract manufacturers, such as Alcatel-Lucent, Brocade, Cisco Systems, EMC, Emulex, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard Company, Huawei, IBM, Juniper, Qlogic, Siemens and Tellabs. These customers, in turn, sell their systems to businesses and to wireline and wireless telecommunications service providers and cable TV operators, collectively referred to as carriers.

We also provide network performance test systems primarily to leading SAN equipment manufacturers such as Brocade, EMC, Emulex, Hewlett-Packard Company and Qlogic for testing and validating system designs.

We were incorporated in California in April 1987 and reincorporated in Delaware in November 1999. Our principal executive offices are located at 1389 Moffett Park Drive, Sunnyvale, California 94089, and our telephone number at that location is (408) 548-1000.

Recent Developments

Combination with Optium Corporation

On August 29, 2008, we completed a business combination with Optium Corporation, a leading designer and manufacturer of high performance optical subsystems for use in telecommunications and cable cable television, or CATV, network systems, through the merger of Optium with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Finisar. We believe that the combination of the two companies created the world’s largest supplier of optical components, modules and subsystems for the communications industry and will leverage Finisar’s leadership position in the storage and data networking sectors of the industry and Optium’s leadership position in the telecommunications and CATV, sectors to create a more competitive industry participant. In addition, as a result of the combination, we expect to realize cost synergies related to operating expenses and manufacturing costs resulting from (1) the transfer of production to lower cost locations, (2) improved purchasing power associated with being a larger company and (3) cost synergies associated with the integration of components into product designs previously purchased in the open market by Optium. At the closing of the merger, we issued 160,808,659 shares of Finisar common stock, valued at approximately $242.8 million, in exchange for all of the outstanding common stock of Optium.

We have accounted for the combination using the purchase method of accounting and as a result have included the operating results of Optium in our consolidated financial results since the August 29, 2008 consummation date. The Optium results are included in our optical subsystems and components segment. Reference is made to “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for additional information regarding the impact of the combination with Optium on our results of operations.

Pending Sale of Network Performance Test System Business

Historically, we have offered our line of network performance test systems through our Network Tools Division. On July 8, 2009, we entered into an agreement to sell substantially all of the assets of the Network Tools Division (excluding accounts receivable and payable) to JDS Uniphase Corporation (“JDSU”) for $40.6 million in cash. JDSU will assume certain liabilities associated with the network performance test equipment business, and we will provide manufacturing support services to JDSU during a transition period. The sale is expected to be completed on or about July 15, 2009.

Exchange Offers

On July 9, 2009, the Company announced that it had commenced separate concurrent “Modified Dutch Auction” tender offers (each an “Exchange Offer” and together, the “Exchange Offers”) to exchange shares of its common stock and cash for an aggregate of up to $95 million principal amount of the following series of its outstanding convertible notes (the “Notes”):

2.50% Convertible Subordinated Notes due 2010 (the “Subordinated Notes”); and

2.50% Convertible Senior Subordinated Notes due 2010 (the “Senior Subordinated Notes”)

The Company is conducting the Exchange Offers in order to reduce the aggregate principal amount of its outstanding indebtedness. As of July 9, 2009, approximately $50 million aggregate principal amount of the Subordinated Notes and approximately $92 million aggregate principal amount of the Senior Subordinated Notes were outstanding.

The Company is offering to exchange up to an aggregate of $37.5 million principal amount, or 75%, of the outstanding Subordinated Notes. The Company will also exchange up to an aggregate of $57.5 million principal amount, or 62.5%, of the outstanding Senior Subordinated Notes, with such Exchange Offer being conditioned on a minimum of $42 million principal amount of Senior Subordinated Notes being validly tendered and not withdrawn.

For each $1,000 principal amount of Notes, tendering holders will receive consideration with a value not greater than $750 nor less than $700 (the “Exchange Consideration”), with such value determined by a “Modified Dutch Auction” procedure, plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the settlement date, payable in cash. A separate “Modified Dutch Auction” procedure will be conducted for each of the Exchange Offers. A “Modified Dutch Auction” tender offer allows holders of the Notes to indicate the principal amount of Notes that such holders desire to tender and the consideration within the specified range at which they wish to tender such Notes for each Exchange Offer. The mix of Exchange Consideration will consist of (i) $525 in cash, and (ii) a number of shares of common stock with a value equal to the Exchange Consideration minus $525 (the “Equity Consideration”). The number of shares of common stock representing the Equity Consideration to be received by holders as part of the Exchange Consideration will be determined on the basis of the trading price of the common stock during a 5-trading day VWAP period (the “5-day VWAP”) starting on July 13 and ending on July 17, 2009, as further described in a Schedule TO (including the Offer to Exchange and related Letter of Transmittal attached as exhibits thereto) filed by Finisar with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on July 9, 2009.

The portion of the Exchange Consideration consisting of cash will be paid using a portion of the approximately $40.6 million in aggregate proceeds to be received from the sale of the Company’s Network Tools Division, expected to be consummated on or about July 15, 2009, and with available cash and borrowings.

The Exchange Offers are scheduled to expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Thursday, August 6, 2009, unless they are extended. Tendered Notes may be withdrawn at any time on or prior to the expiration of the Exchange Offers.

Further information regarding the terms and conditions of the Exchange Offers is set forth in the Offer to Exchange, the Letter of Transmittal and related materials filed with the SEC. Amended Credit Facilities

We are a party to credit agreements with Silicon Valley Bank (the “SVB Agreements”) which provide, subject to certain restrictions and limitations, credit facilities up to $65 million, including $45 million under a secured revolving line of credit, $16 million under an accounts receivable purchase line of credit and $4 million under a credit line for standby letters of credit. Currently, we have no borrowings outstanding under any of these facilities, although borrowings available under the secured revolving line of credit are currently limited to $25 million based on financial covenants contained in the SVB Agreements. On July 8, 2009, the Company received a written commitment from Silicon Valley Bank to modify the Company’s existing credit facilities under the SVB Agreements in order to facilitate the Exchange Offers. Principal modifications include:

A reduction in the total size of the Company’s secured revolving line of credit from $45 million to $25 million; and

Revised covenants that permit the use of borrowings under the secured revolving line of credit for a portion of the Exchange Consideration in connection with the Exchange Offers and the use of up to an aggregate of $50 million of cash from all sources for that purpose.

Industry Background and Markets

Optical Subsystems and Components

Industry Background

Computer networks are frequently described in terms of the distance they span and by the hardware and software protocols used to transport and store data. The physical medium through which signals are best transmitted over these networks depends on the amount of data or bandwidth to be transmitted, expressed as gigabits per second, or Gbps, and the distance involved. Voice-grade copper wire can only support connections of about 1.2 miles without the use of repeaters to amplify the signal, whereas optical systems can carry signals in excess of 60 miles without further processing. Early computer networks had relatively limited performance requirements, short connection distances and low transmission speeds and, therefore, relied almost exclusively on copper wire as the medium of choice. At speeds of more than 1 Gbps, the ability of copper wire to transmit more than 300 meters is limited due to the loss of signal over distance as well as interference from external signal generating equipment. The proliferation of electronic commerce, communications and broadband entertainment has resulted in the digitization and accumulation of enormous amounts of data. Thus, while copper continues to be the primary medium used for delivering signals to the desktop, even at 1 Gbps, the need to quickly transmit, store and retrieve large blocks of data across networks in a cost-effective manner has increasingly required enterprises and service providers to use fiber optic technology to transmit data at higher speeds over greater distances and to expand the capacity, or bandwidth, of their networks.

A LAN typically consists of a group of computers and other devices that share the resources of one or more processors or servers within a small geographic area and are connected through the use of hubs (used for broadcasting data within a LAN), switches (used for sending data to a specific destination in a LAN) and routers (used as gateways to route data packets between two or more LANs or other large networks). In order to switch or route optical signals to their ultimate destination, they must first be converted to electrical signals which can be processed by the switch, router or other networking equipment and then retransmitted as optical signals to the next switching point or ending destination. As a result, data networking equipment typically contains multiple connection points, or ports, in which various types of transceivers or transponders are used to transmit and receive signals to and from other networking equipment over various distances using a variety of networking protocols.

LANs typically use the Ethernet protocol to transport data packets across the network at distances of up to 500 meters at speeds of 1 to 10 Gbps. Because most residential and business subscriber traffic begins and ends over Ethernet, it has become the de facto standard user interface for connecting to the public network. And, while Ethernet was originally developed as a data-oriented protocol, it has evolved to support a wide range of services including digital voice and video as well as data. In response to continually increasing bandwidth and performance requirements, the Gigabit Ethernet standard, which allows LANs to operate at 1 Gbps, was introduced in 1998. A 10 Gbps version of Ethernet, or 10GigE, was introduced in 2002. We expect that pre-standard products capable of transmitting at 40 to 100 Gbps for Ethernet applications will reach the market in late 2009, including 40 Gbps products used for server connectivity and 100 Gbps products for core switching applications. Standards-compliant versions of these products are expected to become available following the expected June 2010 ratification of the 802.3ba standard.

A SAN is a high-speed subnetwork embedded within a LAN where critical data stored on devices such as disk arrays, optical disks and tape backup devices is made available to all servers on the LAN thereby freeing the network servers to deliver business applications, increasing network capacity and improving response time. SANs were originally developed using the Fibre Channel protocol designed for storing and retrieving large blocks of data. A SAN based on the Fibre Channel protocol typically incorporates the use of file servers containing host-bus adapters, or HBAs, for accessing multiple storage devices through one or more switches, thereby creating multiple paths to that storage. The Fibre Channel interconnect protocol, operating at 1 Gbps, was introduced in 1995 to address the speed, distance and connectivity limitations of copper-based storage solutions using the Small Computer Interface, or SCSI, interface protocol while maintaining backward compatibility with the installed base of SCSI-based storage systems. Products for the Fibre Channel protocol capable of transmitting at data rates of 2, 4 and 8 Gbps are now being delivered and products capable of 16 Gbps are currently in development.

A number of new storage technologies have been introduced to lower the cost and complexity of deploying Fibre Channel-based storage networks. Since its introduction in 2003, small and medium size storage networks have been developed based on the Internet Small Computer System Interface protocol, or iSCSI. Other solutions designed to reduce the cost of storage networks allow for the direct attachment of storage systems to the network without requiring a host, also known as Network Attached Storage, or NAS. In 2007, the Fibre Channel over Ethernet standard, or FCoE, was introduced which enables Fibre Channel data packets to be encapsulated within Enhanced Ethernet frames. This standard utilizes the additional bandwidth created at transmission speeds of 10 Gbps and higher to combine different types of data traffic for storage (Fibre Channel), LAN traffic (TCP/IP) and various server clustering protocols (Infiniband) that previously required their own separate infrastructure within a data center. As a result, FCoE will enable the creation of a single converged network within a data center, rather than two or three networks as previously required. Since a single server will be able to use a single network interface card to accommodate the various types of traffic in FCoE-based networks, the number of cables and connections in such a network can be reduced with fewer, but higher-speed connections. In addition, the FCoE protocol will be able to utilize Ethernet-based technology currently under development for transmitting signals at speeds of 40 and 100 Gbps.

Due to the cost effectiveness of the optical technologies involved, transceivers for both LANs and SANs have been developed using vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, or VCSELs, to transmit and receive signals at the 850 nanometer, or nm, wavelength over relatively short distances through multi-mode fiber. Most LANs and SANs operating today at 1, 2, 4 and 8 Gbps over distances of up to 70 meters, incorporate this VCSEL technology. The same technology is now being employed to build FCoE and iSCSI-based LANs and SANs operating at 10 Gbps.

A new market has emerged in recent years for the use of parallel optics technologies for high-capacity interconnects used in telecommunications applications to connect core IP routers and in the datacenter to interconnect SANs and servers and for high-performance computing clusters. This technology makes use of an array of lasers and photodetectors instead of using just one per transceiver to boost the amount of data that can be transmitted over a single fiber over very short distances. Optical interconnects provide for an attractive alternative to bulky copper cables as data rate and port densities increase allowing for fewer connections. Like the transceivers used for LANs and SANs, parallel optical solutions rely primarily on the use of VCSEL technology. A variation of parallel optics technology called active optical cable, or AOC, was introduced by several vendors in late 2007. These products eliminate the use of fiber connectors used in other parallel optical modules by bonding the fibers directly to the optical subassembly. According to industry analyst Lightcounting, demand for AOCs is expected to equal or exceed demand for other parallel optical solutions by 2012.