News

2 December 2009

 

Presstek sells Lasertel to SELEX for $10m

Last week, SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems (US) Inc (SELEX S&AS) agreed to acquire high-power laser diode maker Lasertel Inc of Tucson, AZ from digital offset printing product maker Presstek Inc of Greenwich, CT for $10m. This comprises $8m in cash and about $2m worth of laser diode inventory for Presstek’s future product requirements (in its digital offset presses and computer-to-plate systems).

A supply agreement will be entered into that will provide the currently utilized laser diode product to Presstek at existing prices for a two-year period. Subject to regulatory approval in the USA and Europe, the transaction is expected to close in first-quarter 2010.

The disposal allows Presstek to focus on its core business and further reduce its debt, says the firm’s chairman, president & CEO Jeff Jacobson. “While selling Lasertel has been a key objective during the past year, we needed to ensure that we received an appropriate value for Lasertel,” he adds.

“This sale to SELEX S&AS will place Lasertel into a large organization whose core business is closely aligned with Lasertel’s mission,” says Presstek chairman, president & CEO Jeff Jacobson.

Headquartered in Arlington, VA (and with locations in Huntsville, AL; Stennis, MS; Fort Walton Beach, FL; and Norcross, GA), SELEX S&AS is a business development, marketing and US product support arm of Italy-based SELEX Galileo, which is part of Italian aerospace, defense, and security conglomerate Finmeccanica’s defense electronics business unit.

SELEX Galileo is focusing on strengthening its footprint in the USA and securing strategic technologies for its US business. The firm says that laser diodes sit well within this strategy and reinforce its position in the high-power airborne military laser market. “Acquisition of Lasertel will strengthen SELEX Galileo’s position in the US laser market and offer growth opportunities both with SELEX Galileo and through DRS Technologies [of Parsippany, NJ],” reckons SELEX Galileo’s operations director Norman Bone.

Lasertel will be managed as a subsidiary of SELEX S&AS operating under a special security agreement, fully owned by the UK part of SELEX Galileo. Lasertel will continue to act as a merchant supplier of laser diodes in the defense sector, and will continue to serve the graphics, medical and industrial markets.

SELEX S&AS will assume the current lease on Lasertel’s 35,000-square-foot MBE-based production facility in Tucson, from which in-house epitaxy, wafer processing and packaging enables delivery of a wide range of standard and customer-specific products. Lasertel’s chips, bars, array packages and fiber-coupled devices are available with peak wavelengths from 770nm to 1050nm, and peak powers from 200mW to several kW.

“This acquisition will support our continued growth in the market for laser diode components and assemblies,” says Lasertel’s president Mark McElhinney. “It will enable us to better serve our current customer base by supporting the development of new technologies and products,” he adds. “The transfer of ownership from Lasertel’s current parent, Presstek Inc is expected to be seamless for both customers and vendors, and no change or interruption in normal business processes is anticipated.”

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