Arvind Chhatbar.

Enablence Technologies Inc. is set to make its third purchase in less than two years, this time Georgia-based Wave7 Optics Inc.

The Ottawa-based maker of planar lightwave circuit (PLC)-based components for the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) market said it has signed a definitive agreement to buy Wave7 for US$10.5 million plus 2,078,385 common shares of Enablence, which were worth $1.69 each at closing on Monday on the TSX Venture Exchange.

"This is an exciting acquisition for Enablence as Wave7 Optics is a recognized global leader in the FTTH systems market with a customer base of over a hundred FTTH service providers," said Enablence CEO Arvind Chhatbar in a statement.

Wave7 Optics, of Alpharetta, Ga., provides FTTH systems that deliver voice, video and data services, including its Trident7 universal access platform that supports Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (GE-PON) systems and Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) systems, as well as point-to-point Ethernet.

In an interview with the OBJ, Mr. Chhatbar said the acquisition would allow the company to become fully integrated into the optical network terminal and expand to the other international markets in which it doesn't currently have a large presence.

"It'll allow us to move higher up in the food chain ... we're currently in the Asian and North American markets, and this opens up the rest of the world – Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and elsewhere," he said. "As a result of this deal, we will become a very, very competitive company in terms of being vertically integrated, backward- and forward-integrated, with all the advantages a company normally has at both sides of the equation, both component and full systems."

Enablence in February wrapped up its $35-million acquisition of optical wafer maker ANDevices Inc., and in March 2007 bought Swiss photodiode manufacturer Albis Optoelectronics for $6.2 million.

Despite these varied purchases, Mr. Chhatbar said he isn't worried about Enablence expanding too quickly or becoming too diversified, since the company's recent buys have been of small, "manageable" firms.

Mr. Chhatbar declined to disclose Wave7's financials, since it is still a private company until the deal is fully wrapped up.

No layoffs are expected as a result of the acquisition, which is scheduled to close by May 15.