Arvind Chhatbar.

Ottawa's Enablence Technologies announced Thurday that the company has signed a definitive asset purchase agreement with DuPont Photonics Technologies LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DuPont.

The agreement will allow Enablence, a supplier of fiber-to-the-home equipment for triple-play residential and business services and optical components and subsystems, to acquire certain assets of DuPont Photonics based in the Boston suburb of Wilmington, Mass., subject to certain approvals, conditions and consents. Concurrent with the agreement, DuPont will make a cash investment in Enablence, the company said.

Under the terms of the agreement Enablence will issue common shares equivalent to US$9.5M, based on a 30-day average share price, prior to the closing of the transaction. All shares issued will be subject to a statutory 120-day hold period, the company said, adding conditions are expected to be satisfied on or before July 24, 2008.

DuPont Photonics has recently developed a switching fabric using planar lightwave circuits, and Enablence said Thursday all intellectual property and associated know-how concerning the technology will be transferred to Enablence under the terms of the agreement.

"DuPont Photonics' product portfolio is complementary to our current component and subsystems offerings and is consistent with our vertical integration strategy that allows us to build on our core technology strength with higher value added products," explained Arvind Chhatbar, CEO of Enablence, in a statement. "Our acquisitions allow us to focus on capturing innovative products and technologies that will help us solidify our planar lightwave circuit leadership position in the access, metro and long haul markets. We are also pleased with the investment DuPont is making in Enablence, which will permit us to continue to build on the product portfolio we are acquiring from DuPont."