Finisar

In 1987, long before the internet was a household utility, Jerry Rawls and Frank Levinson founded Finisar in a Menlo Park Quonset hut with a specific goal: make optical networking affordable. They focused on creating cost-effective optical transceivers, the essential components that convert electrical signals to light and back again, enabling high-speed data transfer over fiber optic cables. This technology was fundamental, forming the basis for standards that would later define Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks. The company went public in November 1999, at the height of the dot-com boom, raising $149 million in its initial public offering. The timing was perfect, and the stock soared, marking one of the largest first-day gains in Wall Street history at that point. Finisar’s products were crucial for building the infrastructure of the burgeoning internet, powering everything from data centers to telecommunications networks. Over the next two decades, Finisar grew through strategic acquisitions and became a global leader in optical components, even partnering with giants like Apple to supply lasers for facial recognition technology. The journey culminated in 2019 when the company was acquired by II-VI Incorporated for approximately $3.2 billion. This merger created a formidable powerhouse in the photonics and compound semiconductor industry, combining two complementary leaders to serve a new wave of technology in 5G, cloud computing, and autonomous vehicles.