NeoPhotonics started life making nanoparticles. In 2002 it spun off that business, took a new name, and bet everything on photonic integrated circuits: chips that steer light the way ordinary chips steer electricity. By 2011 its modules carried data at 10, 40 and 100 gigabits a second inside the networks of phone and cable companies. Smartphones and online video were filling those networks faster than carriers could add capacity.

From NanoGram to Light

The company was incorporated in Delaware in 1996 as NanoGram Corporation. Tim Jenks became chief executive in 1998. In November 2002 it spun out two companies, renamed itself NeoPhotonics, and focused on optical parts for communications networks. It built many of its products in its own factories in Shenzhen, China. By its IPO it sold more than 300 products, including ROADMs, which shift bandwidth around a network as traffic changes.

Ten Years to Lumentum

NeoPhotonics priced 7.5 million shares at $11 in February 2011 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as NPTN. The next decade brought tough price competition in optical parts. The company turned to faster products for data centers and long-haul links, including 400-gigabit modules. In November 2021 Lumentum agreed to buy NeoPhotonics for $16 a share in cash. The deal closed in August 2022, and the stock left the NYSE.

Cover: Catching Fireflies, Eishosai Choki. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for fireflies in the dark (points of light).