Valdor seems interesting on the surface for sure, with LM starting to eval their connectors.

I am well versed in this area - lived the startup life in fiber optic companies for several years and hold several patents myself.

Do a google patent search on Kurt Francis Yuma and you will see my background. I spent a ton of time through the "boom" in China and Korea, evaluation technologies ofr corporate mergers/take overs.

I can say with confidence that I know fiber optic products like Hoov knows minning!

Which brings me to my first issue with Valdor:

On their website they state: "nearly 15 patents (either granted or pending)" (I love reading patents!) BUT they only have 3 patents listed (and one of them - the most important for the impact products does NOT list Valdor as an Assignee).

Fiber optic ferrule
US Pat. 7409135 - Filed Mar 30, 2007

Optical fiber mounting and cleaving device and method
US Pat. 6510271 - Filed Jan 7, 2000 - Valdor Fiber Optics, Inc.

Connector for impact mounted bundled optical fiber devices
US Pat. 7048446 - Filed Feb 18, 2004 - Valdor Fiber Optics, Inc.

Now if you do a search of Michel Y Rondeau (the president and CEO) you find something interesting....more patents.....for other companies.....why weren't these other companies mentioned in his bio - given the dates that these patents were filed for Valquest Medical, Fibotech, He was already running Valdor.

High precision fiberoptic alignment spring receptacle and fiberoptic probe
US Pat. 5548674 - Filed May 23, 1994 - Fibotech, Inc., Valquest Medical, Inc.
Inventor: Michel Y. Rondeau, San Jose, Calif. ...

Fiberoptic connector assembly and method and device for the manufacture thereof
US Pat. RE36231 - Filed Dec 12, 1994 - Fibotech, Inc.
Inventor: Michel Y. Rondeau, San Jose, Calif. ...

Heat insulating connector for plastic optical fibers
US Pat. 5502784 - Filed Jul 1, 1994 - Valquest Medical, Inc., Fibotech, Inc.
Inventor: Michel Y. Rondeau

Double impact mounted ferrule for fiberoptic connector
US Pat. 6000857 - Filed Jan 12, 1998
United States Patent Rondeau ... IMPACT MOUNTED FERRULE FOR FIBEROPTIC CONNECTOR
[76] Inventor: Michel Y. Rondeau, 7110 Clarendon St., San Jose, Calif. ...

Metal core fiberoptic connector plug for single fiber and multiple fiber ...
US Pat. RE35734 - Filed Aug 29, 1994 - Fibotech, Inc.
Inventor: Michel Y. Rondeau, San Jose, Calif.

Connector for impact mounted bundled optical fiber devices
US Pat. 7048446 - Filed Feb 18, 2004 - Valdor Fiber Optics, Inc.
Inventors: Michel Y. Rondeau, Reno, NV (US); Israel M. Miranda, San Jose, ...

Autoclavable endoscope
US Pat. 5810713 - Filed Jul 10, 1996 - Valquest Medical, Inc., Fibotech, Inc.
Inventors: Michel Y. Rondeau, San Jose,

Cable with flexible high pressure equipment enclosure material and method of ...
US Pat. 4785139 - Filed May 30, 1986 - American Telephone and Telegraph Company, AT&T Bell Laboratories
Inventors: John F. Lynch,
Boonton Township, Morris County, NJ; Michel Y. Rondeau, San Jose, Calif. ...

[APPLICATION] Impact mounted bundled optical fiber devices
US Pat. 10313977 - Filed Dec 6, 2002

Inventors: Michel Y. Rondeau, Reno, NY (US); Shin-Lo Chia, Fremont, CA (US);

So if you add up all those patents from other companies and private individuals, you have 11 - which is "nearly 15".

Soo...where does this lead us....Fibotech Inc:

Fibotech, Inc. is located at 155 Gunderson Dr Menlo Park, CA 94025. Fibotech, Inc. was incorporated on Wednesday, June 25, 1997 in the State of CA and is currently not active. Michel Y Rondeau represents Fibotech, Inc. as their registered agent.

and now Valquest Inc:

Incorporated by Herbert H Spoon, Valquest Medical, Inc. is located at 2200 B Zanker Rd San Jose, CA 95131. Valquest Medical, Inc. was incorporated on Tuesday, May 31, 1994 in the State of CA and is currently not active. Michel Y Rondeau represents Valquest Medical, Inc. as their registered agent.

So what does this mean? I could imagine good things and bad...not enough info to go either direction - just don't like the feel of it. No mention these on the bio - smells funny especially since they share the technology.

The 2nd issue I have with them is there suite of products.....

• Build Out Attenuators
• Couplers & Splitters
• Wavelength Division Multiplexer
• Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexer
• Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexer

If these have some new technology - where is it? No patents...or patent applications listed.

These have the shape/form of "me too" products with nothing new or revolutionary. Nothing wrong with that - but if you invest in this area you need to know! IF this is the case then they are in competition with JDSU and other big guys, and will not be a takeover target based on these products. Getting small orders to survive makes a company last, but won't give the type of returns that we have seen in the miners.

3rd issue:

Note who the share holders are. No Venture Capital guys, there is a reason for that.

4th issue:

Selling connectors might seem like an easy thing. "hey my stuff is better buy this". When you connect fiber you have to have two connectors that are the same (duh, seems obvious) if I have an exteranl pigtail with a high impact connector comming into this existing rack of equipment - I can only use it if I get behind the rack and replace that connector as well. This leads us to the selling point - retrofit your current connectors with ours....hard sell especially since these existing connectors aren't really a source of any network failures.

The corporate presentation tells us about all the fiber under the ocean - Valdor Fiber optics does not sell under sea connectors - these are totally different animals.

Here are a couple of other questions:

Where is the data from the enviromental qualification testing on this connector design?

How did you test/verify for "hermetic" sealing of the fiber? (this is a non-trival exercise)

I rather enjoyed reading these patents - and they have some interesting ideas on the traditional connector - like to see some data on reliability and enviromental though.

SD