Country for PR: United States
Contributor: PR Newswire New York
Thursday, October 13 2022 - 17:00
AsiaNet
Alphawave IP Acquires Optical DSP Chip Developer Banias Labs, Advancing its Optical DSP Products for Data Centers
LONDON and HOD HASHARON, Israel, Oct. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

-- Alphawave IP Negotiates a Multi-Year Framework with a Leading North American 
Hyperscaler for a Potential Roadmap Delivering Over US$300 Million of Optical 
Products

Alphawave IP Group plc ("Alphawave" or "Company") (LN: AWE), a global leader in 
high-speed connectivity for the world's technology infrastructure today 
announced the acquisition of Banias Labs, an Israel-based optical Digital 
Signal Processing ("DSP") chip developer for data centers for approximately 
US$240 million. The acquisition strengthens Alphawave's roadmap of optical DSP 
silicon products for data centers, a core high growth market for Alphawave.  

Photo - 
https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1919775/Alphawave_IP_Group_Plc_Alphawave_IP_Acquires_Optical_DSP_Chip_De.jpg 
 

Alongside the acquisition of Banias Labs, Alphawave has negotiated a 
non-binding, multi-year purchasing framework with a leading North American 
hyperscaler that proposes a multi-year roadmap for Alphawave to develop and 
sell a portfolio of optical products and DSPs, including coherent DSP 
technology from Banias Labs, with sales potentially ramping to over US$300 
million. 

Tony Pialis, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alphawave said: "Banias 
Labs optical DSP technology provides a strong strategic advantage for 
Alphawave, strengthening our roadmap of DSP silicon solutions for data centers. 
This acquisition enhances our portfolio of electrical and optical solutions in 
the most advanced process technologies. The multi-year purchasing framework 
includes coherent optical solutions, and with the Banias acquisition, Alphawave 
is expanding its total addressable market by delivering next generation 
coherent optical solutions for the most advanced data centers."

John Lofton Holt, Executive Chairman of Alphawave said: "We are pleased to 
welcome the talented Banias Labs team to Alphawave. This acquisition aligns 
with the strategic priorities that we articulated at our IPO, expanding our 
technology portfolio in high-speed connectivity to support long-term growth. 
Coherent optics will enable the next level of efficiencies in data center 
communications, addressing the increasing bandwidth and power efficiency 
requirements."

About Coherent Optics

Coherent optics is the next evolution of optical solutions, the cornerstone of 
the industry's efforts to achieve 800G and 1.6T Ethernet speeds while 
maintaining the required reaches inside and outside of data centers and also 
significantly reducing power consumption. Coherent technology is predominantly 
used today in long reaches of over 100km connecting data centers and in 
telecommunications. Banias Labs' optical DSP technology strengthens Alphawave's 
optical products roadmap by targeting a growing opportunity for coherent 
optical technology intra-data center, as shorter reaches adopt this technology.

Furthermore, Alphawave believes the significant engagement from a leading North 
American hyperscaler reflects the importance of this technology for the future 
of data center connectivity. 

Key Acquisition Highlights

Key highlights are as follows:

    -- This acquisition brings silicon-proven optical DSP technology, 
       expanding Alphawave's product portfolio and strengthening its product 
       roadmap.

    -- Banias Labs' technology will expand Alphawave's addressable market and 
       deepen Alphawave's commercial partnership with a leading North 
       American hyperscaler.

    -- Alphawave is committed to becoming an industry leader with a broad 
       portfolio of PAM4 and Coherent DSPs, in the most advanced 
       technologies, and for all forms of Data Center connectivity.

Background on Banias Labs

Founded in 2020, Banias Labs(1) is a leading provider of coherent optical DSP 
semiconductor technology.  Based near Tel Aviv, Israel, the key core technology 
leaders have worked together for over two decades and have a long track record 
of success in the silicon, IP, and communications segments of semiconductors. 
Banias Labs currently has approximately 50 employees the majority of whom are 
R&D focused.

Banias Acquisition Closing Details

Alphawave has acquired 100% of the shares of Banias Labs for a total cash 
consideration of US$240 million paid upon closing.

The acquisition is funded out of existing cash and additional financing. 
Alphawave has obtained US$210 million of Senior Secured Credit Facilities, 
comprising a five-year US$110 million Revolving Credit Facility and a five-year 
US$100 million Term Loan. The Company's Pro Forma net debt position after close 
is expected to be approximately US$35 million. Alphawave expects to continue to 
have a strong cash flow generation profile which combined with the additional 
facilities provides a solid platform to navigate this period of accelerated 
business expansion.

Outlook

The Company expects the ramp of new Optical products to start in 2024 and 
profitability to improve from 2023 levels as products go into high-volume 
production and generate additional revenue. Alphawave anticipates additional 
revenue synergies given the complementary nature of the technology and its 
contribution to the product roadmap.  Alphawave reiterates its stand-alone 
outlook. Further details on the pro forma 2023 outlook and the long-term 
financial model will be communicated at the upcoming capital markets day on 13 
January 2023.

Trading for Q3 2022 has been strong and the Company will publish its trading 
update for Q3 2022 next week, on 17 October 2022.


(1) Banias Labs is the commercial name of Solanium Labs, the name under which 
the entity is registered in Israel.

Non-Binding Purchasing Framework Details

The non-binding purchasing framework agreement defines a potential portfolio of 
optical DSPs, including coherent solutions based on Banias technology, that 
Alphawave intends to develop over the next several years.  The Company 
anticipates ramping up sales to the leading hyperscaler over a multi-year 
period, with the potential for aggregate sales to exceed US$300 million, 
subject to the Company qualifying the products for use in the hyperscaler's 
data centers on a timely basis and ensuring sufficient silicon availability to 
meet its usage demands. The portfolio of optical DSPs continues to build on the 
leading connectivity technology that Alphawave has been delivering to the 
industry as silicon IPs.  In addition, the non-binding framework agreement 
contemplates the Company issuing future stock warrants of up to 2.5% of the 
issued share capital of the Company, with vesting based on purchases of 
Alphawave silicon products of up to US$700 million over the same period, and an 
exercise price based on the current trading price of the Company's shares, 
subject to downward adjustment if the Company's shares trade lower prior to 
issuance. The Company intends to solicit all required shareholder approvals, 
ahead of finalizing any warrant grants, which are not expected until at least 
2024.

Presentation and webcast

A presentation for investors and analysts will be held today, 13 October 2022, 
at 8.30am BST. The webcast will be accessible via:

https://awaveip.zoom.us/s/89082807240?pwd=ODdkSGxlNzZwb3JhR2w2a0pUQWxIUT09

Passcode: 747970

Or by phone:

US: +1 669 900 9128 / +1 719 359 4580 / +1 253 215 8782 
United Kingdom: +44 203 901 7895 / +44 208 080 6591 / +44 330 088 5830 

Webinar ID: 890 8280 7240
Full list of dial-in numbers available  https://awaveip.zoom.us/u/kegS2efSIo

A recording of the webcast and the presentation will be available later today 
on our website at Results, Reports & Presentations (awaveip.com) ( 
https://www.awaveip.com/en/investors/results-reports-presentations )

Trademarks

All registered trademarks and other trademarks belong to their respective 
owners.

Contact Information:
Alphawave IP Group plc 
John Lofton Holt, Executive Chairman 
Jose Cano, Global Head of IR
ir@awaveip.com 
+44 (0) 20 7717 5877

Brunswick Group
Simone Selzer
Sarah West
alphawave@brunswickgroup.com 
+44 (0) 20 7404 5959

Gravitate PR
Lisette Paras 
Wynton Yu
alphawave@gravitatepr.com 
+1 415 420 8420

About Alphawave IP Group plc (LSE:AWE)

Faced with the exponential growth of data, Alphawave IP's technology services a 
critical need: enabling data to travel faster, more reliably and with higher 
performance at lower power. Alphawave IP is a global leader in high-speed 
connectivity for the world's technology infrastructure. Our IP and custom 
silicon solutions therefore meet the needs of global tier-one customers in data 
centers, compute, networking, AI, 5G, autonomous vehicles, and storage. Founded 
in Toronto, Canada in 2017, by an expert technical team with a proven track 
record in licensing semiconductor IP, our mission is to focus on the 
hardest-to-solve connectivity challenges. To find out more about Alphawave IP, 
visit: awaveip.com ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3675188-1&h=2756367379&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.awaveip.com%2F&a=awaveip.com 
)

This announcement is issued by Alphawave IP Group plc (the "Company") and 
contains information which is deemed by the Company to constitute inside 
information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No.596/2014 as 
amended by The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. By the 
publication of this Announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this 
inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. The person 
responsible for arranging for the release of this Announcement on behalf of the 
Company is Link Company Matters Limited, acting as Company Secretary.

SOURCE Alphawave IP Group Plc