POET and Sanan IC Sign Definitive Agreement to Form Joint Venture Company

JV Aims to Disrupt the Data Center Transceiver Market with Superior Economics and Scale

TORONTO and XIAMEN, People's Republic of China, Oct. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- POET Technologies Inc. (“POET” or the “Company”) (TSX Venture: PTK; OTCQX: POETF), and Xiamen Sanan Integrated Circuit Co. Ltd. (”Sanan IC”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sanan Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. (Shanghai Stock Exchange, SSE: 600703) announced today that they have signed a definitive joint venture contract and have applied for the registration of Super Photonics Xiamen Co., Ltd. (“Super Photonics”) to offer a new generation of cost-effective, high-performance optical engines to transceiver module manufacturers, systems suppliers, data center operators and network providers globally.

POET and Sanan IC are forming Super Photonics with the signing today of the definitive joint venture agreements and the registration of the company in Xiamen, PRC. The venture has been capitalized with  a commitment of cash and manufacturing know-how from Sanan IC and intellectual property and design know-how from POET. Super Photonics will assemble, test, package and sell optical engines, a primary component of optical transceivers that transmit data between switches and servers in data centers and between data centers and metro areas.  Modular pluggable transceivers represent a major portion of the capital spending for equipment by companies such as Google, Alibaba, Facebook, Tencent and others engaged in building hyperscale data centers.

“Sanan IC is dedicating significant capital and management talent to this new joint venture,” said Raymond Cai, Chief Executive Officer of Sanan IC. “We strongly believe that by combining Sanan IC’s manufacturing capabilities and devices with POET’s advanced optical engine designs, Super Photonics will be able to offer highly attractive solutions to the data communications and telecommunications markets.”

“Super Photonics is both the culmination of a long path for POET and the beginning of a new phase in our growth and development as a company,” said Dr. Suresh Venkatesan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of POET Technologies, Inc. “We cannot overstate the importance of this moment and the depth of our commitment to making this joint venture a resounding success.”

Super Photonics intends to design, manufacture and sell products for a variety of applications, including optical engines for transceivers used in data centers and for the fiber-based segments of the 5G communications market, each among the highest growth segments of the data communications and telecommunications markets.