MRV Communications meets estimates, buys fiber optic firm

MRV Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: MRVC) met analysts' estimates in its fourth quarter Tuesday and announced it would pay $263 million to acquire Fiber Optic Communications Inc.

Also, company officials announced that it's exiting the LAN switching business.

MRV Communications shares closed up 11 13/16, or 13 percent, to a 52-week high of 102 5/16 ahead of the announcements.

In the quarter, MRV earned $669,000, or 2 cents a share, on sales of $74 million, up from the year-ago quarter when it made $239,000, or 1 cent a share, on sales of $74.8 million.

First Call consensus expected it to earn 2 cents a share in the quarter.

Fiber Optic Communications makes passive fiber optic components and products like couplers, isolators, attenuators and circulators.

MRV expects to merge FOCI with its optical access division prior to possibly spinning off the merged unit in an initial public offering.

It took a one-time charge of roughly $13.8 million in the quarter to get out of the LAN switching business.

Including the charge, MRV posted a net loss of 48 cents a share in the quarter.

Two of the three analysts tracking the stock maintain either a "buy" or "strong buy" recommendation.>