Short Take: Optical buys total $38 billion over 18 months

Acquisitions in the optical networking sector totaled $37.8 billion over the past 18 months, according to a report by the Aberdeen Group. Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks led the wave of consolidation, gobbling up smaller start-ups with new fiber-optic communications technologies. Key segments targeted for takeovers included metropolitan area networking and optical switching, Aberdeen said.