SAN JOSE -- Sanmina-SCI has signed a definitive agreement to acquire fellow EMS firm BreconRidge in a deal valued at $53 million, including equity and the assumption of certain liabilities. The acquisition would extend the top tier EMS firm's reach into RF and optoelectronic manufacturing.

In a conference call with analysts last night, Sanmina-SCI chairman Jure Sola said the deal is expected to add $250 million to $300M in revenue in the next 12 months and would be accretive within the first year. The Breconridge deal took about 12 months to wrap, Sanmina said. "We have been expanding into the optical capabilities in the last couple of years, and Sanmina is well positioned, but to really take this capability to the next level, we felt that we needed this acquisition," Sola said.

According to the CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Top 50, Ottawa-Canada based Breconridge had 2009 sales of $223.5 million, good for 45th place worldwide. However, Sanmina indicated the company's current run rate is about $45 million per quarter.

Optical products bring better margins to traditional SMT, Sola said. "We hope that, if you look at optical capabilities, we have $500 million to $600 million capabilities right now, and it could be a $1 billion business in a couple of years," Sola said.

In a research note, Deutsche Bank analyst Sherri Scribner said, "We view the acquisition as increasing Sanmina's depth of product offerings in the optical market and as a way to grow its business in higher-end, higher-margin business segments." 

One of Breconridge's major customers is said to be JDS Uniphase, which also is a major customer of Sanmina. However, the companies have "virtually zero program overlap," president and COO Hari Pillai said.