JDS Uniphase Corporation (JDSU)

JDS Uniphase Corporation made optical components, test and measurement equipment and related products for communications networks. Its lasers, modulators and other optical parts went into the fiber-optic systems used by telecom carriers and data centers, while its test instruments helped service providers build and maintain networks. It also had a business making optical coatings used in currency anti-counterfeiting and other applications.

The company was created in 1999 by the merger of Uniphase Corporation of California and JDS Fitel of Canada. During the telecom boom it bought a series of other optical companies and its Nasdaq stock, ticker JDSU, became one of the most heavily traded in the market. When the bubble burst in 2001, it reported one of the largest annual losses in corporate history after writing down the value of its acquisitions.

Over the following decade, JDSU cut costs, closed plants and reverse-split its stock. It reshaped itself around network test and measurement, adding companies in that field, while keeping its optical components and lasers business. By the 2010s management concluded the two halves would be better off as separate companies. The test business served telecom carriers and cable operators around the world, while the components business sold mainly to equipment makers.

In August 2015 JDSU spun off its optical components and commercial lasers business as Lumentum Holdings, which trades as LITE. The parent company, keeping network and service enablement and the optical security business, changed its name to Viavi Solutions Inc. and its ticker to VIAV, with the last trading day as JDSU on August 3, 2015. JDSU holders received Lumentum shares in the spin-off and kept their shares in the renamed parent.