Companies Focus Efforts
To Market Laser Device
By James Bernstein
STAFF WRITER
A small medical technology company in Holbrook said
yesterday it plans to buy Quantronix Corp. of Smithtown, a
well-known laser manufacturer, for about $10 million.
Excel Technology Inc., formed as a privately
held research company about five years ago, has developed
an advanced laser system for the scientific and medical community
and needs the help of a larger company to make and market
the device. Quantronix, a 20-year-old company that makes lasers
for industrial and computer chip uses, has been losing money
recently and needs cash and new products.
Rama Rao, the physicist who founded Excel in
the basement of his Coram home, said the company is still
developing the advanced laser, which is capable of creating
an array of colors. The device is called a solid-state tunable
sapphire laser system.
Rao said the system could replace lasers now
in use in the medical and scientific research fields, and
could be used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
The device is being tested at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Hughes Aircraft Co. and the Department
of Energy's Ames Laboratory in Ohio, Rao said. Excel has received
$1 million in government funds to test the laser, which would
need Food and Drug Administration approval before it could
be used to test diseases in humans.
Quantronix president Morton Brozinsky said that if the device
is successful, the company may add to its 200-member work
force. Excel, which employs 12, also may hire in the future.
Brozinsky, who replaced Donald Mitchell as president in November,
said Quantronix was interested in the deal "because it
brings two things to the party - cash, which we need very
badly, and the potential for new products, which we also need
very badly. I think it is the perfect fit between two companies."
It has not yet been decided whether the Quantronix or Excel
names will be changed. Brozinsky, who was chief executive
of Standard Microsystems Corp. in Hauppauge in the mid to
late 1970s, is to remain Quantronix' chief executive officer.
He will join the Excel board of directors.
Quantronix lost $979,000 in its most recent fiscal year
on sales of $29 million.
Rao, born and reared in India, received a doctorate in physics
from the University of Illinois. "I came here alone with
a little suitcase and $100 in my pocket," he said. "This
is a country full of opportunities." Excel began issuing
stock to the public six months ago.
Each outstanding share of Quantronix stock will be converted
to one-half of an Excel share and a warrant to buy an additional
one-quarter share.
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