There was a post on here a couple weeks or so back that speculated that the optics group was going to get sold off. What happened to it? Anyone recall seeing it? Went to show a colleague and it’s gone
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Agree with some of the comments on this post. However, being a former team member for a very long time, I will say they still have the most complete offering available! I concede that the distributed side of things is playing catch-up to others, but the fundamental backbone is there and they deliver point sensors where others do not. Why run optics if you have to also run electronic gauges.
Hope they are able to get DTS, DAS, and DSS going better to round out the offering. But if you look, the other players do not have great solutions either for the most part (outside of frac monitoring). Most end up falling back on the likes of Silixa/Luna or others for analysis.
So, think they have good products, some holes in areas of distributed sensing, hardware like wet-connects and they are way short-staffed. I think the people issue is the bit one as those holes are hard to fill without the right vision and folks who have knowledge - and you sure aren't going to scale up with the headcount. Good luck boys.
@21p But what about the savoir of Weatherford, DIGITAL. (yes, a bit of a joke). Saw that they again promoted their optics during FWRD, and everything looks super promising. Their partnership with AWS will usher in the transformation for them into an AI/ML/EDGE powerhouse (insert additional buzz words as you like). Truth is, this team has no data scientist, no SMEs, and is unable to operate in NAM or Deepwater. Their supply of low-end electronic monitoring was just sold. See a lot of issues with no path to get back to any semblance of leadership in Reservoir Monitoring. Will this circle to the left or right before going down?
from an insider, watch them, no new contracts to speak of and some of their most profitable work in UAE is being questioned by that client and hearing they are looking for alternatives to using WFD as value add is limited.
Also hear there is no succession planning for some team members that have been there since the start (CiDRA days) as they should be punching out soon. They have not invested in the team.
Give them maybe to Q1 next year if not Q4 this year, and this team will be sold to Baker. That is about the only possibility of WFD getting anything from that group.
@ph, thanks for confirming. Strange that it has just disappeared.
If anyone has any more history or thoughts on it would be interested in hearing them. I was on that team when we actually had a team, kind of sad to see where it stands now. Seems several of the service companies are pulling back on their optics programs. Understand Halliburton is under pressure and SLB is MIA. Baker had some activity but seems very limited as well
Yes, there was a post. It was titled “Fiber Optics Group finally getting sold off” and went up around Aug 27, 2025 (thelayoff.com/t/1k3mpz25t). That thread speculated about the optics group being sold. It’s since been removed — the link now returns a 404.
No cached or archived copy seems to be available on the public archive sites, so unless someone grabbed a screenshot, the content itself is gone.
Recall seeing it, you're correct, it is gone for whatever reason. Maybe it was true and risked blowing up a deal for them?? Although I did not think they edited post, beyond those that called out a specific person's name.
Maybe an admin for the site could comment on it.
Also, keep an eye open if the group sells before the end of the year, may be telling.