On December 3, 2020, Luna Innovations Incorporated (NASDAQ: LUNA) announced that it had acquired OptaSense Holdings, Ltd., a QinetiQ company (LON: QQ), for £29 million in cash. 

Luna is a global leader in advanced optical technology. OptaSense is a recognized market leader in fiber optic distributed monitoring solutions for pipelines, oilfield services, security, highways and railways, as well as power and utilities monitoring systems. The combination is expected to create the world's largest fiber optic sensing company.

OptaSense will become a fully owned subsidiary of Luna Innovations Incorporated, while continuing to operate under its existing brand for the foreseeable future, and OptaSense employees will remain within the company, with offices in the United Kingdom, Dubai, the United States and Canada.

Gowling WLG was Canadian and UAE counsel to Luna in this acquisition with a Canadian team that included David Petras, Duncan Snyder and Adam Carlin (corporate/M&A), Jennifer Koschinsky (employment) and Graham Darling (real estate) and a Dubai team that included Suhail Mirza, Simon Elliott and Beena Patel (corporate/commercial).