Having bought its way into a couple of interesting markets, Cortina Systems Inc. looks as if it might be prepping itself to go public.

It's got the heft. Cortina bought its way into a $100 million-a-year business, analysts estimate, by picking up the Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC - message board) "optical" business last year. Really, that consisted of things like Sonet/SDH chips targeted at optical networking, a steady business but without much growth potential. (See Intel Hands Off to Cortina.)