Ciena Reports, Lays Off 200 More

As expected, Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) had a tough fiscal Q1 which ended on January 30th.  Equipment makers have been taking it on the chin since the crisis deteriorated in late summer, as carriers have dramatically cut back capital expenditures.  Revenues of $167.4M were a bit light, down another 7% from the prior quarter which wasn’t fun either, and 26% from a year ago.  The loss per share of $(0.09) was a bit worse than what the market may have expected.  Given the economic conditions, they declined to give forward projections.

At the moment, there is no end in sight to the carrier spending deep freeze, and so Ciena is not taking any chances.  So to save more money, Ciena is laying off another 200 people, or 9% of their workforce.  They are also closing their R&D facility in Acton, MA.  That stands in contrast to Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR, news, filings) which expects to spend more on R&D than many expected.

For a company with over $900M in cash lying around, Ciena certainly seems to be planning for the worst.  But sometime this year, something’s going to have to give.  Either carriers open their pocketbooks, or traffic growth is going to stress their networks and business models in other ways.

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Categories: Financials · Telecom Equipment