Opt switch sales is robust:SN16000 will contribute 10-15%
FY01 sale
09:17 ET ******
Sycamore Ntwks (SCMR) 22 9/16: Sycamore is trading up almost $2 in the pre-market after reporting JanQ a penny better than expected with a book-to-bill over one. However, the company talked of slowing sequential growth rates for AprQ and JulQ and said 2002 EPS would be at the low end of the range of analyst estimates. The near term slowing is being blamed on slower spending by emerging carriers. The company's reliance on Williams Communications (WCG) continues to be a concern as sales to WCG remained above 50% of sales although this is down from OctQ of the mid-50s. Yesterday, WCG lopped off $300 mln in its capital spending plans. The most promising part of Sycamore's story is its new product introductions. Currently, the company's SN 8000 long haul DWDM transport system makes up the majority of revenue. However, Sycamore is planning on becoming a bigger player in the optical switch space. Competition is intense. Ciena (CIEN), their most direct competitor, has been transitioning into optical switching with its CoreDirector switch. On its conference call, Sycamore said they are planning on adding high density STS-1 grooming capability which is a key factor in being able to compete with the CoreDirector. Sycamore wants to be the leader in optical switching by the end of this calendar year. In addition to Ciena, they also compete with Corvis (who has the only all-optical switch), Lucent (LU), Cisco (CSCO), Nortel (NT) and a slew of private companies. Sycamore's optical switch, the SN 16000, comprised over 5% of sales this quarter and has attracted additional customers which is building the backlog. Management expects the SN 16000 will make up 10%-15% of sales this fiscal year which bodes well for optical switch sales in AprQ and JulQ considering they will need to sell a lot in the last two quarters of the fiscal year to hit that target. The optical switching business is very small today, however, it's expected to see explosive growth in the coming few years. Also, optical switches are generally sold to the more established carriers. With all this talk of slowing telecom equipment spending, indications are that sales of optical switches remains robust. Stay tuned. -- Robert J. Reid, Briefing.com |
