John,
You raise several good points regarding CIEN. You have to look at CIEN as part of a portfolio of technology stocks that are mainstay <DELL, NT, CPQ, IBM, INTC, TLAB etc>, emerging technology companies that are young but have demonstrated moments of greatness <CIEN, AWRE, YHOO, AOL, EBAY, PSIX etc>, and some pure speculations on true new technologies like wireless and automated voice, graphics and set-top box developers.
The point is that CIEN has not earned the right to have the same rating as TLAB for returning shareholder value. Therefore it can't be compared to those players at this time. CIEN is not speculative either. A Sigma Designs comes to mind as speculative at this point.
CIEN is in that middle tier I described above and if they can continue to innovate in a fast growing market then they may well have the opportunity to earn that respect and command the same attention as the upper tier players. Also, if they continue with their progress they could be taken out. In fact, in the market today LU, NT, TLAB, CSCO, and others may well dictate whether the CIEN's of the world even have the chance to prove their long-term mettle. If they are that good there are some of the already established that could use their technology, manufacturing capacity, customer base, and development team.
CIEN is a typical technology investment. Potential for big swings in both directions that will test your faith and reasoning. I look for more of the same in the future.
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