CIENA Reports Fourth Quarter Revenue of $287.6 Million, Pro Forma Net Income of
$0.14 per Diluted Share (whisp 12c)
DJN: *DJ Ciena In 3-Yr Supply Pact With Dynegy Europe >CIEN
DJ Ciena Raises Rev Guidance For Fiscal 2001 >CIEN
Business Editors
LINTHICUM, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 2000--
Customer Relationship with Dynegy Announced; Next Generation
Optical Networking Taking Hold as Two Leading Service Providers,
Genuity and Broadwing Announce Deployments of CoreDirector, CIENA's
Intelligent Optical Core Switch
CIENA Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN) today reported revenue of $287.6
million for its fourth fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2000.
The results represent sequential revenue growth of more than 23
percent over the Company's fiscal third quarter revenue of $233.3
million, and an increase of more than 100 percent as compared to the
same period a year ago when the Company reported revenue of $141.4
million.
Pro forma net income for the fourth quarter, exclusive of
provision for doubtful accounts and payroll tax on stock option
exercises, was $41.3 million, or $0.14, earnings per diluted share.
This represents an increase of approximately 46 percent compared with
net income for the previous quarter of $28.2 million, or $0.09,
earnings per diluted share.
For the same period in fiscal 1999, the Company reported net
income of $4.7 million, or $0.02, earnings per diluted share.(1)
Consensus of First Call estimates for fourth quarter fiscal 2000 as of
the close of business on Wednesday, December 6, 2000 was $0.12
earnings per diluted share.
"CIENA's robust growth in the fourth quarter and over the last
fiscal year is the result of strong customer focus and consistent
execution across the company," said CIENA Chairman and CEO, Patrick
Nettles.
"We believe CIENA stands to be one of the primary beneficiaries as
service providers begin to shift spending away from legacy solutions
toward next generation, intelligent optical networking solutions."
For the twelve months ended October 31, 2000, CIENA reported
revenue of $858.8 million, an increase of approximately 78 percent
over revenue of $482.1 million for fiscal year 1999.
For the fiscal year 2000, exclusive of provision for doubtful
accounts, settlement of accrued contract obligation and costs
associated with payroll taxes on stock options, CIENA's pro forma net
income totaled $98.4 million, or $0.33, earnings per diluted share.
This compares with pro forma net income of $4.8 million, or $0.02,
earnings per diluted share, exclusive merger-related costs and
provision for doubtful accounts for fiscal year 1999.(1)
"CIENA is poised to capitalize on a dramatic market shift that
appears to be underway," said Gary Smith, CIENA's president and chief
operating officer. "We believe that service providers worldwide are
realizing the capital savings and operational benefits associated with
moving away from closed, legacy, TDM-based solutions to open,
next-generation intelligent optical networking."
Smith continued, "CIENA believes it is uniquely positioned to take
advantage of this shift: Unlike legacy equipment vendors, CIENA is
unencumbered by legacy products or revenue streams and unlike newer
market entrants, CIENA has the experience and the scale to support
carrier-class, global intelligent optical networking deployments."
CIENA continues to diversify its customer base, adding four new
customers in the fourth quarter, one of which, Interoute, has been
named publicly. The Company's total optical networking equipment
customer base now totals 42, of which, 27 contributed to CIENA's
revenues during the most recent quarter.
Dynegy Becomes Customer
CIENA also announced today that it has signed a three-year
agreement to supply its MultiWave CoreStream(TM) intelligent optical
transport systems to Dynegy Europe Communications for deployment in
its pan-European fiber-optic network. Dynegy has placed initial orders
for CIENA's MultiWave CoreStream systems.
As disclosed in CIENA's Form 10-K, filed today with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, Dynegy has proposed to purchase the assets of
iaxis Limited, a former CIENA customer currently in administration
proceedings in the U.K., from iaxis' U.K. administrator. Upon
completion of the purchase, CIENA expects to provide Dynegy with in
excess of $50 million in CoreStream systems in the first year.
Intelligent Optical Switching
During the quarter, CIENA recognized additional revenues from
sales of MultiWave CoreDirector(TM), its next-generation intelligent
optical core switch and expects to meet its previously stated goal of
shipping more than $50 million of CoreDirector systems in the calendar
year to service providers like Genuity and Broadwing, both of which
recently announced initial deployments of this intelligent optical
switching system.
By the end of its fiscal first quarter, CIENA expects to have made
commercial shipments to 10 CoreDirector customers.
CoreDirector is believed to be the only next-generation optical
switching system currently available that is designed to enable
carriers to replace legacy cross-connects and SONET gear - saving
valuable capital cost and space in over-crowded central offices -
while offering a smooth transition from static, cumbersome legacy
networks to simpler, more agile, intelligent optical networks.
CoreDirector's scalability, flexibility, and advanced networking
capabilities are designed to enable carriers to dramatically reduce
the cost of deploying, operating and scaling optical service networks
while enabling point-and-click provisioning of customizable broadband
optical services.
Long-Distance Optical Transport
CIENA continues to extend its technological and market leadership
in long-distance optical transport solutions utilizing dense
wavelength division multiplexing, targeting delivery of more optical
channels over further distances.
During the quarter CIENA announced advances in internally produced
in-fiber Bragg grating and filter technologies which CIENA believes
will make it possible for service providers to more than double the
capacity of their optical networks without the addition of costly
optical amplifiers.
In addition, CIENA has received orders for the ultra long-haul
feature set for its CoreStream platform and expects to begin
commercial shipments of this new feature during its fiscal first
quarter.
Metropolitan Optical Transport
During the quarter, CIENA saw robust growth from its line of
metropolitan optical networking products, with revenue from its
MultiWave Metro(TM) product family approaching 10 percent of total
revenue for the quarter. CIENA recognized revenue from two new
MultiWave Metro customers during the fourth quarter.
Business Outlook
Commenting on CIENA's business outlook Nettles said: "With
products addressing three separate potential markets: long-distance
optical transport, metropolitan optical transport and intelligent
optical switching, we believe that CIENA has a significant
opportunity. Provided we continue to execute, we expect our business
will continue to grow faster than the overall market.
As a result, we are raising our revenue guidance and believe we
will be able to achieve fiscal year 2001 revenue growth of between 75
and 85 percent over fiscal year 2000. Going forward, our challenge
will be remaining focused on execution while identifying and acting
rapidly on new opportunities to expand our customer base and network
presence."
Live Web Broadcast of Q4 and Fiscal Year Results Discussion
In conjunction with this announcement, as previously announced,
CIENA will host a discussion of its fourth fiscal quarter and fiscal
year's results with investors and financial analysts on Thursday,
December 7, 2000 at 8:30 AM (Eastern).
The live broadcast of the discussion will be available via CIENA's
homepage at www.CIENA.com. An archived version of the discussion will
be available shortly following the conclusion of the live broadcast on
the Investor Relations page of CIENA's website at:
www.CIENA.com/investors.
ABOUT CIENA
CIENA Corporation's market-leading intelligent optical networking
systems form the core for the new era of networks and services
worldwide.
CIENA's LightWorks(TM) architecture enables next generation
optical services and changes the fundamental economics of
service-provider networks by simplifying the network and reducing the
cost to operate it. Additional information about CIENA can be found at
www.CIENA.com.
NOTE TO CIENA INVESTORS
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements
based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions of CIENA (the
Company) that involve risks and uncertainties.
Forward-looking statements in this release, including the belief
that CIENA stands to be one of the primary beneficiaries as service
providers begin to shift spending away from legacy solutions toward
next- generation, optical networking solutions, that CIENA is poised
to capitalize on a dramatic market shift that appears to be underway,
that service providers worldwide are realizing the capital savings and
operational benefits associated with moving away from closed, legacy,
TDM-based solutions to open, next-generation intelligent optical
networking, that CIENA believes it is uniquely positioned to take
advantage of the shift, that upon completion of Dynegy's purchase of
iaxis, CIENA expects to provide Dynegy with in excess of $50 million
in CoreStream systems in the first year, that CIENA expects to ship
more than $50 million of CoreDirector systems in the calendar year to
service providers like Genuity and Broadwing, that by the end of its
first fiscal quarter, CIENA expects to have made commercial shipments
to 10 CoreDirector customers, that CoreDirector is the only
next-generation optical switch product currently available that is
designed to enable carriers to replace legacy cross-connects and SONET
gear - saving valuable capital cost and space in over-crowded central
offices - while offering a smooth transition from static, cumbersome
legacy networks to simpler, more agile, intelligent optical networks,
that CoreDirector is designed to enable carriers to dramatically
reduce the cost of deploying, operating and scaling optical service
networks while enabling point-and-click provisioning of customizable
broadband optical services, that advances in CIENA's internally
produced in-fiber Bragg grating and filter technologies will make it
possible for service providers to more than double the capacity of
their optical networks without the addition of costly optical
amplifiers, that CIENA expects to begin commercial shipments of the
ultra long-haul feature set of CoreStream during its fiscal first
quarter, that with three separate potential markets: long-distance
optical transport, metropolitan optical transport and intelligent
optical switching, CIENA has a significant opportunity, that CIENA
expects its business will continue to grow faster than the overall
market and that the Company will be able to achieve fiscal year 2001
revenue growth of between 75 and 85 percent over fiscal year 2000 are
based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof.
The Company's actual results could differ materially from those
stated or implied in such forward-looking statements, due to risks and
uncertainties associated with the Company's business, which include
the risk factors disclosed in the Company's Report on Form 10-K filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 7, 2000.
Forward looking statements include statements regarding the
Company's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding
the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as
"anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend,"
"may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words.
The Company assumes no obligation to update the information
included in this press release, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise. |
