Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

July 18, 2008

1 Min Read
Ciena Sick With SIV

1:30 PM -- Some Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN) investments in structured investment vehicles (SIVs) took a pounding recently, forcing the vendor to announce that it will recognize a GAAP loss "totaling between $5.0 million and $6.0 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2008."

Bad news? Not horrible. Ciena was trying to diversify and put its cash to work. Unfortunately, two of the investment vehicles it picked careened off a cliff, Thelma & Louise-like, as noted in more somber language by the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ writes that one portfolio of investments "stood to get only about 44% of their current claims from an auction of assets..."

Yowza.

So is Ciena dead? Dying? Irritated? Inflamed? Looking a little pale?

None of these, is the answer according to JP.MorganChase 's Ehud A. Gelblum. In a note to clients today, the good doctor Gelblum wrote that Ciena's doing well, even though its stock is falling like a flan in a cupboard. He did drop a hint of good times ahead, however, when he wrote that "the World Wide Packets business is on-track to begin deployments at AT&T in F09, a contract we believe, based on our industry conversations, is worth $200M over 5 years."

Moral: You can cure anything -- ANYTHING -- with Ethernet.

— Phil Harvey, Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like