LINTHICUM, Md. -- Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN - News), the network specialist, today announced results for its fiscal first quarter 2006 ending January 31, 2006. Revenue for the first quarter totaled $120.4 million, representing a 1.9% sequential increase from fiscal fourth quarter revenue of $118.2 million, and an increase of 27.1% over the same period a year ago when the Company reported sales of $94.7 million.

"With sequential revenue growth for the eighth straight quarter and continued gross margin and operating cost improvements, Ciena's first quarter results demonstrate our persistent execution and resulting progress toward profitability," said Ciena CEO and President Gary Smith. "We continue to believe that Ciena's role as the network specialist and our focus on enabling our service provider and enterprise customers to transition their networks to reliably deliver an ever-increasing mix of new applications and services - at a pace that makes sense for their business - will enable us to grow faster than the market in 2006." On the basis of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Ciena's reported net loss for the fiscal first quarter 2006 was $6.3 million, or a net loss of $0.01 per share. This compares with a reported GAAP net loss of $57.0 million, or a net loss of $0.10 per share, for the same period a year ago.

Ciena's GAAP net loss for its fiscal first quarter 2006 includes $3.8 million of share-based compensation expense related to equity based awards in accordance with Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 123®, adopted by Ciena on November 1, 2005. Prior periods' GAAP results do not include the impact of SFAS 123®.

Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN)