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