Kevin Kennedy will miss his OFC keynote tomorrow. Doctor's orders.

The JDS Uniphase Corp. (Nasdaq: JDSU; Toronto: JDU) CEO, still in his first year on the job, was placed on travel restrictions for unspecified medical reasons. JDSU officials say Kennedy is fine and even working this week, but was told not to make even the short hop from the Bay Area to Los Angeles.

That marks two years in a row that a component vendor has missed an OFC keynote. Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) exec Sean Maloney couldn't deliver his speech last year due to an unfortunate skiing accident (see OFC Keynoter Lands on DL). Apparently, optical keynotes are more dangerous than they look.

"This can't be coincidence. Obviously this is a curse," says one unnamed official (unnamed because we just now made him up). It's also been suggested that Old Farmer MacGruder is sabotaging the shows to scare people away, and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for them meddling kids.

In addition to the lunchtime keynote, Kennedy also missed a Monday reception for analysts, many of whom would have met him for the first time.

So far, no substitute is scheduled to take Kennedy's place.

— Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor, Light Reading