TLAB Shakeup Coming

More notes on the Ciena-ing of Tellabs

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

April 24, 2008

1 Min Read
TLAB Shakeup Coming

12:15 PM -- Argus Research Co. analyst Jim Kelleher had a great observation in his research note yesterday:

In coming months, we expect CEO Pullen - after a complete assessment of operations - to announce a substantial downsizing at Tellabs, as he seeks to shift the company into a network specialist role akin to the role developed by Ciena.



This fits nicely with what I wrote just after Tellabs announced it wouldn't be supplying GPON gear to Verizon.

Tellabs won't sell itself. And who'd buy it anyway?

  • The 5500 is coal-powered.

  • The 8800 is being lapped by its competitors.

  • The two biggest broadband access accounts delivered via the AFC acquisition -- BellSouth and Verizon -- are now toast.

CEO Rob Pullen could really make a name for himself here. The company has no debt. It has more than $1 billion in cash and investments. If it does some downsizing and embraces the role of network specialist, it might look a lot different this time next year.

Again, look at Adtran and Ciena. Those companies are pretty easy to size up. They're not good at everything; they're good enough at enough things.

Should Tellabs:

  • Put more resources behind its optical transport and ROADMs?

  • Buy Aktino, Hatteras, or something like it?

  • See if it can get $5.25 a share from Nokia-Siemens?

What would you do?

— 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.

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