Ciena Reports $1.8 Billion Loss

Ciena announced Thursday that its fourth quarter saw a loss of $1.8 billion, or $5.51 cents per diluted share.

The Linthicum, Maryland-based maker of optical networking equipment said its net income, excluding a massive goodwill impairment charge, most of which was for the purchase of Cyras Systems, restructuring costs, deferred stock compensation charges, payroll taxes on stock option exercises and amortization of intangibles and goodwill was $17.1 million, or 5 cents per diluted share, which was in line with analyst estimates.

Revenue for the fourth quarter was up 27 percent from the same period one year earlier, increasing to $367.8 million from $287.6 million.

“Given the difficult telecom environment, we are very pleased with CIENAs performance in 2001,” said Gary Smith, CIENAs president and CEO in a prepared statement.

Smith said Ciena is poised to purse an aggressive strategy despite near term losses.

“CIENA intends to use the current market uncertainty to our advantage by pursuing a strategy of sustained investment in our business,” said Smith. “Where others in the industry have elected to cut dramatically in attempts to preserve cash and merely survive the market downturn, we can continue to invest in strategic areas such as research and development and sales,” said Smith.

In November, Ciena announced it would lay off 10 percent of its workforce.

Ciena closed down 3.03 to 14.94 on Thursday, 16.86 percent lower.