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Ciena

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Employees 5001-10,000
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FY2000 Annual Report · Ciena
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UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10–K

(Mark One)

OR

Annual Report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934  For the fiscal year ended October 31, 2000

Transition Report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities 
Exchange Act of 1934 For the transition period from _________ to __________

Commission file number 0–21969

CIENA Corporation 

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) Delaware

(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) 23–2725311

(Address of principal executive offices) 1201 Winterson Road, Linthicum, MD

(Zip Code) 21090–2295

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code) (410) 865–8500

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: Common Stock

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports to be filed by Section 13
or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such
shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to
such filing requirements for the past 90 days.

Yes            No

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation
S–K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge,
in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form
10–K or any amendment to this Form 10–K.

The aggregate market value of the 286,530,631 shares of Common Stock of the Registrant
issued  and  outstanding  as  of  October  31,  2000,  excluding  6,030,520  shares  of  Common
Stock held by affiliates of the Registrant was $29,606,786,716. This amount is based on the
average bid and asked price of the Common Stock on the Nasdaq Stock Market of $105.55
per share on October 27, 2000.

Documents Incorporated by Reference
Part III of the Form 10–K incorporates by reference certain portions of the Registrant’s proxy
statement for its 2001 annual meeting of stockholders to be filed with the Commission not
later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this report.

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Part I

The information in this Form 10–K contains certain forward-looking statements,

including statements related to markets for the Company’s products and trends

in its business that involve risks and uncertainties. The Company’s actual results

may  differ  materially  from  the  results  discussed  in  the  forward-looking  state-

ments. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to,

those discussed in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition

and Results of Operations—Risk Factors” and “Business” as well as those discussed

elsewhere in this Form 10–K.

Item 1. Business

Company

CIENA Corporation (the “Company” or “CIENA”) was incorporated in Delaware in

November 1992. The Company completed its initial public offering on February 7,

1997  and  a  secondary  offering  on  July  2,  1997.  CIENA’s  principal  executive

offices are located at 1201 Winterson Road, Linthicum, Maryland 21090. Its tele-

phone number is (410) 865–8500.

General

Overview

CIENA is a leader in the rapidly growing intelligent optical networking equip-

ment market. We offer a comprehensive portfolio of products for communica-

tions  service  providers  worldwide.  Our  customers  include  long-distance

carriers,  competitive  and  incumbent  local  exchange  carriers,  Internet  service

providers, wireless and wholesale carriers. CIENA offers optical transport and

intelligent  optical  switching  systems  that  enable  service  providers  to  provi-

sion, manage and deliver high-bandwidth services to their customers. We have

pursued a strategy to develop and leverage the power of disruptive technologies

to change the fundamental economics of building carrier-class tele- and data-

communications networks, thereby providing our customers with a competi-

tive advantage. CIENA’s intelligent optical networking products are designed

to  enable  carriers  to  deliver  any  time,  any  size,  any  priority  bandwidth  to

their customers.

The  Company  had  revenues  of  $858.8  million  for  its  fiscal  year  ended

October 31, 2000, an increase of approximately 78% when compared with fis-

cal 1999 revenues of $482.1 million. Net income for fiscal 2000 was $81.4 mil-

lion. This compares with a net loss of $3.9 million for fiscal year 1999.

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For the fiscal year ended October 31, 2000, the Company recorded revenue

from  sales  of  intelligent  optical  networking  equipment  to  a  total  of  thirty-two

service provider customers. This represents an increase of more than 18% over

1999’s customer base of twenty-seven. During fiscal 2000, three customers each

represented more than 10 percent of CIENA’s total revenues.

Historically, the significant majority of CIENA’s revenues have come from the

sale of products in a single product category: long-distance optical transport equip-

ment. CIENA believes it is one of the worldwide market leaders in field deployment

of  open-architecture  long-distance  optical  transport  equipment  utilizing  dense

wavelength division multiplexing, or DWDM, technology. The majority of CIENA’s fis-

cal 2000 revenue was derived from sales of its long distance optical transport prod-

ucts,  including  MultiWave  CoreStream™ and  MultiWave  Sentry  4000™.  During  the

fiscal year 2000, CIENA also recognized revenue from the sale of seven optical net-

working  products  including  sales  of  its  metropolitan  optical  transport  product,

MultiWave® Metro and its intelligent optical core switch, MultiWave CoreDirector™.

Our research and development efforts as well as potential future acquisition

and  partnership  activities  are  targeted  at  capitalizing  on  our  installed  base  of

carrier customers and leveraging our position as a leader in the rapidly growing

optical networking market.

Industry Background

The  world’s  tele-  and  data-communications  infrastructure  is  formed  by  fiber

optic  networks  owned  and  operated  by  service  providers.  In  recent  years,  the

combination of several factors, including global deregulation which fueled com-

petition  among  service  providers  and  increased  bandwidth  demand  resulting

from the proliferation of the Internet and the emergence of electronic commerce,

gave  rise  to  the  increased  deployment  of  communications  equipment  utilizing

dense wavelength division multiplexing technology (“DWDM”).

DWDM  replaces  the  single  beam  of  light  that  traverses  fiberoptic  cable  in

legacy networks with multiple colors of light, each of which is capable of carrying

tens of thousands of voice conversations or data transmissions. Prior to the emer-

gence of DWDM, service providers could increase network capacity either by adding

new  physical  fibers  to  their  network  or  by  increasing  the  rate  of  transmission

through the fiber. In many cases DWDM has proven to be more cost efficient than

physically  deploying  new  fibers  and  it  has  enabled  the  delivery  of  significantly

more  traffic  by  service  providers.  DWDM  adds  “virtual  lanes  to  the  information

highway” as opposed to simply “raising the speed limit within the existing lane.”

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The widespread adoption of DWDM enabled carriers to efficiently and eco-

nomically  expand  network  capacity,  or  bandwidth,  while  reducing  bandwidth

costs. CIENA believes that the application of products using DWDM has led to a

dramatic decline in service providers’ capital cost per bit from 1995 to present,

thereby  enabling  pricing  competition  between  carriers  and  significant  band-

width price declines of up to 80% in some US regions.

Network Scalability Challenges

For the past several years DWDM has been implemented by carriers to increase

capacity between discrete points in their long-distance networks. To construct a

network  using  DWDM  equipment  as  its  backbone,  a  carrier  must  interconnect

the  point-to-point  high-capacity  links  and  manage  all  traffic  flowing  through

them.  An  important  element  enabling  this  interconnection  in  traditional  archi-

tectures  has  been  the  SONET/SDH  add/drop  multiplexer,  or  ADM.  In  most  net-

work  architectures,  a  SONET  ADM  is  used  to  transmit  the  information-carrying

signal for each DWDM optical channel. A second ADM then is used to receive the

information-carrying signal from each DWDM optical channel. As a result, every

time an additional optical channel is deployed, two additional SONET ADMs must

be purchased, installed and maintained—one for each end of the traffic-carrying

route. For example, in order to transmit/receive the traffic from a DWDM optical

transport system with 96 channels of DWDM, a service provider would require a

total of 192 SONET ADMs.

Though DWDM gave carriers the ability to solve the bandwidth problem in

the  core  of  their  networks,  the  technology  created  operational  and  scalability

challenges for carriers. Historically this method has been the only way available

to service providers to scale their networks. Unfortunately, this approach creates

upwardly spiraling costs. In addition to the capital equipment costs associated

with  the  equipment,  each  SONET  ADM  uses  valuable  central  office  space  and

power. Furthermore, as the number of DWDM channels and links increases, the

carrier’s management of the network grows more complex, making manual serv-

ice provisioning and network operation more difficult and costly.

Escalating Operational Costs

In addition to the problems inherent in scaling traditional network architectures,

carriers are challenged to scale their operating staff as quickly as they can grow

their networks. According to information filed by carriers with the United States

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Securities and Exchange Commission, many service providers are spending more

on  operating,  growing,  and  managing  their  networks  than  they  are  on  capital

expenditures. In some cases, service providers are spending two to four dollars

on network operations and support expenses for every dollar spent on capital

equipment.  In  addition,  in  many  cases,  network  operations  and  support

expenses are increasing at a significantly faster rate than revenues.

CIENA’s Solutions

CIENA’s intelligent optical networking equipment was designed to enable service

providers  to  transition  from  inefficient,  legacy,  voice-centric  networks  to  more

efficient  data-optimized,  intelligent  optical  networks.  CIENA’s  systems  address

both  the  network  scalability  challenges  and  the  escalating  operational  costs

faced by service providers.

•

CIENA  leverages  its  expertise  in  optics,  software,  systems  and  Application

Specific Integrated Circuits, or ASICs, to develop innovative products designed

to dramatically lower the cost of constructing service provider networks.

•

CIENA’s intelligent optical networking equipment is designed to replace mul-

tiple  legacy  network  elements  with  fewer,  more  intelligent  network  ele-

ments,  thereby  simplifying  the  network  and  lowering  carriers’  capital  and

operations costs.

• With the bandwidth availability enabled by CIENA’s optical transport equip-

ment,  service  providers  should  be  able  to  ramp  their  network  bandwidth

with growing Internet demand.

•

CIENA’s intelligent optical networking equipment is designed to lower ongo-

ing network operating costs by enabling carriers that utilize our equipment

to more efficiently manage network traffic.

•

CIENA’s intelligent optical networking equipment also is designed to enable

carriers  to  shorten  the  time  it  takes  to  provision  services,  in  some  cases

from months to real-time, thereby accelerating the generation of revenue.

•

In  addition  to  capital  and  operational  cost  savings,  CIENA’s  intelligent

optical networking equipment and recently introduced network manage-

ment software is designed to enable new, revenue-generating and service-

differentiating optical services.

Our optical networking product portfolio is targeted at the critical areas of

service provider networks: long-distance optical transport, short-distance optical

transport and intelligent core switching.

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• Optical  Transport. CIENA’s  long-distance  optical  transport  products,

MultiWave  CoreStream™,  MultiWave  Sentry™,  MultiWave  1600,  and  our

short  distance  products,  MultiWave  Metro™,  Metro  One™ and  MultiWave

Firefly™, utilize DWDM technology and should enable carriers to cost effec-

tively add critical network bandwidth when and where they need it. As a

result,  service  providers  should  be  better  able  to  scale  their  networks  to

meet demand.

•

Intelligent Optical Core Switching. Our intelligent optical core switches,

MultiWave  CoreDirector™,  and  MultiWave  CoreDirector  CI™ enable  carriers 

to  manage  the  bandwidth  created  with  optical  transport  products.

CoreDirector and CoreDirector CI help carriers solve both the issues of net-

work  scalability  and  escalating  operating  costs  by  incorporating  the  func-

tionality of multiple network elements into single elements with previously

unavailable switching capabilities and management.

•

Network Management. ON-Center, CIENA’s recently introduced fully inte-

grated family of software-based tools for comprehensive element, network

and  service  layer  management,  is  designed  to  enable  accelerated  deploy-

ment of new, differentiating optical services. ON-Center should also reduce

network operating and management costs.

CIENA  calls  the  network  architecture  created  by  these  products  “CIENA

LightWorks.”  The  components  of  CIENA’s  LightWorks  can  be  sold  together  as  a

complete  network  solution  or  separately  as  best-of-breed  solutions.  CIENA’s

LightWorks architecture is designed to dramatically simplify a carrier’s network

by reducing the number of network elements. We believe this network simplifi-

cation will lead to lower capital equipment cost and lower operating cost.

Strategy

CIENA’s  strategy  is  to  maintain  and  build  upon  its  market  leadership  in  the

deployment  of  intelligent  optical  networking  systems  and  to  leverage  the

Company’s  technologies  in  order  to  provide  solutions  for  both  voice  and  data

communications-based  network  architectures.  The  Company  believes  that  the

technological, operational and cost benefits of the Company’s optical network-

ing solutions create competitive advantages for service providers worldwide. We

believe  our  solutions  will  become  increasingly  important  as  these  service

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providers are being pressed by their customers to deliver services to address the

dramatic growth in Internet and other data communications traffic. CIENA’s strat-

egy includes the following:

•

Expand  Our  Base  of  Customers  Using  Our  Optical  Networking

Solutions. We believe that achieving early widespread operational deploy-

ment of our systems in a particular carrier’s network will provide CIENA sig-

nificant  competitive  advantages  with  respect  to  additional  optical

networking deployments and will enhance our marketing to other carriers

as a field-proven supplier. While continuing to aggressively serve our exist-

ing customers, we intend to actively pursue additional optical networking

deployment  opportunities  among  fiber  optic  carriers  in  domestic  and  for-

eign long distance, interoffice and local exchange markets.

•

Expand  Sales  and  Marketing  Efforts. The  nature  of  the  target  cus-

tomer  base  for  all  our  product  lines  requires  a  focused  sales  effort  on  a

customer-by-customer  basis.  We  will  continue  to  increase  our  sales  and

marketing  efforts  aimed  at  the  worldwide  market  of  service  providers.

CIENA  increased  the  number  of  revenue  generating  optical  networking

customers from twenty-seven during 1999 to thirty-two in 2000. In addi-

tion, CIENA has a significant international presence, particularly in Europe.

Market  analyst  RHK  estimates  that  CIENA  holds  the  leading  share  of  the

European optical networking market at 37%. Revenues from international

customers  represented  33.0%  of  CIENA’s  total  revenues  in  fiscal  2000.

CIENA  plans  to  continue  to  strengthen  its  marketing  programs  and  to

increase its domestic and international presence through both direct sales

and distributor relationships.

•

Continue  to  Emphasize  Technical  Support  and  Customer  Service.

CIENA  markets  technically  advanced  systems  to  sophisticated  customers.

The nature of CIENA’s systems and market require a high level of technical

support and customer service. We believe we have a good reputation for our

technical  support  and  customer  service  and  we  intend  to  emphasize  our

global service and support excellence and capabilities as differentiating fac-

tors  in  our  efforts  to  maintain  and  enhance  our  market  position.  CIENA

offers complete engineering, furnishing and installation services in addition

to full-time customer support from strategic locations worldwide.

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•

Continue to Enhance World Class Manufacturing Capability. CIENA’s

optical networking systems play a critical role in our customers’ networks.

Quality assurance and manufacturing excellence are necessary for CIENA to

achieve success. CIENA believes it has developed a world class optical manu-

facturing  capability  and  this  capability  provides  CIENA  with  a  significant

competitive advantage. CIENA achieved ISO 9001 certification in July 1997

in further support of this element of its strategy. CIENA expects to continue

to invest in both the capital and the human resources necessary to maintain

and leverage this advantage. In addition, CIENA expects to utilize this exper-

tise to leverage our manufacturing capability with contract manufacturers.

•

Leverage the Company’s High Bandwidth Technologies and Know-How.

We  believe  the  overall  growth  in  demand  for  bandwidth  and  the  need  for

intelligent  high  bandwidth  services  in  telecommunications  networks  will

lead to transmission bottlenecks in other segments of the networks where

the application of optical technologies and other high bandwidth enabling

technologies  may  provide  solutions,  either  within  existing  network  archi-

tectures, or as part of the design and development of alternative data com-

munications-based  network  architectures.  CIENA  expects  to  leverage  the

core competencies it has developed in the design, development and manu-

facturing  of  its  optical  transport  and  intelligent  optical  switching  product

lines by pursuing new product development efforts, and strategic alliances

or acquisitions, to address these expected opportunities. CIENA intends to

move aggressively to maintain leadership in the design and development of

intelligent  optical  networking  equipment  and  software  which  will  both

respond to customer needs and help customers move toward newer, higher

capacity, more cost-efficient network designs for the future.

Products

Our optical networking product portfolio is targeted at the critical areas of serv-

ice  provider  networks:  long-distance  optical  transport,  short-distance  optical

transport  and  intelligent  optical  core  switching.  CIENA’s  “open  architecture”

design  means  its  products  interoperate  with  most  carriers’  existing  fiber  optic

transmission  systems,  and  network  elements,  including  connecting  directly  to

either traditional SONET equipment, ATM switches or IP routers.

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Long-Distance Optical Transport

Product

Features

MultiWave CoreStream

MultiWave Sentry 4000

MultiWave Sentry 1600

MultiWave 1600

•

•

•

CIENA’s fourth generation carrier-class intelligent optical transport product.

First  commercially  deployed  96-channel  DWDM  system  with  commercial

shipments beginning in fiscal Q3 1999.

Utilizes DWDM technology to deliver up to 96 optical channels at 2.5 giga-

bits per second (240 gigabits) or up to 48 channels at 10 gigabits per second

(480 gigabits).

•

Architected  for  in-service  growth;  scalable  to  handle  2  terabits  of  traffic 

in the future.

• With its longer reach feature set, will ultimately be capable of transporting

signals up to 5,000 kilometers without electrical regeneration.

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

CIENA’s third generation carrier-class intelligent optical transport product.

First commercially deployed 40-channel system with commercial shipments

beginning in fiscal Q2 1998.

Utilizes DWDM technology to deliver up to 40 channels at 2.5 gigabits per

second (100 gigabits).

CIENA’s second generation carrier-class intelligent optical transport product.

First commercially deployed 16-channel system with commercial shipments

beginning in the second half of fiscal 1996.

Utilizes DWDM technology to deliver up to 16 channels at 2.5 gigabits per

second (40 gigabits).

Incorporated performance monitoring capabilities, not previously available

in DWDM equipment.

CIENA’s first generation carrier-class intelligent optical transport product.

First commercially deployed 16-channel system with commercial shipments

beginning in the first half of fiscal 1996.

Utilizes DWDM technology to deliver 16 channels at 2.5 gigabits per second

(40 gigabits).

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Short-Distance Optical Transport

Product

Features

MultiWave Metro

MultiWave Metro One

•

•

•

•

•

A carrier-class optical transport product designed specifically to address the

performance and economic requirements of metropolitan markets.

Provides up to 24 duplex channels over a single fiber pair, enabling a serv-

ice provider to transport up to 60 gigabits per second.

Supports multiple network topologies, such as rings, hubs, and stars.

Offers  a  wide  range  of  interfaces  from  100  megabits  per  second  up  to 

10 gigabits per second.

Offers  the  same  carrier-class  reliability  and  functionality  as  MultiWave

Metro,  but  for  a  single  channel  in  a  reduced  size  and  reduced  power

consumption package.

MultiWave Firefly

• MultiWave  Firefly  was  developed  specifically  for  use  by  carriers  in  short-

distance, point-to-point applications.

•

This  system  multiplexes  up  to  24  channels  at  2.5  gigabits  per  second,

over a single fiber pair, allowing a carrier to transport up to 60 gigabits

per second.

Intelligent Optical Core Switching

Product

Features

MultiWave CoreDirector

•

Provides traffic management and switching capability beyond current network

solutions of up to 256 ports of OC–48 or up to 640 gigabits per second in a

•

•

•

•

single 7 foot bay.

Designed  to  reduce  capital  equipment  costs  by  displacing  multiple  legacy

network devices.

CoreDirector’s  intelligence  is  designed  to  simplify  service  provisioning,  in

some cases reducing provisioning times from months to real-time.

CoreDirector offers the ability to switch at the wavelength level or at levels

of granularity down to an STS–1.

CoreDirector should enable new revenue opportunities for service providers

through new optical layer capabilities and services.

CoreDirector CI

•

CoreDirector CI delivers CoreDirector functionality in a smaller package and

at  a  lower  entry  cost  that  is  ideal  for  lower  capacity  networks  or  smaller

switching sites.

• When available, CoreDirector CI will provide up to 64 ports of OC–48 or up

to 160 gigabits per second in a half bay.

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Network Management

Product

Features

LightWorks ON-Center

•

•

A fully integrated family of software-based tools for comprehensive element,

network and service layer management across service provider networks.

ON-Center is designed to enable accelerated deployment of new, differenti-

ating optical services, reduced network operating and management costs,

and innovative customer service solutions.

•

Designed so that service providers can select any or all components necessary

to meet their particular network’s management needs, LightWorks ON-Center

is comprised of:

•

•

an Optical Service Layer Management System for cross-vendor end-to-

end service management,

an  Optical  Network  Management  System  for  integrated  management

across all of CIENA’s intelligent optical transport, switching and access

systems, and;

•

a Modeling and Planning System for network design.

New Optical Services

In addition to offering significant capital equipment and operational cost savings,

CIENA’s  intelligent  optical  networking  equipment  is  designed  to  enable  its  cus-

tomers to offer new, revenue generating optical layer services. CIENA’s LightWorks

Toolkit™ is designed to allow carriers to offer dynamic high-bandwidth services

and  handle  real-time  service  provisioning  and  prioritization.  By  mixing  and

matching CIENA’s ToolKit tools, carriers will be able to offer customized services

and further differentiate themselves from their competition.

Service 

Description

Tools in the LightWorks ToolKit will ultimately include:

Optical Priority 

•

Optical Priority Provisioning is designed to allow carriers to turn-up optical

Provisioning

services in real time, and to specify priority levels for further differentiation

of optical services. For instance, a carrier may elect to offer multiple levels

of optical bandwidth, ranging from “premium” to “best-effort” service, with

each level of service being priced and delivered differently. Optical Priority

Provisioning  is  designed  to  help  carriers  more  easily  meet  service  level

agreements by assigning and adjusting traffic priorities in real time, poten-

tially allowing carriers to unlock more revenue from data services.

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•

Optical Priority Provisioning should simplify the delivery of differentiated opti-

cal services by providing access to service templates of predefined restoration

priorities, preemptability, and linear, ring and mesh protection schemes. Using

these simplified templates, service provisioners should be able to deliver opti-

cal services, at any service level, in just a few clicks of a mouse.

Flexible Concatenation

•

In  legacy  networks,  bandwidth  demand  is  arbitrarily  shoehorned  into

SONET/SDH-sized  transport  containers  where  the  size  of  the  container  is

fixed. For example, if a customer requires OC–15 service, the customer must

purchase OC–48 service, even though only a fraction of the 48 time slots in

the transport container will be filled with bits. In this scenario, the customer

is paying for bandwidth it is not using and the carrier is losing valuable net-

work  bandwidth.  CIENA  is  using  a  combination  of  silicon  and  software  to

redefine how carriers access and deliver bandwidth.

• When available, Flexible Concatenation will allow carriers to access all time slots

within the SONET/SDH frame—even when those frames are fractionally filled.

That means carriers will be able to create true OC–“N” services in which “N”

can be any number between 1 and 48 and in the future will be 192 and even-

tually 768 instead of the current restrictions of SONET which sets fixed sizes

on transport containers. Flexible concatenation is designed to enable carriers

to maximize their network bandwidth and deliver customer-specific service.

Rate Adaptive 

•

CIENA’s Rate-Adaptive Gigabit Ethernet technology uses software and ASICs

Gigabit Ethernet

to  enable  service  providers  to  sell  “any-size”  Gigabit  Ethernet  services  in

increments of 50Mbps (STS–1) up to 1.25Gbps.

• When available, service providers will be able to use Rate Adaptive Gigabit

Ethernet  to  create  a  wide  range  of  customized  optical  service  options  for

end-users  and  deliver  those  services  over  more  efficient  access  and  core

networks that leverage the economies of Gigabit Ethernet transmission.

VSR Optics

•

For  increased  profitability,  carriers  must  continually  drop  their  cost  per  bit.

However, to stay competitive, carriers must continue to increase the value of

their services. VSR (Very Short Reach) Optics are designed to provide lower-

cost, high-capacity connections between Internet and optical networking sys-

tems  within  a  service  provider’s  central  office.  VSR  Optics  leverage  Vertical

Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) technology and Gigabit Ethernet stan-

dards to make variable-rate optical services possible and economical—a valu-

able  service  for  unpredictable  bandwidth  demands.  When  available,  CIENA

will apply this data rate-scalable technology to 10Gbps network connections.

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Transparent Service

•

As opposed to traditional SONET/SDH multiplexing, CIENA’s “transparent” multi-

Multiplexing

plexing is designed to enable optical services to be delivered without compro-

mising  the  SONET/SDH  overheads  of  individual  tributaries  that  make  up  the

aggregate  signal.  Enabling  multiple  signals  to  be  transparently  multiplexed,

transported  and  demultiplexed  means  signals  are  delivered  as  if  they  were

connected directly to the destination equipment by their own unique wave-

length, maintaining the customers’ signal security and integrity. When available,

Transparent Service Multiplexing (TSM) should be ideal for delivering IP traffic,

wavelength services and other new optical services that CIENA’s Toolkit enables.

With TSM, each end device appears to communicate over its own unique wave-

length while actually being economically consolidated with other signals.

Wavelength Binding

• With unprecedented traffic growth and changing traffic demands, Internet-

centric carriers are looking for ways to better match the changes in IP router

traffic demands with the provisioned bandwidth capacities available within

their networks. To meet this need, CIENA is developing Wavelength Binding.

• Wavelength Binding will leverage intellectual property to enable a device of

any speed to be connected to a network operating at a lower speed by build-

ing  “virtual  channels”  of  multiple  wavelengths  bound  together  in  a  single,

very high capacity bitstream. As a result, when Wavelength binding is avail-

able CIENA’s customers will be able to deliver 40 gigabits per second without

changing  their  transport  infrastructure.  Wavelength  Binding  will  also  give

carriers previously unavailable network flexibility by enabling them to bun-

dle and unbundle wavelengths as network capacity demands change.

Product Development

We  believe  the  overall  growth  in  utilization  of  fiber  optic  telecommunications

networks  will  lead  to  transmission  bottlenecks  in  other  segments  of  the  net-

works  where  the  application  of  optical  networking  technologies  may  provide

solutions. We also believe there may be opportunities for us to develop products

and  technologies  complementary  to  existing  optical  networking  technologies

which  may  broaden  our  ability  to  provide,  facilitate  and/or  interconnect  with

high  bandwidth  solutions  offered  throughout  fiber  optic  networks.  CIENA

intends to focus its product development efforts and possibly pursue strategic

alliances or acquisitions to address expected opportunities in these areas.

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Customers
CIENA has announced publicly relationships with the following thirty-five customers:

Domestic

1. Alltel Corporation

2. Bell South Telecommunications, Inc.

3. Broadwing Communications Services, Inc. (formerly IXC)

4. Cable & Wireless USA, Inc.

5. Digital Teleport, Inc.

6. Enron Communications, Inc.

7. Genuity Solutions Inc.

8. Intermedia Communications Inc.

9. WorldCom Inc.

10. PSINet, Inc.

11. Qwest Communications Corporation

12. RCN of Pennsylvania, Inc.

13. Sprint Corporation

14. Verizon Communications, Inc. (formerly Bell Atlantic)

15. Williams Communications, Inc.

16. XO Communications, Inc. (formerly Nextlink)

International

1. Cable & Wireless Communications Services Limited, UK

2. CompleTel SAS, France

3. Crosswave Communications, Inc., Japan

4. Daini Deuden Inc., Japan

5. Dynegy Inc., Austria

6. ESAT Telecom, Ireland

7. Global Crossing (UK) Telecommunications Limited, UK

8. GTS Network (Ireland) Limited, Belgium

9. HanseNet Telekommunikation GmbH, Germany

10. Interoute Telecommunications (UK) Limited, UK

11. Japan Telecom, Co., Ltd., Japan

12. KDD/Teleway Japan Corporation, Japan

13. Korea Telecom, Korea

14. MobilCom AG, Germany

15. WorldCom, Inc., Europe

16. Operadora Protel, S.A. de C.V., Mexico

17. Fibernet UK Limited (formerly TANet, UK)

18. Telecom Developpement, France

19. Telia AB, Sweden

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In addition, CIENA has several unannounced customer relationships.

Customers by Category

Interexchange Carriers (IXCs)

The initial deployments of CIENA’s bandwidth enhancing optical transport equip-

ment  occurred  in  the  core  of  the  U.S.  long-distance  network  with  the  inter-

exchange carriers or IXCs. IXCs provide connections between local exchanges in

different  geographic  areas.  In  recent  years,  incumbent  IXCs  such  as  Sprint,

WorldCom  and  AT&T  have  seen  increased  competition  from  emerging  long-

distance  carriers  such  as  Qwest  Communications,  Global  Crossing,  Broadwing

Communications Services, Inc., and Level 3 Communications. We expect that con-

tinued competition in long-distance call rates, as well as the carriers’ desire for

market  and  service  differentiation,  will  continue  to  drive  demand  for  the

increased capacity and features offered by CIENA’s optical networking equipment.

Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs)

Deregulation has fueled the growth of U.S. competitive local exchange carriers

or  CLECs.  CIENA  believes  that  in  the  short-term,  CLECs  could  benefit  from  the

hesitancy  of  incumbent  local  exchange  carriers,  such  as  the  Regional  Bell

Operation Companies (“RBOCs”), to open their local markets to competitors, and

that these CLECs are likely to move aggressively to capitalize on opportunities

in the local area. CIENA recognized revenues from CLEC customers in fiscal 2000

and expects that tactical CLEC applications for its long-haul products, as well as

the short-distance products, will be well-suited to CLEC network applications.

International Competitive Carriers

New competitive carriers are emerging as a result of deregulation in the inter-

national telecommunications markets as well. CIENA has concentrated its sales

efforts on these emerging carriers as opposed to the traditional carriers or PTTs.

During Fiscal 2000, CIENA increased its announced international customer base

from fourteen to eighteen customers. In many cases, these new competitive car-

riers do not have the installed fiber base of the larger carriers and therefore are

in  need  of  the  scalable  bandwidth  CIENA’s  optical  transport  systems  offer.  In

addition, because of the economies and flexibility afforded by the application of

DWDM technology, CIENA’s equipment is being used on several new builds where

the service provider is physically constructing the network. CIENA expects that

in the near-term, the majority of its international revenue will come from these

smaller, more aggressive competitive carriers, and will continue to concentrate

its sales efforts accordingly.

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Non-Traditional Telecommunication Service Providers

The  growth  of  the  Internet  has  produced  traffic  growth  substantial  enough  to

attract new, non-traditional telecommunication service providers to compete in

this  market  as  well.  Both  domestically  and  internationally,  companies  with

rights-of-way,  such  as  utility  companies,  cable  TV  providers,  and  railroads  are

capitalizing on their “network” (whether a pipeline, a railroad, or a highway), and

in  some  cases,  are  laying  optical  fiber  and  constructing  telecommunications

networks  along  those  rights-of-way.  The  transmission  capabilities  of  CIENA’s

optical networking equipment enables these new carriers to provide competitive

services while purchasing and laying a minimal amount of fiber optic cable.

Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers

Incumbent local exchange carriers, such as the RBOCs, are very active in inter-

office  and  local  exchange  markets  and,  under  the  Telecommunications  Act  of

1996, RBOCs are eligible to enter the long distance market once they have met

certain  requirements  for  opening  their  local  markets  to  competition.  CIENA

believes  that  over  time  the  RBOCs  will  continue  to  gain  approval  to  offer  long

distance services, although the timing of that move is uncertain, and the ques-

tion  of  how  such  a  move  will  be  implemented  is  unclear—e.g.,  through  the

establishment  of  owned  network  facilities,  through  the  purchase  of  long  dis-

tance capacity from other long distance carriers, or through some combination

of the two. Regardless of the timing of any such move, CIENA believes there are

opportunities for in-region deployment of CIENA’s long distance and metropoli-

tan optical transport products at certain RBOCs.

Marketing and Distribution

CIENA’s  intelligent  optical  networking  systems  require  substantial  investment,

and  our  target  customers  in  the  fiber  optic  telecommunications  market—where

network capacity and reliability are critical—are highly demanding and technically

sophisticated. There are only a small number of such customers in any country

or  geographic  market.  Also,  every  network  operator  has  unique  configuration

requirements,  which  impact  the  integration  of  optical  networking  systems  with

existing  transmission  equipment.  The  convergence  of  these  factors  leads  to  a

very long sales cycle for optical networking equipment, often more than a year

between initial introduction to the Company and commitment to purchase, and

has further led CIENA to pursue sales efforts on a focused, customer-by-customer

basis. See Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions

and Results of Operations—Risk Factors.”

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CIENA  has  organized  its  resources  for  the  separate  but  coordinated

approach  to  United  States  and  international  customers.  In  the  United  States

market, a sales team, comprised of an account manager, systems engineers and

technical  support  and  training  personnel,  is  assigned  responsibility  for  each

customer account, and for the coordination and pursuit of sales contacts. In the

international  market,  CIENA  pursues  prospective  customers  through  direct

sales efforts, as well as through distributors, independent marketing represen-

tatives  and  independent  sales  consultants.  CIENA  established  CIENA

Communications,  Inc.  as  a  wholly  owned  subsidiary  to  coordinate  worldwide

sales,  marketing,  customer  service  and  installation  support  functions.  CIENA

Communications Japan, Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary established to coor-

dinate  sales,  marketing  and  customer  service  efforts  in  Japan,  the  Pacific  Rim

and  other  Asian  areas.  CIENA  established  CIENA  Limited  as  a  wholly  owned

subsidiary  in  the  U.K.  to  coordinate  European,  and  Middle  Eastern  sales,  mar-

keting,  customer  service  and  installation  support  functions.  Through  its  sub-

sidiaries, CIENA has established offices in the U.S., Europe and Latin America,

including offices in the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Mexico and Brazil. CIENA

has  distributor  or  marketing  representative  arrangements,  including  agree-

ments with agents in Italy, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Venezuela, Columbia

and Chile.

In support of its worldwide selling efforts, CIENA conducts marketing com-

munications programs intended to position and promote its products within the

telecommunications  industry.  Marketing  personnel  also  coordinate  our  partici-

pation in trade shows and conduct media relations activities with trade and gen-

eral business publications.

Manufacturing

CIENA conducts most of the optical assembly, final assembly and final com-

ponent, module and system test functions for its optical transport products

at its manufacturing facilities in Maryland. It also manufactures the in-fiber

Bragg  gratings  used  in  its  optical  transport  product  lines.  We  expect  the

majority  of  the  manufacturing  associated  with  our  MultiWave  CoreDirector

and  CoreDirector  CI  products  will  be  performed  by  third-party  manufactur-

ers, with only final system test and assembly performed by CIENA. We also

rely  on  third-party  manufacturers  to  manufacture  some  of  our  components

for our products and continue to evaluate whether additional portions of our

manufacturing  can  be  done  on  a  reliable  and  cost-effective  basis  by  third-

party manufacturers.

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CIENA  believes  that  portions  of  its  manufacturing  technologies  and

processes represent a key competitive advantage. Accordingly, we have invested

significantly  in  automated  production  capabilities  and  manufacturing  process

improvements  and  expect  to  further  enhance  our  manufacturing  process  with

additional  production  process  control  systems.  Certain  critical  manufacturing

functions require a highly skilled work force, and CIENA puts significant efforts

into training and maintaining the quality of its manufacturing personnel and in

maintaining its proprietary information in this area.

CIENA’s optical transport product lines utilize hundreds of individual parts,

many  of  which  are  customized  for  the  Company.  Component  suppliers  in  the

specialized,  high  technology  end  of  the  optical  communications  industry  are

generally not as plentiful or, in some cases, as reliable, as component suppliers,

in  more  mature  industries.  CIENA  works  closely  with  its  strategic  component

suppliers to pursue new component technologies that could either reduce cost

or enhance the performance of our products.

Competition

Competition in the telecommunications equipment industry is intense, particu-

larly in that portion of the industry focused to delivering higher bandwidth and

more  cost  effective  services  throughout  the  telecommunications  network.

CIENA believes that its position as a leading supplier of open architecture opti-

cal  networking  equipment  and  the  field-tested  design  and  performance  of  its

optical transport products give it a competitive advantage and expects to lever-

age that advantage in bringing its core switching products to market. However,

competition  has  been  and  will  continue  to  be  very  intense.  See  Item  7.

“Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of

Operations—Risk Factors.”

The  competition  faced  by  CIENA  is  dominated  by  a  small  number  of  very

large,  usually  multinational,  vertically  integrated  companies,  each  of  which  has

substantially  greater  financial,  technical  and  marketing  resources,  and  greater

manufacturing capacity as well as more established customer relationships with

long distance carriers than CIENA. Included among CIENA’s competitors are Lucent

Technologies  Inc.,  (“Lucent”),  Northern  Telecom  Inc.  (“Nortel”),  Alcatel  Alsthom

Group  (“Alcatel”),  NEC  Corporation  (“NEC”),  Cisco,  by  virtue  of  its  acquisition  of

Pirelli  SpA,  Siemens  AG  (“Siemens”),  Fujitsu  Group  (“Fujitsu”),  Hitachi  Ltd.

(“Hitachi”) and Telefon AB LM Ericsson (“Ericsson”). CIENA also believes that sev-

eral new companies, such as ONI Systems, Sycamore Networks, Corvis Systems,

18
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

and  Tellium,  Inc.,  will  attempt  to  break  into  the  rapidly  emerging  optical  net-

working market. Each of CIENA’s major competitors is believed to be in various

stages of development, introduction or deployment of products directly compet-

itive with CIENA’s optical transport, core switching and service delivery systems.

In  addition  to  optical  networking  equipment  suppliers,  traditional  TDM-

based transmission equipment suppliers compete with CIENA in the market for

transmission  capacity.  Lucent,  Alcatel,  Nortel,  Fujitsu,  Hitachi  and  NEC  are

already providers of a full complement of such transmission equipment. These

and other competitors have introduced or are expected to introduce equipment

that will offer 10 Gb/s transmission capability.

Patents and Other Intellectual Property Rights

CIENA has licensed intellectual property from third parties, including certain key

enabling technologies with respect to the production of in-fiber Bragg gratings,

utilized publicly available technology associated with Erbium-doped fiber ampli-

fiers, and applied its design, engineering and manufacturing skills to develop its

optical  transport  systems.  These  licenses  expire  when  the  last  of  the  licensed

patents expires or is abandoned. CIENA also licenses from third parties certain

software components for its network management products. These licenses are

perpetual but will generally terminate after an uncured breach of the agreement

by  CIENA.  We  have  registered  trademarks  for  CIENA,  WaveWatcher,  MODULE

SCOPE, CIENA Optical Communications, Multiwave, and Multiwave Sentry. CIENA

also  relies  on  contractual  rights,  trade  secrets  and  copyrights  to  establish  and

protect its proprietary rights in its products.

CIENA  intends  to  enforce  vigorously  its  intellectual  property  rights  if

infringement or misappropriation occurs.

CIENA’s practice is to require its employees and consultants to execute non-

disclosure and proprietary rights agreements upon commencement of employment

or  consulting  arrangements  with  CIENA.  These  agreements  acknowledge  CIENA’s

exclusive ownership of all intellectual property developed by the individual dur-

ing  the  course  of  his  or  her  work  with  CIENA,  and  require  that  all  proprietary

information disclosed to the individual will remain confidential. CIENA’s employ-

ees generally also sign agreements not to compete with CIENA for a period of

twelve months following any termination of employment.

As  of  November  2000,  CIENA  had  received  fifty-eight  (58)  United  States

patents, and had one hundred sixteen (116) pending U.S. patent applications. We

also  have  a  number  of  foreign  patents  and  patent  applications.  Of  the  United

19
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

States  patents  that  have  been  issued  to  CIENA,  the  earliest  any  will  expire  is

2012.  Pursuant  to  an  agreement  between  CIENA  and  General  Instrument

Corporation dated March 10, 1997, CIENA is a co-owner with General Instrument

Corporation  of  a  portfolio  of  27  United  States  and  foreign  patents  relating  to

optical communications, primarily for video-on-demand applications. See Item 7.

“Management’s  Discussion  and  Analysis  of  Financial  Condition  and  Results  of

Operations—Risk Factors.”

Employees

As of October 31, 2000, CIENA and its subsidiaries employed 2,775 persons, of

whom  527  were  primarily  engaged  in  research  and  development  activities,

1,233  in  manufacturing,  412  in  installation  services,  372  in  sales,  marketing,

customer  support  and  related  activities  and  231  in  administration.  None  of

CIENA’s employees are currently represented by a labor union. CIENA considers

its relations with its employees to be good.

Directors and Executive Officers

The table below sets forth certain information concerning each of the directors

and executive officers of CIENA:

Name

Age

Position

Patrick H. Nettles, Ph.D.(1)

Gary B. Smith(1)

Stephen B. Alexander

Steve W. Chaddick

Joseph R. Chinnici

Mark Cummings

Larry P. Huang

Jesús León

Michael O. McCarthy III

Elizabeth S. Perry

Rebecca K. Seidman

Chris V. Simpson

A. Perry Kamel

Andrew C. Petrik

Stephen P. Bradley, Ph.D.(1)(3)

57

40

41

49

46

49

48

56

35

37

54

53

35

37

59

Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board of Directors

President, Chief Operating Officer and Director

Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer

Senior Vice President, Systems and Technology

Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer

Senior Vice President, Operations

Senior Vice President, Business Development

Senior Vice President, Transport Products and Technology

Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

Senior Vice President, Core Switching and NMS

Senior Vice President, Human Resources Development

Senior Vice President, Global Sales

Vice President, Marketing

Vice President, Controller and Treasurer

Director

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Name 

Age

Position

Harvey B. Cash(1)(2)

John R. Dillon(1)(3)

Lawton W. Fitt(1)(3)

Judith M. O’Brien(1)(2)

Gerald H. Taylor(1)(2)

62

59

47

50

59

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

(1) The Company’s Directors hold staggered terms of office, expiring as follows: Ms. Fitt
and Messrs Dillon and Nettles in 2001; Ms. O’Brien and Messrs Smith and Cash in
2002; Messrs Bradley and Taylor in 2003

(2) Member of the Human Resources Committee

(3) Member of the Audit Committee

Patrick  H.  Nettles,  Ph.D., has  served  as  Chairman  of  the  Board  of

Directors  and  Chief  Executive  Officer  since  October  2000  and  as  President,

Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company since April 1994, and as

Director, and Chief Executive Officer since February 1994. Dr. Nettles serves as

a  Trustee  for  the  California  Institute  of  Technology  and  also  serves  on  the

Advisory Board to the President at Georgia Institute of Technology. From 1992

until 1994, Dr. Nettles served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating

Officer of Blyth Holdings Inc., a publicly-held supplier of client/server software.

From  late  1990  through  1992,  Dr.  Nettles  was  President  and  Chief  Executive

Officer of Protocol Engines Inc., a development stage enterprise, formed as an

outgrowth  of  Silicon  Graphics  Inc.,  and  targeted  toward  very  large  scale  inte-

gration based solutions for high-performance computer networking. From 1989

to 1990, Dr. Nettles was Chief Financial Officer of Optilink, a venture start-up

that was acquired by DSC Communications. Dr. Nettles received his B.S. degree

from  the  Georgia  Institute  of  Technology  and  his  Ph.D.  from  the  California

Institute of Technology.

Gary  B.  Smith has  served  as  President,  Chief  Operating  Officer  and

Director since October 2000 and Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer

from  August  1999  to  October  2000.  Mr.  Smith  served  as  Senior  Vice  President

Worldwide Sales from September 1998 to August 1999, and was previously Vice

President of International Sales since joining the Company in November 1997.

From June 1995 to October 1997, Mr. Smith served as Vice President, Sales and

Marketing for Intelsat and from August 1991 to May 1995, Mr. Smith served as

Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Cray Communications, Inc. Mr. Smith

received an M.B.A. from Ashridge Management College, U.K.

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Stephen  B.  Alexander has  served  as  Senior  Vice  President,  Chief

Technology Officer since January 2000, Vice President, Chief Technology Officer

from September 1998 to January 2000, and Vice President, Transport Products

from September 1996 to August 1998. He was previously Director of Lightwave

Systems  at  the  Company  since  joining  it  in  1994.  From  1982  until  joining  the

Company,  he  was  employed  at  MIT  Lincoln  Laboratory,  where  he  last  held  the

position of Assistant Leader of the Optical Communications Technology Group.

Mr. Alexander is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Lightwave Technology and

a  General  Chair  of  the  conference  on  Optical  Fiber  Communication  (OFC)  for

1997. Mr. Alexander received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engi-

neering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Steve  W.  Chaddick has  served  as  Senior  Vice  President,  Systems  and

Technology since January 2000, and was previously President, Core Switching

Division from September 1999 to January 2000. Mr. Chaddick served as Senior

Vice  President,  Strategy  and  Corporate  Development  from  August  1998  to

September  1999,  and  from  September  1996  to  August  1998,  he  served  as

Senior  Vice  President,  Products  and  Technologies,  and  was  previously  Vice

President  of  Product  Development  for  the  Company  since  joining  it  in  1994.

Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Chaddick was Vice President of Engineering at

AT&T  Tridom,  a  company  he  co-founded  in  1983  and  which  was  acquired  by

AT&T in 1988. Mr. Chaddick holds several patents in the area of WDM systems

and techniques, and serves on the Advisory Board of the School of Electrical and

Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Mr. Chaddick received

both  his  B.S.  and  M.S.  degrees  in  electrical  engineering  from  the  Georgia

Institute of Technology.

Joseph R. Chinnici has served as Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief

Financial Officer since August 1997, and was previously Vice President, Finance

and Chief Financial Officer from May 1995 to August 1997. Mr. Chinnici served

previously  as  Controller  since  joining  the  Company  in  September  1994.  From

1993  through  1994,  Mr.  Chinnici  served  as  a  financial  consultant  for  Halston

Borghese Inc. From 1977 to 1993, Mr. Chinnici held a variety of accounting and

finance  assignments  for  Playtex  Apparel,  Inc.  (now  a  division  of  Sara  Lee

Corporation),  ending  this  period  as  Director  of  Operations  Accounting  and

Financial  Analysis.  Mr.  Chinnici  currently  serves  on  the  board  of  directors  for

Online Technologies Group, Inc. Mr. Chinnici holds a B.S. degree in accounting

from Villanova University and an M.B.A. from Southern Illinois University.

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Mark  Cummings has served as Senior Vice President, Manufacturing since

August 1997, and was previously Vice President, Manufacturing since joining the

Company  in  May  1996.  From  1985  to  1996,  Mr.  Cummings  was  Vice  President,

Operations for Cray Communications, Inc., an international manufacturer of com-

munications equipment. Mr. Cummings holds a B.S. degree in electronic technology

from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and is currently in the Masters pro-

gram in advanced manufacturing systems at the University of Maryland.

Lawrence  P.  Huang has  served  as  Senior  Vice  President,  Corporate

Development since May 2000 and was previously Senior Vice President, Strategic

Account  Sales,  from  September  1998  to  May  2000  and  Senior  Vice  President,

Sales and Marketing, from November 1996 to September 1998. From April 1994,

when  he  joined  the  company,  to  September  1998,  Mr.  Huang  served  as  Vice

President, Sales and Marketing of the Company. Prior to joining CIENA, Mr. Huang

was Vice President/General Manager and Vice President of Sales and Marketing

of AT&T Tridom, which he co-founded in 1983. Mr. Huang holds a B.S. degree in

industrial management from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an M.B.A.

from Georgia State University.

Jesús León has served as Senior Vice President, Products and Technology

since  September  1998  and  Vice  President,  Access  Products  since  joining  the

Company in November 1996. From December 1995 to October 1996, Mr. León

served as Vice President, Engineering, for the Access Systems Division of Alcatel

(“Alcatel”).  Prior  to  December  1996,  Mr.  León  served  in  various  positions  with

Alcatel  with  responsibility  for  over  1,200  engineers  in  Europe,  Australia  and

South Africa. Mr. León holds a B.S.E.E. and M.E. degrees from the University of

Florida,  an  A.B.D.  (all  but  doctoral  dissertation)  from  the  Georgia  Institute  of

Technology and an M.B.A. degree from Georgia State University.

Michael  O.  McCarthy  III has  served  as  Senior  Vice  President,  General

Counsel  and  Secretary  since  October  2000  and  was  previously  Vice  President,

General  Counsel  and  Secretary  from  July  1999  to  October  2000.  Mr.  McCarthy

served as the Assistant General Counsel since joining the Company in September

1997. From June 1996 to September 1997, Mr. McCarthy was a Corporate Counsel

in  MCI  Communications  Corporation’s  mergers  and  acquisitions  group.  Prior  to

joining MCI, Mr. McCarthy was an attorney with Hogan & Hartson’s corporate and

securities  group  where  he  served  as  outside  counsel  for  a  variety  of  emerging

companies.  Mr.  McCarthy  holds  a  B.A.  degree  in  Mathematical  Economics  from

Colgate University and a J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University’s School of Law.

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Elizabeth  S.  Perry has  served  as  Senior  Vice  President  of  the  Core

Switching Products and Network Management Systems since January 2000, and

was  previously  Vice  President,  Core  Switching  Products,  from  August  1999  to

January 2000. Ms. Perry also served as Director of Network Management strat-

egy since joining the Company in April 1999. From August 1997 to March 1999,

Ms. Perry served as Senior Director of SONET Software Development at Hitachi

Telecom.  Ms.  Perry  served  from  June  1993  to  July  1997  as  Director,  High

Capacity  Lightwave  Software  Development  for  Alcatel.  Ms.  Perry  received  her

M.S.E.E. degree with Telecommunications specialty, as well as her B.S.E.M./E.E.

degrees from Southern Methodist University.

Rebecca K. Seidman has served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources

since  August  1999  and  was  previously  Vice  President,  Human  Resources  from

June  1996  to  August  1999.  Ms.  Seidman  also  served  as  Director  of  Human

Resources  Development  since  joining  the  Company  in  April  1996.  From  1984

until  joining  the  Company,  Ms.  Seidman  served  consecutively  as  Director  of

Marketing,  Vice  President,  Administration,  and  Principal  of  Walpert,  Smullian  &

Blumenthal, P.A., a regional accounting and consulting firm. Ms. Seidman holds a

B.A. degree in economics and political science from Goucher College and is the

co-author of Total Quality Distribution, a book discussing practical applications

of Total Quality in the wholesale distribution industry.

Chris  V.  Simpson has served as Senior Vice President, Global Sales since

joining the Company in April 2000. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Simpson

served  as  Vice  President  of  Sales,  Marketing  and  International  Operations  for

Harris Corporation’s RF Communications. From 1988 to 1998, Mr. Simpson held

several senior sales and marketing positions at Qualcomm, Inc., including Senior

Vice President and General Manager, Worldwide Sales and Marketing and Senior

Vice  President,  Strategic  Marketing.  Mr.  Simpson  received  his  B.S.  degree  in

Accounting from Oklahoma State University.

A.  Perry  Kamel has served as Vice President, Marketing since joining the

Company  in  May  2000.  Prior  to  joining  the  Company,  Mr.  Kamel  founded

BroadPoint  Communications,  an  e-commerce  start-up,  where  he  served  as  a

Director, President and Chief Executive Officer from October 1997 to March 2000.

From  August  1996  to  October  1997,  Mr.  Kamel  served  as  Director  of  Strategic

Planning and Business Development at MCI Communications. From May 1994 to

August 1996, Mr. Kamel was employed by McKinsey & Company where he con-

sulted  leading  service  providers  in  strategy  and  operations.  Mr.  Kamel  received

his  M.S.E.E.  and  B.S.E.E.  degrees  from  Cornell  University  and  holds  and  M.B.A.

degree from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania.

24
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Andrew  C.  Petrik has  served  as  Vice  President,  Controller  and  Treasurer

since August 1997, as Controller and Treasurer from December 1996 to August

1997 and as Controller since joining the Company in July 1996. From 1989 to

1996,  Mr.  Petrik  was  employed  by  Microdyne  Corporation  where  he  was  the

Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Product Planning from 1994 to 1996

and the Assistant Controller from 1989 to 1994. Mr. Petrik holds a B.S. degree in

Accounting from the University of Maryland and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Stephen P. Bradley, Ph.D. has served as a Director of the Company since

April  1998.  Professor  Bradley  is  a  William  Ziegler  Professor  of  Business

Administration and the Chairman of the Program for Management Development

at  the  Harvard  Business  School.  A  member  of  the  Harvard  faculty  since  1968,

Professor  Bradley  is  also  Chairman  of  Harvard’s  Executive  Program  in

Competition  and  Strategy  and  teaches  in  Harvard’s  Delivering  Information

Services program. Professor Bradley has written extensively on the telecommu-

nications  industry  and  the  impact  of  technology  on  competitive  strategy.

Professor  Bradley  received  his  B.E.  degree  in  Electrical  Engineering  from  Yale

University in 1963 and his M.S. degree and Ph.D. in Operations Research from

the University of California, Berkeley, in 1965 and 1968 respectively.

Harvey B. Cash has served as a Director of the Company since April 1994.

Mr.  Cash  is  a  general  partner  of  InterWest  Partners,  a  venture  capital  firm  in

Menlo Park, California that he joined in 1985. Mr. Cash serves on the board of

directors of Liberté, Inc., Panja Corporation, and i2 Technologies Inc. He is also

an advisor to Austin Ventures. Mr. Cash received a B.S. degree in electrical engi-

neering from Texas A&M University and an M.B.A. degree from Western Michigan

University.  Mr.  Cash  served  on  the  board  of  directors  of  Benchmarq

Microelectronics  from  1990  to  1999,  and  on  the  board  of  directors  of  Aurora

Electronics, Inc. from 1991 to 1999.

John R. Dillon has served as a Director of the Company since October 1999.

Mr. Dillon serves on the board of directors of Airgate PCS. Mr. Dillon’s experience

includes  a  variety  of  positions  at  such  companies  as  The  Coca-Cola  Company,

Scientific Atlanta and Fuqua National, where he served as President. Mr. Dillon

was instrumental in taking Cox Communications private in 1985 and merging it

with  Cox  Newspapers  to  form  Cox  Enterprises,  at  which  time  he  was  elected

Senior  Vice  President,  CFO  and  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors.  At  Cox

Enterprises,  he  was  responsible  for  all  corporate  financial  activities  as  well  as

planning and development until his retirement in December 1996. He continued

to serve on the Boards of TCG and Cox Communications for two years following

his  retirement  from  Cox  Enterprises.  Mr.  Dillon  holds  an  MBA  degree  from

25
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Harvard Business School and a BEE degree from Georgia Institute of Technology,

where  he  was  elected  to  the  Academy  of  Distinguished  Engineering  Alumni  in

1997.  He  was  a  founding  director  of  the  Georgia  Center  for  Advanced

Telecommunications  Technology  and  served  on  the  Georgia  Institute  of

Technology National Advisory Board.

Lawton  W.  Fitt became  a  Director  of  the  Company  in  November  2000. 

Ms. Fitt was elected a partner at Goldman Sachs in 1994 and has been a man-

aging  director  since  1996.  She  has  been  involved  in  investment  banking  and

equity underwriting for high-technology companies, including numerous initial

public  offerings  in  the  Internet,  software  and  communications  equipment  sec-

tors. Ms. Fitt is currently co-head of Goldman Sachs’ European High Technology

Investment  Banking  Group.  In  addition  to  chairing  the  Corporate  Financing

Committee of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Ms. Fitt serves as a

director  on  the  boards  of  Wink  Communications,  Inc.  and  e-Steel  Corporation.

Ms. Fitt is a trustee of the Darden School Foundation. Ms. Fitt received an A.B.

degree in European History from Brown University and her M.B.A. degree from the

Darden School of the University of Virginia.

Judith M. O’Brien has served as a Director of the Company since July 2000.

Since  1984,  Ms.  O’Brien  has  been  a  partner  with  Wilson  Sonsini  Goodrich  &

Rosati, where she specializes in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and

general  corporate  matters.  In  July  1993,  Ms.  O’Brien  was  named  as  one  of  the

top  25  lawyers  under  45  in  California  by  the  California  Law  Business,  and  in

1997 she was named one of the top five women attorneys in Northern California

by the California Lawyer as well as one of the leading women securities lawyers

by  The  Recorder.  In  April  2000,  she  was  named  one  of  the  top  twelve

Dealmakers  of  the  Year  for  1999  by  American  Lawyer  magazine.  Ms.  O’Brien

received her B.A. from Smith College and her law degree from UCLA.

Gerald H. Taylor has served as a Director of the Company since January 2000.

Mr.  Taylor  serves  as  a  Managing  Member  of  mortonsgroup  and  serves  on  the

board of directors of Lafarge Corporation. Mr. Taylor brings 29 years of experi-

ence  from  MCI.  During  his  employment  with  MCI,  Mr.  Taylor  was  integrally

involved  in  establishing  MCI  as  one  of  the  world’s  largest  telecommunications

companies.  In  addition  to  his  roles  as  Chief  Executive  Officer  from  November

1996 to October 1998, as President from July 1994 to November 1996, and as

Chief Operating Officer from 1993 until 1996, Mr. Taylor held key roles in oper-

ations, sales and marketing. Mr. Taylor received a B.S. degree in physics from San

Francisco State University.

26
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Item 2. Properties
As  of  October  31,  2000,  all  of  CIENA’s  properties  are  leased.  CIENA’s  principal

executive  offices,  sales,  and  marketing  functions  are  currently  located  in  a

68,000  square  foot  facility  in  Linthicum,  Maryland.  CIENA  has  leased  an  addi-

tional 19,000 square foot facility in Linthicum, Maryland, where it intends to add

additional space for its sales and marketing functions. CIENA’s product develop-

ment  functions  are  located  in  a  96,000  square  foot  facility  in  Linthicum,

Maryland;  and  a  27,500  square  foot  facility  in  Alpharetta,  Georgia.  CIENA  has

leased an additional 25,000 square foot facility in Linthicum, Maryland where it

intends  to  add  additional  space  for  its  product  development  functions.

Combined product development and manufacturing functions are also located in a

43,000 square foot facility in Marlborough, Massachusetts; and a 116,000 square

foot  facility  in  Cupertino,  California.  CIENA  also  has  manufacturing  facilities

located in both Savage and Linthicum, Maryland which consist of 5 facilities with

a total of 300,000 square feet that are used for such functions as manufacturing

production, systems integration and test, pilot production, and customer service

and support. CIENA’s primary engineering, furnishment and installation facility is

located  in  a  26,000  square  foot  facility  located  in  Duluth,  Georgia.  CIENA  has

sales, marketing and customer support offices located in Overland Park, Kansas;

Richardson, Texas; Plano, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Middletown, New Jersey; Boca

Raton,  Florida;  Denver,  Colorado;  Minneapolis,  Minnesota;  Portland,  Oregon;

Bellevue,  Washington;  Chevy  Chase,  MD;  South  Bury,  Connecticut;  Clinton,

Michigan; Edmonton, Canada; London, England; Paris, France; Brussels, Belgium;

Frankfurt, Germany; Tokyo, Japan; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Mexico City, Mexico; Lyons,

France; Madrid, Spain, and Hong Kong, China.

27
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Item 3. Legal Proceedings
On July 19, 2000, CIENA and CIENA Properties, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary

of CIENA, filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of

Delaware requesting damages and injunctive relief against Corvis Corporation.

The complaint charges Corvis Corporation with infringing three patents relating

to  CIENA’s  optical  networking  communication  systems  and  technology.  On

September 8, 2000, Corvis filed an Answer and Counterclaim alleging invalidity,

non-infringement  and  unenforceability  of  the  asserted  patents,  and  tortuous

interference with prospective economic advantage. CIENA believes that Corvis’

counterclaims are without merit, and intends to defend itself vigorously.

On  October  3,  2000,  Stanford  University  and  Litton  Systems  filed  a  com-

plaint  in  U.S.  District  Court  for  the  Central  District  of  California  alleging  that

optical  fiber  amplifiers  incorporated  into  CIENA’s  products  infringe  U.S.  Patent

No. 4,859,016. We are unable to estimate what impact, if any, an adverse out-

come would have on the Company. We intend to defend this suit vigorously.

Item 4. Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
No matters were submitted to a vote of security holders during the fourth quarter

of fiscal 2000.

28
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Part II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Stock and

Related Stockholder Matters

CIENA’s Common Stock is traded on the NASDAQ National Market under the sym-

bol CIEN. The following table sets forth for the fiscal periods indicated the high

and low sales prices of the Common Stock, as reported on the NASDAQ National

Market,  adjusted  to  reflect  the  two-for-one  stock  split  of  the  Common  Stock,

which became effective on September 18, 2000.

Fiscal Year 1998

First Quarter ended January 31, 1998

Second Quarter ended April 30, 1998

Third Quarter ended July 31, 1998

Fourth Quarter ended October 31, 1998

Fiscal Year 1999

First Quarter ended January 31, 1999

Second Quarter ended April 30, 1999

Third Quarter ended July 31, 1999

Fourth Quarter ended October 31, 1999

Fiscal Year 2000

First Quarter ended January 31, 2000

Second Quarter ended April 30, 2000

Third Quarter ended July 31, 2000

Fourth Quarter ended October 31, 2000

Price Range of Common Stock

High

Low

$ 31.78

$ 29.13

$ 46.19

$ 37.94

$ 11.50

$ 14.63

$ 18.88

$ 21.41

$ 39.69

$ 94.50

$ 90.13

$151.00

$23.72

$18.63

$23.44

$ 4.06

$ 6.22

$ 8.31

$11.35

$14.53

$16.75

$30.03

$44.94

$64.19

The closing sale price for the Common Stock on October 27, 2000 was $104.375.

The  market  price  of  CIENA’s  Common  Stock  has  fluctuated  significantly

and  may  be  subject  to  significant  fluctuations  in  the  future.  See  Item  7.

“Management’s  Discussion  and  Analysis  of  Financial  Condition  and  Results  of

Operations—Overview and Risk Factors.”

As of October 31, 2000, there were approximately 1,482 holders of record

of CIENA’s Common Stock and 286,530,631 shares of Common Stock outstanding.

CIENA has never paid cash dividends on its capital stock. CIENA currently

intends to retain earnings for use in its business and does not anticipate paying

any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

29
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Item 6. Selected Consolidated Financial Data
The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction

with Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and

Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and the notes

thereto  included  in  Item  8.  “Financial  Statements  and  Supplementary  Data.”

CIENA has a 52 or 53 week fiscal year which ends on the Saturday nearest to the

last day of October in each year. For purposes of financial statement presenta-

tion, each fiscal year is described as having ended on October 31. Fiscal 1997,

1998, 1999 and 2000 comprised 52 weeks and fiscal 1996 comprised 53 weeks.

(in thousands, except per share data)

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

Year Ended October 31,

Statement of Operations Data:

Revenue

$88,463 $413,215 $508,087 $482,085 $858,750

Cost of goods sold

47,315

166,472

256,014

299,769

477,393

Gross profit

41,148

246,743

252,073

182,316

381,357

Operating expenses:

Research and development

Selling and marketing

General and administrative

Settlement of accrued 
contract obligation

Purchased research 
and development

Pirelli litigation

Merger related costs

Provision for doubtful accounts

8,922

5,641

6,346

23,773

22,627

11,476

73,756

104,641

129,069

47,343

18,468

61,603

22,736

90,922

34,000

—

—

—

—

76

—

—

—

9,503

7,500

30,579

—

—

—

2,548

13,021

(8,538)

—

—

—

806

250

28,010

—

489

Total operating expenses

20,985

65,865

183,003

202,251

273,463

Income (loss) from operations

20,163

180,878

69,070

(19,935) 107,894

Other income (expense), net

653

7,178

12,830

13,944

12,680

Income (loss) before income taxes

20,816

188,056

Provision (benefit) for income taxes

3,553

72,488

81,900

36,200

(5,991) 120,574

(2,067)

39,187

Net income (loss)

$17,263 $115,568 $ 45,700 $ (3,924) $ 81,387

Basic net income (loss) 

per common share

Diluted net income (loss) 

per common and dilutive 
potential common share

Weighted average basic 

$ 0.62 $

0.76 $

0.19 $

(0.01) $

0.29

$ 0.09 $

0.55 $

0.18 $

(0.01) $

0.27

common shares outstanding

27,634

151,928

235,980

267,042

281,621

Weighted average basic common 
and dilutive potential common 
shares outstanding

184,814

209,686

255,788

267,042

299,662

30
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(in thousands)

Balance Sheet Data:

1996

1997

October 31,
1998

1999

2000

Cash and cash equivalents

$24,040 $273,286 $250,714 $143,440 $ 143,187

Working capital

Total assets

Long-term obligations, 

42,240

338,078

391,305

427,471

639,675

79,676

468,247

602,809

677,835

1,027,201

excluding current portion

3,465

1,900

3,029

4,881

4,882

Mandatorily redeemable 

preferred stock

40,404

—

—

—

—

Stockholders’ equity

$10,783 $377,278 $501,036 $530,473 $ 809,835

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of

Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with “Selected

Consolidated Financial Data” and the Company’s consolidated financial statements

and notes thereto included elsewhere in this report on Form 10–K.

Overview

CIENA is a leader in the rapidly growing intelligent optical networking equipment

market.  We  offer  a  comprehensive  portfolio  of  products  for  communications

service providers worldwide. Our customers include long-distance carriers, com-

petitive and incumbent local exchange carriers, Internet service providers, wire-

less and wholesale carriers. CIENA offers optical transport and intelligent optical

switching  systems  that  enable  service  providers  to  provision,  manage  and

deliver high-bandwidth services to their customers. We have pursued a strategy

to develop and leverage the power of disruptive technologies to change the fun-

damental economics of building carrier-class tele- and data-communications net-

works, thereby providing our customers with a competitive advantage. CIENA’s

intelligent optical networking products are designed to enable carriers to deliver

any time, any size, any priority bandwidth to their customers.

CIENA’s LightWorks is an optical networking architecture designed to change

the  fundamental  economics  of  building  service  provider  networks.  LightWorks

focuses  on  the  three  critical  areas  of  optical  networking:  long-distance  optical

transport,  short-distance  optical  transport  and  intelligent  core  switching.  The

products in CIENA’s LightWorks combine the functionality of several current net-

work  elements  into  a  single  network  element,  thereby  lowering  the  capital

equipment  requirements  of  a  service  provider  and  simplifying  the  network,  in

order to reduce a carrier’s network operating costs.

31
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

The products of CIENA’s LightWorks architecture can be sold together as a

complete  network  solution  or  separately  as  best-of-breed  solutions.  Products

include four generations of long distance optical transport systems: MultiWave

1600,  MultiWave  Sentry  1600,  MultiWave  Sentry  4000,  and  MultiWave

CoreStream.  LightWorks  also  includes  CIENA’s  short  distance  optical  transport

products: MultiWave Firefly, MultiWave Metro, and MultiWave Metro One. CIENA’s

LightWorks architecture also includes its MultiWave CoreDirector family of opti-

cal core switching products. The recently introduced MultiWave CoreDirector is

an  intelligent  optical  core  switch  that  allows  carriers  to  deliver  a  full  range  of

transport  services,  without  costly  SONET/SDH 

(synchronous  optical

networks/synchronous digital hierarchy) multiplexers and with more flexibility

than “wavelength only” devices. The first release of the MultiWave CoreDirector

became available during the third fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2000.

In November 1999, CIENA announced it was pursuing enhancements to its

MultiWave CoreStream product that will enable the system to offer the optimal

combination of longer reach transport functionality and channel count to further

lower network costs for service providers. Using forward error correction (FEC),

nonlinearity  management,  and  dispersion  mapping  technologies,  plus  embed-

ded system intelligence, MultiWave CoreStream ultimately will be able to support

optical  spans  of  up  to  5,000  kilometers  without  additional  optical-to-electrical

signal regeneration. We expect to begin customer shipments of the longer reach

features of this product in the first quarter of fiscal 2001. See “Risk Factors.”

During January 2000, CIENA announced the LightWorks Toolkit for Optical

Services,  a  series  of  new  optics-,  silicon-  and  software-based  service  enablers.

CIENA’s LightWorks Toolkit is designed to assist carriers with the transition from

static  service  provisioning  to  real-time,  on  demand  bandwidth  delivery;  from

bandwidths limited by traditional SONET/SDH to optical bandwidth of any size;

and from a single wavelength quality of service to a range of service qualities

that can be dynamically configured and monitored. These service-enabling tools

began to be integrated into CIENA’s LightWorks products during the second half

of calendar 2000. See “Risk Factors.”

During  May  2000,  CIENA  announced  the  introduction  of  its  newest  intelli-

gent optical core switching product, MultiWave CoreDirector CI, an entry version

of  CIENA’s  market-leading  MultiWave  CoreDirector  switch.  MultiWave

CoreDirector CI is designed to offer network operators all the intelligence, real-

time  provisioning,  dynamic  network  protection,  and  comprehensive  network

management  capabilities  of  MultiWave  CoreDirector,  but  optimized  for  smaller

32
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

central  offices  predominant  in  regional  and  metropolitan  portions  of  service

provider networks. The initial release of MultiWave CoreDirector CI is expected

in  limited  availability  for  customer  trials  during  the  first  quarter  of  calendar

2001. See “Risk Factors.”

During  May  2000,  CIENA  also  announced  the  launch  of  its  LightWorks

ON-Center™  Management  Suite,  a  new  fully  integrated  family  of  software-

based  tools  for  comprehensive  element,  network  and  service  layer  manage-

ment  across  service  provider  networks.  ON-Center  is  designed  to  enable

accelerated deployment of new, differentiating optical services, reduced net-

work  operating  and  management  costs,  and  innovative  customer  service

solutions.  The  ON-Center  management  suite  is  designed  to  help  service

providers  use  the  built-in  networking  intelligence  of  CIENA’s  LightWorks

Toolkit for Optical Services and network architecture to enable real-time serv-

ice  deployment,  dynamic  service  level  agreement  (SLA)  management,  multi-

vendor  optical  service  monitoring,  full  Fault,  Configuration,  Accounting,

Performance  and  Security  (FCAPS)  management  across  CIENA  systems,  and

Web-based customer service awareness tools. The initial release of ON-Center

became available during October 2000.

During  August  2000,  CIENA  announced  that  it  had  added  Rate-Adaptive

Gigabit  Ethernet  technology  to  the  LightWorks  Toolkit  for  Optical  Services.

CIENA’s  Rate-Adaptive  Gigabit  Ethernet  technology  uses  software  and  ASICs  to

enable service providers to sell “any-size” Gigabit Ethernet services in increments

of 50 Mbps (STS–1), up to 1.25 Gbps. The service rate is adaptive to end-users’

needs, allowing service providers to tailor pricing to a finer granularity of data

rates.  Additionally,  the  technology  enables  providers  to  transport  fractional

Gigabit Ethernet traffic from up to 10 different customers over a single 2.5 GPS

wavelength. As a result, service providers can create a wide range of customized

optical service options for end-users and deliver those services over more effi-

cient access and core networks that leverage the economies of Gigabit Ethernet

transmission. Rate-Adaptive Gigabit Ethernet technology is expected to be avail-

able for customer trails on CIENA’s MultiWave Metro systems in the first half of

calendar 2001.

CIENA has increased the number of revenue generating optical networking

equipment customers from a total of twenty-seven customers during the fiscal

1999 to thirty-two customers for fiscal 2000. We intend to preserve and enhance

our  market  leadership  and  eventually  build  on  our  installed  base  with  new 

and  additional  products.  CIENA  believes  that  its  product  and  service  quality,

33
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

manufacturing experience, and proven track record of delivery will enable it to

endure  competitive  pricing  pressure  while  concentrating  on  efforts  to  reduce

product costs and maximize production efficiencies. See “Risk Factors.”

As  of  October  31,  2000,  the  Company  and  its  subsidiaries  employed

approximately  2,775  persons,  which  was  an  increase  of  847  persons  over  the

approximate 1,928 employed on October 31, 1999.

Results of Operations

Fiscal Years Ended 2000, 1999 and 1998

Revenue. The  Company  recognized  $858.8  million,  $482.1  million  and

$508.1 million in revenue for the fiscal years ended October 31, 2000, 1999

and 1998, respectively. The approximate $376.7 million or 78.1% increase in

revenue  from  fiscal  1999  to  fiscal  2000  was  due  primarily  to  an  increase  in

product shipments across all product lines. The approximate $26.0 million or

5.1% decrease in revenue from fiscal 1998 to fiscal 1999 was largely the result

of reduced selling prices.

CIENA  recognized  revenues  from  a  total  of  thirty-two,  twenty-seven,  and

fourteen  optical  equipment  customers  during  fiscal  2000,  1999,  and  1998,

respectively.  During  fiscal  year  2000,  Sprint,  Qwest  Communications  and  GTS

Network Ltd. each accounted for at least 10% or more of CIENA’s revenue and all

three  combined  accounted  for  60.9%  of  the  Company’s  fiscal  2000  revenue.

During  fiscal  year  1999  Sprint,  WorldCom,  and  GTS  Network  Ltd.,  each

accounted for at least 10% or more of CIENA’s revenue and all three combined

accounted for 46.2% of CIENA’s fiscal 1999 revenue. This compares to fiscal 1998

in which Sprint was the only 10% customer and in total accounted for 52.5% of

CIENA’s fiscal 1998 revenue. Revenue derived from foreign sales accounted for

approximately 33.0%, 44.3%, and 23.0% of the Company’s total revenues during

fiscal 2000, 1999, and 1998, respectively.

For  fiscal  2000,  CIENA’s  optical  network  equipment  revenues  were  derived

from  sales  of  the  MultiWave  Sentry  4000,  MultiWave  CoreStream  configured  for

both  2.5  gigabits  per  second  (“Gbps”)  and  10.0  Gb/s  transmission  rates,

MultiWave  Sentry  1600,  MultiWave  Metro,  MultiWave  1600,  MultiWave

CoreDirector,  MultiWave  Firefly  systems  and  MultiWave  MetroOne.  During  fiscal

1999, the Company recognized revenues from sales of MultiWave Sentry 4000,

MultiWave Sentry 1600, MultiWave 1600, MultiWave Metro, MultiWave Firefly, and

MultiWave  CoreStream  systems.  During  fiscal  1998,  the  Company  recognized

revenues  from  sales  of  MultiWave  Sentry  1600,  MultiWave  1600,  MultiWave

34
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Firefly,  and  MultiWave  Sentry  4000  systems.  The  revenues  for  fiscal  2000

improved as compared to fiscal 1999 due to increased sales of MultiWave Sentry

4000,  MultiWave  CoreStream,  MultiWave  Sentry  1600,  MultiWave  Metro,  and

MultiWave  Firefly  systems,  and  also  from  the  introduction  of  revenues  from

MultiWave  CoreDirector  and  MultiWave  MetroOne  systems.  The  amount  of  rev-

enue recognized from MultiWave Sentry 1600 and MultiWave 1600 declined in fis-

cal 1999 as compared to fiscal 1998. This decline in MultiWave Sentry 1600 sales

in fiscal 1999 was offset by the introduction of new revenues from the MultiWave

CoreStream, and MultiWave Metro products in fiscal 1999. Fiscal 1999 revenues

from MultiWave Sentry 4000 and MultiWave Firefly were comparable to the rev-

enues recognized for these products in fiscal 1998. Revenues derived from engi-

neering, furnishing and installation services as a percentage of total revenue were

8.4%, 12.1%, and 9.2% for the fiscal years 2000, 1999, and 1998, respectively.

Gross Profit. Cost of goods sold consists of component costs, direct com-

pensation costs, warranty and other contractual obligations, royalties, license

fees, inventory obsolescence costs and overhead related to the Company’s man-

ufacturing and engineering, furnishing and installation operations. Gross profit

was $381.4 million, $182.3 million, and $252.1 million for fiscal years 2000,

1999, and 1998, respectively. Gross margin was 44.4%, 37.8%, and 49.6% for

fiscal 2000, 1999, and 1998, respectively. The increase in gross profit from fis-

cal  1999  to  fiscal  2000  was  due  primarily  to  lower  component  costs  and

improved production efficiencies. The decrease in gross profit from fiscal 1998

to fiscal 1999 was largely attributable to lower selling prices.

CIENA’s gross margins may be affected by a number of factors, including prod-

uct mix, continued competitive market pricing, outsourcing of manufacturing, man-

ufacturing volumes and efficiencies, competition for skilled labor, and fluctuations

in  component  costs.  Downward  pressures  on  our  gross  margins  may  be  further

impacted by an increased percentage of revenues from EF&I services or additional

service  requirements.  CIENA  will  continue  to  concentrate  on  efforts  to  reduce

product  costs  and  maximize  production  efficiencies  and,  if  successful  in  these

efforts, may be able to improve gross margins in the future. See “Risk Factors.”

Research  and  Development  Expenses.  Research  and  development

expenses were $129.1 million, $104.6 million, and $73.8 million for fiscal 2000,

1999, and 1998, respectively. The approximate $24.4 million or 23.3% increase

from fiscal 1999 to 2000 and the approximate $30.9 million or 41.9% increase

from  fiscal  1998  to  1999  in  research  and  development  expenses  related  to

increased staffing levels, purchases of materials used in development of new or

35
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

enhanced product prototypes, and outside consulting services in support of cer-

tain  developments  and  design  efforts.  During  fiscal  2000,  1999,  and  1998

research and development expenses were 15.0%, 21.7%, and 14.5% of revenue,

respectively. CIENA expects that its research and development expenditures will

continue to increase in absolute dollars and perhaps as a percentage of revenue

during fiscal 2001 to support the continued development of CIENA’s intelligent

optical  networking  products,  the  exploration  of  new  or  complementary  tech-

nologies,  and  the  pursuit  of  various  cost  reduction  strategies.  CIENA  has

expensed research and development costs as incurred.

Selling  and  Marketing  Expenses. Selling  and  marketing  expenses  were

$90.9 million, $61.6 million, and $47.3 million for fiscal 2000, 1999, and 1998,

respectively. The approximate $29.3 million or 47.6% increase from fiscal 1999

to 2000 and the approximate $14.3 million or 30.1% increase from fiscal 1998

to 1999 in selling and marketing expenses was primarily the result of increased

staffing levels in the areas of sales, technical assistance and field support, and

increases  in  commissions  earned,  trade  show  participation  and  promotional

costs. During fiscal 2000, 1999, and 1998 selling and marketing expenses were

10.6%, 12.8%, and 9.3% of revenue, respectively. The Company anticipates that

its selling and marketing expenses may increase in absolute dollars and perhaps

as a percentage of revenue during fiscal 2001 as additional personnel are hired

and  additional  offices  are  opened  to  allow  the  Company  to  pursue  new  cus-

tomers and market opportunities. The Company also expects the portion of sell-

ing  and  marketing  expenses  attributable  to  technical  assistance  and  field

support,  specifically  in  Europe,  Latin  America,  and  Asia,  will  increase  as  the

Company’s installed base of operational MultiWave systems increases.

General  and  Administrative  Expenses. General  and  administrative

expenses were $34.0 million, $22.7 million and $18.5 million for fiscal 2000,

1999, and 1998, respectively. The approximate $11.2 million or 49.5% increase

from  fiscal  year  1999  to  2000  and  the  approximate  $4.3  million  or  23.1%

increase from fiscal year 1998 to 1999 in general and administrative expenses

was  primarily  the  result  of  increased  staffing  levels  and  outside  consulting

services.  During  fiscal  2000,  1999,  and  1998  general  and  administrative

expenses  were  4.0%,  4.7%,  and  3.6%  of  revenue,  respectively.  The  Company

believes that its general and administrative expenses will increase in absolute

dollars and perhaps as a percentage of revenue during fiscal 2001 as a result

of the expansion of the Company’s administrative staff required to support its

expanding operations.

36
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Settlement of Accrued Contract Obligation. The $8.5 million gain from

settlement of accrued contract obligation relates to the July 2000 termination

of certain accrued contract obligations that CIENA received from iaxis Limited,

one  of  CIENA’s  European  customers.  In  September  2000,  CIENA  was  informed

that  an  administrative  order  had  been  issued  by  a  London  court  against  iaxis

Limited. As a result of this order, joint administrators were appointed to man-

age the business of iaxis Limited while they marketed the business for sale and

formulated  a  reorganization  of  the  company.  See  “Provision  for  Doubtful

Accounts” below.

Purchased  Research  and  Development. Purchased  research  and  devel-

opment costs were $9.5 million for the fiscal year 1998. These costs were for

the purchase of technology and related assets associated with the acquisition of

Terabit during the second quarter of fiscal 1998.

Pirelli Litigation. The Pirelli litigation costs of $30.6 million in fiscal 1998

were  attributable  to  a  $30.0  million  payment  made  to  Pirelli  during  the  third

quarter of 1998 and to additional other legal and related costs incurred in con-

nection with the settlement of this litigation.

Merger Related Costs. The merger costs for fiscal 1999 of approximately

$13.0  million  were  costs  related  to  CIENA’s  acquisition  of  Omnia  and  Lightera.

These costs include an $8.1 million non-cash charge for the acceleration of war-

rants based upon CIENA’s Common stock price on June 30, 1999 and $4.9 mil-

lion for fees, legal and accounting services and other costs. The warrants were

issued to one of Omnia’s potential customers and became exercisable upon the

consummation  of  the  merger  between  CIENA  and  Omnia.  The  merger  related

costs  for  fiscal  1998  were  costs  related  to  the  contemplated  merger  between

CIENA and Tellabs. These costs include approximately $1.2 million in Securities

and  Exchange  Commission  filing  fees  and  approximately  $1.3  million  in  legal,

accounting, and other related expenses.

Provision for Doubtful Accounts. CIENA performs ongoing credit evalua-

tions  of  its  customers  and  generally  does  not  require  collateral  from  its  cus-

tomers.  CIENA  maintains  an  allowance  for  potential  losses  when  identified.

CIENA’s allowance for doubtful accounts as of October 31, 2000 was $29.6 mil-

lion.  Approximately  $27.8  million  relates  to  provisions  made  for  doubtful

accounts  associated  with  iaxis  Limited,  one  of  CIENA’s  European  customers.  In

September  2000,  CIENA  was  informed  that  an  administrative  order  had  been

issued  by  a  London  court  against  iaxis  Limited.  As  a  result  of  this  order,  joint

administrators were appointed to manage the business of iaxis Limited while they

37
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

marketed the business for sale and formulated a reorganization of the company.

In November 2000, CIENA was notified that Dynegy Inc. and its subsidiaries had

entered  into  a  proposed  agreement  to  acquire  the  assets  and  stock  of  iaxis

Limited  from  the  administrators.  As  a  consequence  of  the  terms  of  (a)  the  pro-

posed  agreement  between  the  administrators  of  iaxis  Limited,  Dynegy  and  its

subsidiaries,  and  of  (b)  a  related  sales  agreement  between  CIENA  and  Dynegy,

CIENA  expects  to  realize  approximately  $8.9  million  of  the  gross  outstanding

accounts receivable balance due from iaxis Limited as of October 31, 2000. While

the  proposed  purchase  agreement  between  the  administrators  of  iaxis  Limited

and  Dynegy  is  subject  to  certain  administrative  and  judicial  approvals,  CIENA

believes that such approvals will be ultimately obtained and that CIENA will be

successful in collecting the net $8.9 million outstanding accounts receivable bal-

ance  from  the  customer.  However,  should  such  approvals  not  occur,  additional

write-offs might be required.

Other  Income  (Expense),  Net.  Other  income  (expense),  net,  consists  of

interest income earned on the Company’s cash, cash equivalents and marketable

debt securities, net of interest expense associated with the Company’s debt obli-

gations.  Other  income  (expense),  net,  was  $12.7  million,  $13.9  million,  and

$12.8  million  for  fiscal  2000,  1999,  and  1998,  respectively.  The  decrease  in

other  income  (expense)  from  fiscal  1999  to  fiscal  2000  was  due  to  lower  bal-

ances of cash, cash equivalents and marketable debt securities in fiscal 2000 as

compared to fiscal 1999. The increase in the Company’s other income (expense)

from fiscal 1998 to fiscal 1999 was primarily the result of the investment of the

net proceeds of the Company’s stock offerings and net earnings.

Provision  (Benefit)  for  Income  Taxes. CIENA’s  provision  (benefit)  for

income taxes was 32.5%, (34.5%), and 44.2% of pre-tax earnings (loss) for fiscal

2000, 1999 and 1998, respectively. The income tax provision for 2000 was lower

than the expected 35% primarily due to benefits from research and development

tax credits. The benefit for fiscal 1999 was less than the expected statutory ben-

efit  of  35%  due  to  non-deductible  merger  costs.  The  income  tax  provision  for

1998  was  higher  than  the  expected  statutory  rate  of  35%,  due  primarily  to

charges for purchased research and development and state tax charges related to

the  Alta  acquisition.  Purchased  research  and  development  charges  are  not

deductible  for  tax  purposes.  Exclusive  of  the  effect  of  these  charges,  the

Company’s provision for income taxes was 38.6% of income before income taxes

in fiscal 1998. As of October 31, 2000 CIENA’s deferred tax asset was $143.0 mil-

lion. The realization of this asset could be adversely affected if future earnings

are lower than anticipated.

38
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Quarterly Results of Operations. The tables below set forth the oper-

ating  results  and  percentage  of  revenue  represented  by  certain  items  in  the

Company’s statements of operations for each of the eight quarters in the period

ended October 31, 2000. This information is unaudited, but in the opinion of

the  Company  reflects  all  adjustments  (consisting  only  of  normal  recurring

adjustments) that the Company considers necessary for a fair presentation of

such information in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

The  results  for  any  quarter  are  not  necessarily  indicative  of  results  for  any

future period.

Jan. 31,
1999

Apr. 30,
1999

Jul. 31,
1999

Oct. 31,
1999

Jan. 31,
2000

Apr. 30,
2000

Jul. 31,
2000

Oct. 31, 
2000

Revenue
Cost of goods sold

$100,417 $111,490 $128,826 $141,352 $152,213 $185,679 $233,268 $287,590
158,013

104,205

128,172

87,003

83,392

65,778

71,238

79,361

Gross profit

34,639

40,252

49,465

57,960

65,210

81,474

105,096

129,577

Operating expenses:

Research 

and development
Selling and marketing
General 

and administrative
Settlement of accrued 
contract obligation
Merger related costs
Provision for 

doubtful accounts

22,218
13,608

24,094
13,092

28,402
16,839

29,927
18,064

29,742
18,122

29,965
20,331

32,697
24,375

36,665
28,094

5,036

5,849

5,433

6,418

6,621

7,176

9,339

10,864

—
—

—

—
2,253

—
10,768

—
—

—
—

—

—

250

250

—
—

—

(8,538)
—

—
—

8,538

19,222

Total operating expenses

40,862

45,288

61,442

54,659

54,735

57,472

66,411

94,845

Income (loss) 

from operations

Other income 

(expense), net

Income (loss) before 

income taxes

Provision (benefit) 
for income taxes

(6,223)

(5,036)

(11,977)

3,301

10,475

24,002

38,685

34,732

3,301

3,583

3,492

3,568

2,950

3,268

3,026

3,436

(2,922)

(1,453)

(8,485)

6,869

13,425

27,270

41,711

38,168

(1,041)

(468)

(2,928)

2,370

4,363

8,863

13,556

12,405

Net income (loss)

$ (1,881) $

(985) $ (5,557) $ 4,499 $ 9,062 $ 18,407 $ 28,155 $ 25,763

Basic net income (loss) 
per common share(1)

$

(0.01) $

0.00 $

(0.02) $

0.02 $

0.03 $

0.07 $

0.10 $

0.09

Diluted net income (loss) 

per common share 
and dilutive potential 
common share(1)

Weighted average 

$

(0.01) $

0.00 $

(0.02) $

0.02 $

0.03 $

0.06 $

0.09 $

0.09

basic common share

262,404

265,060

266,032

267,616

276,182

280,162

282,258

285,177

Weighted average 
basic common 
and dilutive potential 
common share

39
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

262,404

265,060

266,032

290,604

295,806

299,126

299,790

301,582

Revenue
Cost of goods sold
Gross profit

Operating expenses:

Jan. 31,
1999

Apr. 30,
1999

Jul. 31,
1999

Oct. 31,
1999

Jan. 31,
2000

Apr. 30,
2000

Jul. 31,
2000

Oct. 31,
2000

100.0%
65.5
34.5

100.0%
63.9
36.1

100.0%
61.6
38.4

100.0%
59.0
41.0

100.0%
57.2
42.8

100.0%
56.1
43.9

100.0%
54.9
45.1

100.0%
54.9
45.1

Research and development
Selling and marketing
General and administrative
Settlement of accrued 
contract obligation
Merger related costs
Provision for doubtful accounts

Total operating expenses
Income (loss) from operations
Other income (expense), net
Income (loss) before income taxes
Provision (benefit) for income taxes
Net income (loss)

22.1
13.6
5.0

—
—
—
40.7
(6.2)
3.3
(2.9)
(1.0)
(1.9)%

21.6
11.7
5.2

—
2.0
—
40.5
(4.4)
3.2
(1.2)
(0.4)
(0.8)%

22.0
13.1
4.2

—
8.4
—
47.7
(9.3)
2.7
(6.6)
(2.3)
(4.3)%

21.2
12.8
4.5

—
—
0.2
38.7
2.3
2.5
4.8
1.7
3.1%

19.5
11.9
4.3

—
—
0.2
35.9
6.9
1.9
8.8
2.9
5.9%

16.1
10.9
3.9

—
—
—
30.9
13.0
1.8
14.8
4.8
10.0%

14.0
10.4
4.0

(3.7)
—
3.7
28.4
16.7
1.3
18.0
5.8
12.2%

12.7
9.8
3.8

—
—
6.7
33.0
12.1
1.2
13.3
4.3
9.0%

(1) All share and per share information has been retroactively restated to reflect the two-for-one stock split effective September 18, 2000.

CIENA’s  quarterly  operating  results  have  varied  and  are  expected  to  vary  in  the  future.  The

Company’s detailed discussion of risk factors addresses the many factors that have caused such vari-

ation in the past, and may cause similar variations in the future. See “Risk Factors.” CIENA’s revenues

have increased in each of the last eight quarters due to strong demand across existing products and

introduction of new products such as MultiWave CoreStream configured for both 2.5 Gb/s and 10.0 Gb/s

transmission rates. CIENA’s gross margin percentage has improved from the first quarter fiscal 1999 to

the fourth quarter fiscal 2000 as a result of component cost reductions, production efficiencies, and rel-

ative stable sales pricing. CIENA’s operating expenses have increased in each of the last eight quarters

due to continued investments in research and development, selling and marketing, and infrastructure

activities. Exclusive of provisions for doubtful accounts and merger related costs, the Company’s oper-

ating expenses as a percentage of revenues have generally decreased each of the last eight quarters.

During  fiscal  2001,  CIENA’s  operating  expenses  will  continue  to  increase  in  absolute  dollars  and  may

increase as percentage of revenue. We expect to preserve and enhance our market leadership and build

on our installed base with new and additional products in conjunction with increased investments in sell-

ing, marketing, and customer service activities. See “Risk Factors.”

40
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Liquidity and Capital Resources

At October 31, 2000, CIENA’s principal source of liquidity was its cash and cash

equivalents. The Company had $143.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, and

$95.1 million in corporate debt securities and U.S. Government obligations. The

Company’s corporate debt securities and U.S. Government obligations have con-

tractual maturities of six months or less.

The Company’s operating activities provided cash of $59.0 million, $28.7 mil-

lion,  and  $48.8  million  for  fiscal  2000,  1999,  and  1998,  respectively.  Cash  pro-

vided by operations in fiscal 2000 was primarily attributable to a net gain adjusted

for the non-cash charges of depreciation, amortization, tax benefit related to exer-

cise  of  stock  options,  provisions  for  doubtful  accounts,  inventory  obsolescence,

and  warranty,  increases  in  accounts  payable,  and  accrued  expenses,  offset  by

increases in accounts receivable and inventories.

Cash  used  in  investing  activities  in  fiscal  2000,  1999,  and  1998  was

$103.2  million,  $149.7  million,  and  $107.0  million,  respectively.  Included  in

investment  activities  were  additions  to  capital  equipment  and  leasehold

improvements in fiscal 2000, 1999, and 1998 of $123.9 million, $46.8 million,

and $88.9 million, respectively. The capital equipment expenditures were pri-

marily for test, manufacturing and computer equipment. The Company expects

additional  combined  capital  equipment  and  leasehold  improvement  expendi-

tures of approximately $208 million to be made during fiscal 2001 to support

selling and marketing, manufacturing and product development activities and

the construction of leasehold improvements for its facilities.

We generated $43.9 million, $13.8 million, and $35.6 million in cash from

financing  activities  in  fiscal  2000,  1999,  and  1998,  respectively.  During  fiscal

2000, CIENA received $44.0 million from the exercise of stock options and the

sale  of  stock  through  our  employee  stock  purchase  plan.  During  fiscal  1999

CIENA  received  $11.3  million  from  the  exercise  of  stock  options,  the  sale  of

stock through our employee stock purchase plan, and from the additional capi-

talization  of  Omnia  and  Lightera.  During  fiscal  1998,  CIENA  received  approxi-

mately  $34.3  million  from  the  issuance  of  stock  associated  with  the

capitalization of Omnia and Lightera, and from the exercise of stock options.

41
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

We believe that our existing cash balances and investments, together with

cash  flow  from  operations,  will  be  sufficient  to  meet  our  liquidity  and  capital

spending requirements at least through the end of fiscal 2001. However, possi-

ble  investments  in  or  acquisitions  of  complementary  businesses,  products  or

technologies may require additional financing prior to such time. There can be

no  assurance  that  additional  debt  or  equity  financing  will  be  available  when

required or, if available, can be secured on terms satisfactory to us.

Effects of Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In June 1998, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Statement of

Financial  Accounting  Standards  No.  133  (SFAS  No.  133),  “Accounting  for

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities.” This Statement requires com-

panies  to  record  derivatives  on  the  balance  sheet  as  assets  or  liabilities,

measured at fair value. Gains or losses resulting from changes in the values

of  those  derivatives  would  be  accounted  for  depending  on  the  use  of  the

derivative  and  whether  it  qualifies  for  hedge  accounting.  SFAS  No.  133,  as

amended  by  SFAS  No.  137  “Accounting  for  Derivative  Instruments  and

Hedging  Activities—Deferral  of  the  Effective  Date  for  SFAS  No.  133”,  will  be

effective  for  the  Company’s  fiscal  year  ending  October  31,  2000.  The

Company  believes  the  adoption  of  SFAS  No.  133  and  SFAS  No.  137  will  not

have a material effect on the consolidated financial statements.

In December 1999, the Securities and Exchange Commission released Staff

Accounting  Bulletin  No.  101,  “Revenue  Recognition  in  Financial  Statements,”

(SAB 101) which clarifies the Securities and Exchange Commission’s view on rev-

enue recognition. Subsequently, the SEC released SAB 101B, which delayed the

implementation  date  of  SAB  101  for  registrants  with  fiscal  years  that  begin

between  December  16,  1999  and  March  15,  2000.  CIENA  is  required  to  be  in

conformity with the provisions of SAB 101, as amended, no later than January 31,

2001,  with  the  impact  of  such  adoption  being  treated  on  a  cumulative  basis 

as  of  November  1,  2000.  While  management  will  continue  to  assess  SAB  101,

CIENA  presently  believes  its  existing  revenue  recognition  policies  and  pro-

cedures  are  generally  in  compliance  with  SAB  101  and,  therefore,  SAB  101’s

adoption will have no material impact on CIENA’s financial condition, results of

operations or cash flows.

In July 2000, the FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force (“EITF”) reached a final

consensus that the income tax benefit realized by a company upon the exercise

of  a  nonqualified  stock  option  or  the  disqualifying  disposition  of  an  incentive

42
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

stock  option  should  be  classified  in  the  operating  section  of  the  statement  of

cash flows. The consensus is effective for the Company’s quarters ending after

July  20,  2000.  All  comparative  cash  flow  statements  as  presented  have  been

restated to comply with this consensus.

In  September  2000,  the  FASB  issued  SFAS  No.  140,  “Accounting  for  the

Transfers  and  Servicing  of  Financial  Assets  and  Extinguishments  of

Liabilities.”  SFAS  No.  140  is  effective  for  transfers  occurring  after  March  31,

2001 and for disclosures relating to the securitization transactions and collateral

for  fiscal  years  ending  after  December  15,  2000.  The  company  believes  the

adoption of SFAS No. 140 will not have a material effect on the consolidated

financial statements.

Risk Factors

Investing  in  our  securities  involves  a  high  degree  of  risk.  In  addition  to  the

other  information  contained  in  this  annual  report,  including  the  reports  we

incorporate  by  reference,  you  should  consider  the  following  factors  before

investing in our securities.

Our Results Can Be Unpredictable

Our ability to recognize revenue during a quarter from a customer depends upon

our  ability  to  ship  product  and  satisfy  other  contractual  obligations  of  a  cus-

tomer  sale  in  that  quarter.  In  general,  revenue  and  operating  results  in  any

reporting period may fluctuate due to factors including:

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

loss of a customer;

the timing and size of orders from customers;

changes in customers’ requirements, including changes to orders from customers;

the introduction of new products by us or our competitors;

changes in the price or availability of components for our products;

readiness of customer sites for installation;

satisfaction of contractual customer acceptance criteria and related revenue

recognition issues;

• manufacturing and shipment delays and deferrals;

•

•

•

increased service, warranty or repair costs;

the  timing  and  amount  of  employer  payroll  tax  to  be  paid  on  employee

gains on stock options exercised; and

changes  in  general  economic  conditions  as  well  as  those  specific  to  the

telecommunications and intelligent optical networking industries.

43
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Our intelligent optical networking products require a relatively large invest-

ment and our target customers are highly demanding and technically sophisti-

cated.  There  are  only  a  limited  number  of  potential  customers  in  each

geographic market and each customer has unique needs. As a result, the sales

cycles for our products are long, often more than a year between our initial con-

tact with the customer and their commitment to purchase.

We budget expense levels on our expectations of long-term future revenue.

These  budgets  reflect  our  substantial  investment  in  the  financial,  engineering,

manufacturing and logistics support resources we think we may need for large

potential customers, even though we do not know the volume, duration or tim-

ing of any purchases from them. In addition, we make a substantial investment

in  financial,  manufacturing  and  engineering  resources  for  the  development  of

new  and  enhanced  products.  As  a  result,  we  may  continue  to  experience  high

inventory levels, operating expenses and general overhead.

We have experienced rapid expansion in all areas of our operations, partic-

ularly  in  the  manufacturing  of  our  products.  Our  future  operating  results  will

depend  on  our  ability  to  continue  to  expand  our  manufacturing  facilities  in  a

timely  manner  so  that  we  can  satisfy  our  delivery  commitments  to  our  cus-

tomers. Our failure to expand these facilities in a timely manner and meet our

customer  delivery  commitments  would  harm  our  business,  financial  condition

and results of operations.

Our product development efforts will require us to incur ongoing develop-

ment and operating expenses and any delay in the contributions from new prod-

ucts, such as the MultiWave CoreDirector product line and enhancements to our

existing optical transport products, could harm our business.

Changes in Technology or the Delays in the Deployment of New
Products Could Hurt Our Near Term Prospects

The market for optical networking equipment is changing at a rapid pace. The

accelerated  pace  of  deregulation  and  the  adoption  of  new  technology  in  the

telecommunications industry likely will intensify the competition for improved

optical  networking  products.  Our  ability  to  develop,  introduce  and  manufac-

ture  new  and  enhanced  products  will  depend  upon  our  ability  to  anticipate

changes  in  technology,  industry  standards  and  customer  requirements.  Our

failure to introduce new and enhanced products in a timely manner could harm

our competitive position and financial condition. Several of our new products,

44
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

including the MultiWave CoreDirector and the enhancements to the MultiWave

CoreStream products, are based on complex technology which could result in

unanticipated delays in the development, manufacture or deployment of these

products.  In  addition,  our  ability  to  recognize  revenue  from  these  products

could be adversely affected by the extensive testing required for these prod-

ucts by our customers. The complexity of technology associated with support

equipment for these products could also result in unanticipated delays in their

deployment. These delays could harm our competitive and financial condition.

Competition  from  competitive  products,  the  introduction  of  new  products

embodying new technologies, a change in the requirements of our customers,

or the emergence of new industry standards could delay or hinder the purchase

and deployment of our products and could render our existing products obso-

lete, unmarketable or uncompetitive from a pricing standpoint. The long certifi-

cation process for new telecommunications equipment used in the networks of

the  regional  Bell  operating  companies,  referred  to  as  RBOCs,  has  in  the  past

resulted in and may continue to result in unanticipated delays which may affect

the deployment of our products for the RBOC market.

We Face Intense Competition Which Could Hurt Our Sales 
and Profitability

The  market  for  optical  networking  equipment  is  extremely  competitive.

Competition  in  the  optical  networking  installation  and  test  services  market  is

based  on  varying  combinations  of  price,  functionality,  software  functionality,

manufacturing  capability,  installation,  services,  scalability  and  the  ability  of  the

system  solution  to  meet  customers’  immediate  and  future  network  require-

ments.  A  small  number  of  very  large  companies,  including  Alcatel,  Cisco

Systems,  Fujitsu  Group,  Hitachi,  Lucent  Technologies,  NEC  Corporation,  Nortel

Networks, Siemens AG and Telefon AB LM Ericsson, have historically dominated

the telecommunications equipment industry. These companies have substantial

financial, marketing, manufacturing and intellectual property resources. In addi-

tion, these companies have substantially greater resources to develop or acquire

new  technologies  than  we  do  and  often  have  existing  relationships  with  our

potential customers. We sell systems that compete directly with product offerings

of these companies and in some cases displace or replace equipment they have

traditionally supplied for telecommunications networks. As such, we represent

a  specific  threat  to  these  companies.  The  continued  expansion  of  our  product

45
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

offerings with the MultiWave CoreDirector product line and enhancements to our

MultiWave CoreStream product line likely will increase this perceived threat. We

expect continued aggressive tactics from many of these competitors, including:

•

•

•

•

price discounting;

early announcements of competing products and other marketing efforts;

“one-stop shopping” appeals;

customer financing assistance;

• marketing and advertising assistance; and

•

intellectual property disputes.

These tactics can be particularly effective in a highly concentrated customer

base  such  as  ours.  Our  customers  are  under  increasing  competitive  pressure  to

deliver their services at the lowest possible cost. This pressure may result in pric-

ing for optical networking systems becoming a more important factor in customer

decisions, which may favor larger competitors that can spread the effect of price

discounts in their optical networking products across a larger array of products and

services and across a larger customer base than ours. If we are unable to offset any

reductions in the average sales price for our products by a reduction in the cost

of our products, our gross profit margins will be adversely affected. Our inability

to  compete  successfully  against  our  competitors  and  maintain  our  gross  profit

margins would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Many of our customers have indicated that they intend to establish a rela-

tionship with at least two vendors for optical networking products. With respect

to  customers  for  whom  we  are  the  only  supplier,  we  do  not  know  when  or  if

these customers will select a second vendor or what impact the selection might

have on purchases from us. If a second optical networking supplier is chosen,

these customers could reduce their purchases from us, which could in turn have

a material adverse effect on us.

New  competitors  are  emerging  to  compete  with  our  existing  products  as

well as our future products. There has been an increase in funding for new com-

panies focused on the development of new products for the optical networking

market.  We  expect  new  competitors  to  continue  to  emerge  as  the  optical  net-

working market continues to expand. These companies may achieve commercial

availability of their products more quickly due to the narrow and exclusive focus

46
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

of their efforts. Several of these competitors have raised significantly more cash

and they have in some cases offered stock in their companies, positions on tech-

nical  advisory  boards,  or  have  provided  significant  vendor  financing  to  attract

new customers. In particular, a number of companies, including several start-up

companies  and  recently  public  companies  that  have  raised  substantial  equity

capital, have announced products that compete with our MultiWave CoreStream,

MultiWave Metro, and MultiWave CoreDirector products. Our inability to compete

successfully against these companies would harm our business, financial condi-

tion and results of operations.

We May Not Be Able to Successfully Complete Development 
and Achieve Commercial Acceptance of New Products

During  the  third  quarter  of  fiscal  2000,  the  first  version  of  our  MultiWave

CoreDirector became available. Our MultiWave CoreDirector CI product and enhance-

ments to the MultiWave CoreDirector and MultiWave CoreStream product lines are in

the  development  phase  and  are  not  yet  ready  for  commercial  manufacturing  or

deployment.  We  expect  to  offer  additional  releases  of  the  MultiWave  CoreDirector

product  over  the  life  of  the  product  and  continue  to  enhance  features  of  our

MultiWave  CoreStream  product,  including  the  longer  reach  and  higher  channel

count functionality of our product line. The initial release of MultiWave CoreDirector

CI is expected in limited availability for customer trials during the first quarter of

calendar 2001. The maturing process from laboratory prototype to customer trials,

and subsequently to general availability involves a number of steps, including:

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

completion of product development;

the  qualification  and  multiple  sourcing  of  critical  components,  including

application-specific integrated circuits, referred to as ASICs;

validation of manufacturing methods and processes;

extensive  quality  assurance  and  reliability  testing,  and  staffing  of 

testing infrastructure;

validation of embedded software validation;

establishment  of  systems  integration  and  systems  test  validation  require-

ments; and

identification and qualification of component suppliers.

47
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Each of these steps in turn presents serious risks of failure, rework or delay,

any one of which could decrease the speed and scope of product introduction

and marketplace acceptance of the product. Specialized ASICs and intensive soft-

ware  testing  and  validation,  in  particular,  are  key  to  the  timely  introduction  of

enhancements to the MultiWave CoreDirector product line, and schedule delays

are common in the final validation phase, as well as in the manufacture of spe-

cialized ASICs. In addition, unexpected intellectual property disputes, failure of

critical design elements, and a host of other execution risks may delay or even

prevent the introduction of these products. If we do not develop and success-

fully introduce these products in a timely manner, our business, financial condi-

tion and results of operations would be harmed.

The markets for our MultiWave CoreDirector product line are relatively new.

We have not established commercial acceptance of these products, and we can-

not  assure  you  that  the  substantial  sales  and  marketing  efforts  necessary  to

achieve  commercial  acceptance  in  traditionally  long  sales  cycles  will  be  suc-

cessful. If the markets for these products do not develop or the products are not

accepted by the market, our business, financial condition and results of opera-

tions would suffer.

We Depend on a Limited Number of Suppliers and for Some Items
We Do Not Have a Substitute Supplier

We depend on a limited number of suppliers for components of our products, as

well as for equipment used to manufacture and test our products. Our products

include several higher performance components for which reliable, high volume

suppliers are particularly limited. Furthermore, certain key optical and electronic

components we use in our optical transport systems are currently available only

from sole sources, and in some cases, that sole source is also a competitor. A

worldwide shortage of some electrical components has caused an increase in the

price of components. Any delay in component availability for any of our prod-

ucts could result in delays in deployment of these products and in our ability to

recognize revenues. These delays could harm our customer relationships.

Failures of components can affect customer confidence in our products and

could adversely affect our financial performance and the reliability and perform-

ance  of  our  products.  On  occasion,  we  have  experienced  delays  in  receipt  of

48
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

components  and  have  received  components  that  do  not  perform  according  to

their specifications. Any future difficulty in obtaining sufficient and timely deliv-

ery  of  components  could  result  in  delays  or  reductions  in  product  shipments

which, in turn, could harm our business. A recent wave of consolidation among

suppliers of these components, such as the recent purchases of E-TEK and SDL

by  JDS  Uniphase,  could  adversely  impact  the  availability  of  components  on

which  we  depend.  Delayed  deliveries  of  key  components  from  these  sources

could adversely effect our business.

Any delays in component availability for any of our products or test equip-

ment could result in delays in deployment of these products and in our ability to

recognize revenue from them. These delays could harm our customer relation-

ships and our results of operations.

We Rely on Contract Manufacturers for Our Products

We  rely  on  a  small  number  of  contract  manufacturers  to  manufacture  our

CoreDirector product line and some of the components for our other products.

The  qualification  of  these  manufacturers  is  an  expensive  and  time  consuming

process and these contract manufacturers  build  modules  for  other  companies,

including for our competitors. In addition, we do not have contracts in place with

each of these manufacturers. We may not be able to effectively manage our rela-

tionships with our manufacturers and we cannot be certain that they will be able

to fill our orders in a timely manner. If we cannot effectively manage these man-

ufacturers or they fail to deliver components in a timely manner it may have an

adverse affect on our business and results of operations.

Some of Our Suppliers Are Also Our Competitors

Some of our component suppliers are both primary sources for components and

major  competitors  in  the  market  for  system  equipment.  For  example,  we  buy

components from:

•

•

•

•

•

Alcatel;

Lucent Technologies;

NEC Corporation;

Nortel Networks; and

Siemens AG.

49
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Each of these companies offers optical communications systems and equip-

ment, which are competitive with our products. Also, Lucent is the sole source of

two components and is one of two suppliers of two others. Recently, Lucent has

announced that it intends to spin off a portion of its components business. Our

supply of components from Lucent may be adversely effected by this restructur-

ing. Alcatel and Nortel are suppliers of lasers used in our products and NEC is a

supplier  of  an  important  piece  of  testing  equipment.  A  decline  in  reliability  or

other adverse change in these supply relationships could harm our business.

Sales to Emerging Carriers May Increase the Unpredictability 
of Our Results

As we continue to address emerging carriers, timing and volume of purchasing

from these carriers can also be more unpredictable due to factors such as their need

to build a customer base, acquire rights of way and interconnections necessary

to sell network service, and build out new capacity, all while working within their

capital  budget  constraints.  Sales  to  these  carriers  may  increase  the  unpre-

dictability of our financial results because even these emerging carriers purchase

our products in multi-million dollar increments.

Unanticipated  changes  in  customer  purchasing  plans  also  create  unpre-

dictability in our results. A portion of our anticipated revenue over the next sev-

eral quarters is comprised of orders of less than $25 million each from several

customers, some of which may involve extended payment terms or other financ-

ing assistance. Our ability to recognize revenue from financed sales to emerging

carriers will depend on the relative financial condition of the specific customer,

among other factors. Further, we will need to evaluate the collectibility of receiv-

ables from these customers if their financial conditions deteriorate in the future.

Purchasing delays and changes in the financial condition or the amount of pur-

chases by any of these customers, could have a material adverse effect on us. In

the past we have had to make provisions for the accounts receivables from cus-

tomers that experienced financial difficulty. If additional customers face similar

financial difficulties, our receivables from these customers may become uncol-

lectible, we would have to write off the asset or decrease the value of the asset

to the extent the receivable could not be collected. These write-downs or write-

offs would adversely affect our financial performance.

50
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Our Ability to Compete Could Be Harmed If We Are Unable to
Protect and Enforce Our Intellectual Property Rights or If We
Infringe on Intellectual Property Rights of Others

We  rely  on  a  combination  of  patent,  copyright,  trademark  and  trade  secret

laws  and  restrictions  on  disclosure  to  protect  our  intellectual  property

rights. We also enter into non-disclosure and proprietary rights agreements

with our employees and consultants, and license agreements with our corpo-

rate  partners,  and  control  access  to  and  distribution  of  our  products,  docu-

mentation and  other  proprietary  information.  Despite  our  efforts  to  protect

our  proprietary  rights,  unauthorized  parties  may  attempt  to  copy  or  other-

wise  obtain  and  use  our  products  or  technology.  Monitoring  unauthorized

use  of  our  products  is  difficult  and  we  cannot  be  certain  that  the  steps  we

have  taken  will  prevent  unauthorized  use  of  our  technology,  particularly  in

foreign  countries  where  the  laws  may  not  protect  our  proprietary  rights  as

fully  as  in  the  United  States.  If  competitors  are  able  to  use  our  technology,

our  ability  to  compete  effectively  could  be  harmed.  We  are  involved  in  an

intellectual  property  dispute  regarding  the  use  of  our  technology  and  may

become involved with additional disputes in the future. Such lawsuits can be

costly  and  may  significantly  divert  time  and  attention  from  some  members

of our personnel.

We  have  received  and  may  receive  in  the  future,  notices  from  holders

of  patents  in  the  optical  technology  field  that  raise  issues  of  possible

infringement by our products. Questions of infringement in the optical net-

working  equipment  market  often  involve  highly  technical  and  subjective

analysis. There can be no assurance that any of these patent holders or others

will not in the future initiate legal proceedings against us, or that we will be

successful  in  defending  against  these  actions.  We  are  involved  in  an  intel-

lectual  property  dispute  regarding  the  possible  infringement  of  our  prod-

ucts.  In  the  past,  we  have  been  forced  to  take  a  license  from  the  owner  of

the infringed intellectual property, or to redesign or stop selling the product

that includes the challenged intellectual property. If we are sued for infringe-

ment and are unsuccessful in defending the suit, we could be subject to sig-

nificant  damages  and  our  business  and  customer  relationships  could  be

adversely affected.

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1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Product Performance Problems Could Limit Our Sales Prospects

The production of new optical networking products and systems with high tech-

nology  content  involves  occasional  problems  as  the  technology  and  manufac-

turing  methods  mature.  If  significant  reliability,  quality  or  network  monitoring

problems develop, including those due to faulty components, a number of neg-

ative effects on our business could result, including:

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

costs associated with reworking our manufacturing processes;

high service and warranty expenses;

high inventory obsolescence expense:

high levels of product returns;

delays in collecting accounts receivable;

reduced orders from existing customers; and

declining interest from potential customers.

Although  we  maintain  accruals  for  product  warranties,  actual  costs  could

exceed these amounts. From time to time, there will be interruptions or delays in

the activation of our products at a customer’s site. These interruptions or delays

may result from product performance problems or from aspects of the installa-

tion and activation activities, some of which are outside our control. If we exper-

ience  significant  interruptions  or  delays  that  we  can  not  promptly  resolve,

confidence in our products could be undermined, which could harm our business.

Our Prospects Depend on Demand Which We Cannot Reliably
Predict or Control

We  may  not  anticipate  changes  in  direction  or  magnitude  of  demand  for  our

products.  The  product  offerings  of  our  competitors  could  adversely  affect  the

demand  for  our  products.  In  addition,  unanticipated  reductions  in  demand  for

our products could adversely affect us.

Our  products  enable  long  distance  optical  transport,  metropolitan  optical

transport, intelligent core switching and network management. Demand for our

product depends on our customers’ requirements. These requirements may vary

significantly from quarter to quarter due to factors such as:

•

•

•

•

the type and quantity of optical equipment needed by our customers;

the timing of the deployment of optical equipment by our customers;

the rate at which our current customers fund their network build-outs; and

the equipment configurations and network architectures our customers want.

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1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Customer determinations are subject to abrupt changes in response to their own

competitive pressures, capital requirements and financial performance expectations.

These changes could harm our business.

Recently we have experienced an increased level of sales activity that could

lead to an upsurge in demand that is reflected in the overall increase in demand

for optical networking and similar products in the telecommunications industry.

Our results may suffer if we are unable to address this demand adequately by suc-

cessfully  scaling  up  our  manufacturing  capacity  and  hiring  additional  qualified

personnel.  To  date  we  have  largely  depended  on  our  own  manufacturing  and

assembly facilities to meet customer expectations, but we cannot be sure that we

can satisfy our customers’ expectations in all cases by internal capabilities. In that

case, we face the challenge of adequately managing customer expectations and

finding alternative means of meeting them. If we fail to manage these expecta-

tions we could lose customers or receive smaller orders from customers.

Our Success Largely Depends on Our Ability to Retain Key Personnel

Our success has always depended in large part on our ability to attract and retain

highly-skilled technical, managerial, sales and marketing personnel, particularly

those skilled and experienced with optical communications equipment. Our key

founders  and  employees,  together  with  the  key  founders  and  employees  of

acquired companies have received a substantial number of our shares and vested

options  that  can  be  sold  at  substantial  gains.  In  many  cases,  these  individuals

could  become  financially  independent  through  these  sales,  before  our  future

products  have  matured  into  commercially  deliverable  products.  These  circum-

stances may make it difficult to retain and motivate these key personnel.

As we have grown and matured, competitors’ efforts to hire our employees

have  intensified,  particularly  among  competitive  start-up  companies  and  other

early stage companies. We have agreements in place with most of our employees

that limit their ability to work for a competitor and prohibit them from soliciting

our other employees and our customers following termination of their employ-

ment. Our employees and our competitors may not respect these agreements.

We have in the past been required to enforce, and are currently in the process

of enforcing, some of these agreements. We expect in the future to continue to

be  required  to  resort  to  legal  actions  to  enforce  these  agreements  and  could

incur  substantial  costs  in  doing  so.  We  may  not  be  successful  in  these  legal

actions, and we may not be able to retain all of our key employees or attract

new personnel to add to or replace them. The loss of key personnel would likely

harm our business.

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1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Part of Our Strategy Involves Pursuing Strategic Acquisitions That
May Not Be Successful

As part of our strategy for growth, we will consider acquiring businesses that

are intended to accelerate our product and service development processes and

add complementary products and services. We may issue equity or incur debt

to  finance  these  acquisitions.  Acquisitions  involve  a  number  of  operational

risks,  including  risks  that  the  acquired  business  will  not  be  successfully  inte-

grated, may distract management attention and may involve unforeseen costs

and liabilities.

Our Stock Price May Exhibit Volatility

Our Common stock price has experienced substantial volatility in the past, and is

likely to remain volatile in the future. Volatility can arise as a result of the activities

of short sellers and risk arbitrageurs, and may have little relationship to our finan-

cial results or prospects. Volatility can also result from any divergence between our

actual or anticipated financial results and published expectations of analysts, and

announcements that we, our competitors, or our customers may make.

Divergence between our actual results and our anticipated results, analyst

estimates  and  public  announcements  by  us,  our  competitors,  or  by  customers

will likely occur from time to time in the future, with resulting stock price volatil-

ity, irrespective of our overall year-to-year performance or long-term prospects.

As long as we continue to depend on a limited customer base, and particularly

when a substantial majority of their purchases consist of newly-introduced prod-

ucts  like  the  MultiWave  CoreStream,  MultiWave  CoreDirector  and  MultiWave

Metro, there is substantial risk that our quarterly results will vary widely.

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1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures 

about Market Risk

The following discussion about the Company’s market risk disclosures involves

forward-looking  statements.  Actual  results  could  differ  materially  from  those

projected in the forward-looking statements. The Company is exposed to mar-

ket risk related to changes in interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates.

The  Company  does  not  use  derivative  financial  instruments  for  speculative  or

trading purposes.

Interest Rate Sensitivity

The  Company  maintains  a  short-term  investment  portfolio  consisting  mainly  of

corporate  debt  securities  and  U.S.  government  agency  discount  notes  with  an

average  maturity  of  less  than  six  months.  These  held-to-maturity  securities  are

subject to interest rate risk and will fall in value if market interest rates increase.

If market interest rates were to increase immediately and uniformly by 10 percent

from levels at October 31, 2000, the fair value of the portfolio would decline by

approximately $2.6 million. The Company has the ability to hold its fixed income

investments until maturity, and therefore the Company would not expect its oper-

ating results or cash flows to be affected to any significant degree by the effect

of a sudden change in market interest rates on its securities portfolio.

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk

As a global concern, the Company faces exposure to adverse movements in for-

eign currency exchange rates. These exposures may change over time as busi-

ness  practices  evolve  and  could  have  a  material  adverse  impact  on  the

Company’s financial results. Historically the Company’s primary exposures have

been related to nondollar-denominated operating expenses in Canada, Europe

and Asia where the Company sells primarily in U.S. dollars. The introduction of

the Euro as a common currency for members of the European Monetary Union

began  during  the  Company’s  fiscal  year  2000.  The  foreign  currency  exposure

resulting from the introduction of the Euro has been immaterial to the operat-

ing results of the Company. The Company is prepared to hedge against fluctu-

ations in the Euro if this exposure becomes material. As of October 31, 2000,

the assets and liabilities of the Company related to non-dollar denominated cur-

rencies was not material. Therefore an increase or decrease of 10 percent in the

foreign  exchange  rate  would  not  have  a  material  impact  on  the  Company’s

financial position.

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1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
The following is an index to the consolidated financial statements and supple-

mentary data:

Report of Independent Accountants

Consolidated Balance Sheets

Consolidated Statements of Operations

Consolidated Statements of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

Page
Number

57

58

59

60

61

62

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1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Report of Independent Accountants

To the Board of Directors and 

Stockholders of CIENA Corporation

In our opinion, the accompanying consolidated balance sheets and the related

consolidated statements of operations, of cash flows and of changes in stock-

holders’  equity  present  fairly,  in  all  material  respects,  the  financial  position  of

CIENA Corporation and its subsidiaries at October 31, 2000 and 1999, and the

results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the

period ended October 31, 2000, in conformity with accounting principles gen-

erally accepted in the United States of America. These financial statements are

the responsibility of the Company’s management; our responsibility is to express

an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits. We conducted our

audits  of  these  statements  in  accordance  with  auditing  standards  generally

accepted  in  the  United  States  of  America,  which  require  that  we  plan  and  per-

form the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial state-

ments are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test

basis,  evidence  supporting  the  amounts  and  disclosures  in  the  financial  state-

ments, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made

by management, and evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We

believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

McLean, VA

December 6, 2000

57
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CIENA Corporation
Consolidated Balance Sheets

(in thousands, except share data)

ASSETS
Current assets:

Cash and cash equivalents
Marketable debt securities
Accounts receivable (net allowance of $1,703 and $29,581)
Inventories, net
Deferred income taxes
Prepaid expenses and other

Total current assets

Equipment, furniture and fixtures, net
Goodwill and other intangible assets, net
Other assets

Total assets

LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Current liabilities:

Accounts payable
Accrued liabilities
Income taxes payable
Deferred revenue
Other current obligations
Total current liabilities

Deferred income taxes
Other long-term obligations

Total liabilities

Commitments and contingencies
Stockholders’ equity:

Preferred stock—par value $0.01; 20,000,000 shares authorized; 

zero shares issued and outstanding

Common stock—par value $0.01; 360,000,000 

and 460,000,000 shares authorized; 276,374,712 
and 286,530,631 shares issued and outstanding

Additional paid-in capital
Notes receivable from stockholders
Accumulated other comprehensive income
Retained earnings

Total stockholders’ equity

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

October 31,

1999

2000

$143,440
118,956
144,348
79,608
25,385
21,262
532,999
125,252
12,635
6,949
$677,835

$ 34,399
58,486
8,697
2,954
992
105,528
36,953
4,881
147,362

$ 143,187
95,131
248,950
141,279
143,029
41,438
813,014
189,231
9,049
15,907
$1,027,201

$

70,250
84,163
7,483
10,731
712
173,339
39,145
4,882
217,366

—

—

2,764
358,700
(210)
(40)
169,259
530,473
$677,835

2,865
557,257
(30)
(903)
250,646
809,835
$1,027,201

58
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

CIENA Corporation
Consolidated Statements of Operations

(in thousands, except per share data)

Revenue
Cost of goods sold
Gross profit

Operating expenses:

Research and development
Selling and marketing
General and administrative
Settlement of accrued contract obligation
Purchased research and development
Pirelli litigation
Merger related costs
Provision for doubtful accounts
Total operating expenses
Income (loss) from operations
Interest and other income (expense), net
Interest expense
Income (loss) before income taxes
Provision (benefit) for income taxes
Net income (loss)
Basic net income (loss) per common share
Diluted net income (loss) per common share 

and dilutive potential common share

Weighted average basic common shares outstanding
Weighted average basic common and dilutive 

potential common shares outstanding

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

1998

Year Ended October 31,
1999

2000

$508,087
256,014
252,073

73,756
47,343
18,468
—
9,503
30,579
2,548
806
183,003
69,070
13,143
(313)
81,900
36,200
$ 45,700
0.19
$

$482,085
299,769
182,316

104,641
61,603
22,736
—
—
—
13,021
250
202,251
(19,935)
14,448
(504)
(5,991)
(2,067)
$ (3,924)
(0.01)
$

$858,750
477,393
381,357

129,069
90,922
34,000
(8,538)
—
—
—
28,010
273,463
107,894
13,020
(340)
120,574
39,187
$ 81,387
0.29
$

$

0.18
235,980

$

(0.01)
267,042

$

0.27
281,621

255,788

267,042

299,662

59
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

CIENA Corporation
Consolidated Statements 

of Changes in 
Stockholders’ Equity

(dollars in thousands)

Balance at October 31, 1997
Net income
Translation adjustment
Comprehensive income
Exercise of stock options
Compensation cost 
of stock options

Issuance of Common stock, 

net of issuance costs

Tax benefit from the 

exercise of stock options
Repayment of receivables 

from stockholders
Purchase of Terabit 
and Astracom net 
of issuance costs
Issuance of warrants 

for technology rights

Balance at October 31, 1998
Net loss
Translation adjustment
Comprehensive loss
Exercise of warrants
Exercise of stock options
Compensation cost of 

stock options and warrants
Issuance of Common stock, 

net of issuance costs

Tax benefit from the 

exercise of stock options
Repayment of receivables 

from stockholders

Adjustment to conform 

fiscal year ends of 
pooled acquisition

Balance at October 31, 1999
Net income
Translation adjustment
Comprehensive income
Exercise of warrants
Exercise of stock options
Compensation cost 
of stock options 
and warrants

Issuance of common 

Notes

Receivable

From

Stock-

holders

Additional

Paid-in-

Capital

Accumu-

lated

Other

Compre-

hensive

Income

Total

Retained

Earnings

Stockholders’

Equity

Common Stock

Shares

Amount

219,398,540
—
—

$2,194
—
—

$249,295
—
—

$ (68)
—
—

$ (5)
—
(102)

$125,862
45,700
—

5,295,814

—

52

—

6,189

(392)

54

—

43,908,340

440

28,254

(225)

—

—

608,288

—

—

6

—
269,210,982
—
—

—
$2,692
—
—

807,902
3,442,768

—

2,913,060

—

—

8
34

—

30

—

—

22,634

—

20,814

235
$327,475
—
—

—
8,198

8,521

—

99

—

—
—

—

3,502

(481)

11,004

—

—

857

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—
—

—

—

—

—

—
—

—

—

—

—

—
$(586)
—
—

—
$(107)
—
67

—
$171,562
(3,924)
—

—
276,374,712
—
—

—
$2,764
—
—

—
$358,700
—
—

—
$(210)
—
—

—
$ (40)
—
(863)

1,621
$169,259
81,387
—

286,084
9,166,133

—

—

3
91

—

7

—

—
38,144

40

5,732

154,641

—
—

—

—

—

—
—

—

—

—

—
—

—

—

—

$377,278
45,700
(102)
$ 45,598
5,849

54

28,469

22,634

99

20,820

235
$501,036
(3,924)
67
$ (3,857)
8
8,232

8,521

3,051

11,004

857

1,621
$530,473
81,387
(863)
$ 80,524
3
38,235

40

5,739

154,641

stock, net of issuance costs

703,702

Tax benefit from the 

exercise of stock options
Repayment of receivables 

from stockholders

Balance at October 31, 2000

—
286,530,631

—
$2,865

—
$557,257

180
$ (30)

—
$(903)

—
$250,646

180
$809,835

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

60
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

CIENA Corporation
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(in thousands)

Cash flows from operating activities:

Net income (loss)
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash 

provided by operating activities:

Adjustment to conform fiscal year ends of pooled acquisitions
Tax benefit related to exercise of stock options and warrants
Non-cash charges from equity transactions
Amortization of premiums on marketable debt securities
Effect of translation adjustment
Purchased research and development
Write down of leasehold improvements and equipment
Depreciation and amortization
Provision for doubtful accounts
Provision for inventory excess and obsolescence
Provision for warranty
Settlement of accrued contract obligation
Changes in assets and liabilities:
Increase in accounts receivable
Increase in prepaid expenses and other assets
(Increase) decrease in prepaid income taxes
Increase in inventories
Increase in deferred income tax assets
Increase (decrease) in accounts payable 

and accrued expenses

Increase (decrease) in income taxes payable
Increase in deferred income tax liabilities
Increase (decrease) in deferred revenue and other obligations

Net cash provided by operating activities

Cash flows from investing activities:

Additions to equipment, furniture and fixtures
Purchase of marketable debt securities
Maturities of marketable debt securities 
Net cash paid for business combinations
Net cash used in investing activities

Cash flows from financing activities:

Net proceeds from (repayment of) other obligations
Net proceeds from issuance of Common stock 
Repayment of notes receivable from stockholders

Net cash provided by financing activities
Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period
Cash and cash equivalents at end of period
Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information:

Cash paid during the period for:

Interest
Income taxes

—
22,634
289
464
(102)
9,503
1,605
33,623
806
9,617
10,523
—

(7,026)
(18,528)
(11,688)
(39,416)
(7,282)

(6,288)
(46)
5,958
(1,507)
48,839

(88,913)
(93,869)
77,876
(2,070)
(106,976)

1,148
34,318
99
35,565
(22,572)
273,286
$250,714

$
265
$ 30,203

Supplemental disclosure of non-cash financing activities:

Issuance of Common stock for notes receivable from stockholders $

617

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

61
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

1998

Year Ended October 31,
1999

2000

$ 45,700

$ (3,924)

$ 81,387

1,621
11,004
8,521
1,776
67
—
—
50,418
250
6,534
8,396
—

(65,807)
(13,222)
11,688
(15,234)
(8,964)

22,159
8,697
2,828
1,870
28,678

(46,776)
(274,897)
171,934
—
(149,739)

1,639
11,291
857
13,787
(107,274)
250,714
$ 143,440

$
$

$

504
313

481

—
154,641
40
1,016
(863)
—
—
63,604
28,010
15,022
15,804
(8,538)

(132,612)
(27,153)
—
(76,693)
(117,644)

54,262
(1,214)
2,192
7,777
59,038

(123,947)
(269,149)
289,927
—
(103,169)

(279)
43,977
180
43,878
(253)
143,440
$ 143,187

$
$

$

340
1,231

—

CIENA Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

(1) The Company and Significant Accounting Policies

Description of Business

CIENA is a leader in the rapidly growing intelligent optical networking equipment

market. CIENA offers a comprehensive portfolio of products for communications

service  providers  worldwide.  CIENA’s  customers  include  long-distance  carriers,

competitive  and  incumbent  local  exchange  carriers,  Internet  service  providers

and  wholesale  carriers.  CIENA  offers  optical  transport  and  intelligent  optical

switching systems that enable service providers to provision, manage and deliver

high-bandwidth services to their customers. The Company has pursued a strat-

egy to develop and leverage the power of disruptive technologies to change the

fundamental  economics  of  building  carrier-class  tele-  and  data-communications

networks, thereby providing our customers with a competitive advantage. CIENA’s

intelligent optical networking products are designed to enable carriers to deliver

any time, any size, any priority bandwidth to their customers.

Principles of Consolidation

The Company has fifteen wholly owned U.S. and international subsidiaries which

have been consolidated in the accompanying financial statements. The Company

completed  a  merger  with  Omnia  Communications,  Inc.  (“Omnia”),  a  Delaware

company  headquartered  in  Marlborough,  Massachusetts,  on  July  1,  1999.  On

March 31, 1999 the Company completed a merger with Lightera Networks, Inc.

(“Lightera”),  a  Delaware  company  headquartered  in  Cupertino,  California.  On

February  19,  1998,  the  Company  completed  a  merger  with  ATI  Telecom

International Ltd. (“Alta”). Each of these transactions constituted a tax-free reor-

ganization  and  have  been  accounted  for  as  pooling  of  interests  under

Accounting  Principles  Board  Opinion  No.  16.  Accordingly,  all  prior  period  con-

solidated financial statements presented have been restated to include the com-

bined  results  of  operations,  financial  position  and  cash  flows  of  each  of  the

companies as though they had been a part of CIENA.

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts

of  the  Company  and  its  wholly  owned  subsidiaries.  All  material  intercompany

accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

62
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Fiscal Year

The Company has a 52 or 53 week fiscal year, which ends on the Saturday near-

est to the last day of October in each year (October 28, 2000, October 30, 1999

and October 31, 1998). For purposes of financial statement presentation, each

fiscal year is described as having ended on October 31. Fiscal 2000, 1999, and

1998 were comprised of 52 weeks. Prior to the merger, Omnia’s fiscal year ended

on December 31.

Since the fiscal years for CIENA and Omnia differed prior to the merger, the

periods combined for the purposes of the consolidated financial statements are

as follows:

CIENA

Omnia

Fiscal year ended 
October 31, 1997

June 3, 1997 (date of inception) 
to December 31, 1997

Fiscal year ended 
October 31, 1998

January 1, 1998 
to December 31, 1998

The fiscal year ended October 31, 1999 contains two months of Omnia’s finan-

cial results, which are also recorded in the fiscal year ending October 31, 1998. The

net loss for these two months, November and December 1998, was $1,621,000.

Use of Estimates

The  preparation  of  financial  statements  in  conformity  with  generally  accepted

accounting principles requires the Company to make estimates, judgements and

assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and

expenses, together with amounts disclosed in the related notes to the financial

statements. Actual results could differ from the recorded estimates.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

The  Company  considers  all  highly  liquid  investments  purchased  with  original

maturities of three months or less to be cash equivalents.

63
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Marketable Debt Securities

The Company has classified its investments in marketable debt securities as held-

to-maturity securities as defined by Statement of Financial Accounting Standards

No.  115,  “Accounting  for  Certain  Investments  in  Debt  and  Equity  Securities.” 

Such  investments  are  recorded  at  their  amortized  cost  in  the  accompanying 

consolidated balance sheets. All of the marketable debt securities are corporate

debt securities with contractual maturities of six months or less and such instru-

ments have $11,000 and $70,255 of unrealized gains and $108,000 and $32,000

of unrealized loss, as of October 31, 1999 and 2000, respectively. See Note 3.

Inventories

Inventories are stated at the lower of cost or market, with cost determined on

the  first-in,  first-out  basis.  The  Company  records  a  provision  for  excess  and

obsolete inventory whenever such an impairment has been identified.

Equipment, Furniture and Fixtures

Equipment, furniture and fixtures are recorded at cost. Depreciation and amorti-

zation are computed using the straight-line method over useful lives of 2–5 years

for equipment, furniture and fixtures and 2–10 years for leasehold improvements.

Goodwill

The Company has recorded goodwill from three purchase transactions. See Note 2.

It is the Company’s policy to periodically assess the carrying amount of its goodwill

to determine if there has been an impairment to its carrying value. The Company

would record any such impairment when identified.

Concentrations

Substantially all of the Company’s cash and cash equivalents are custodied at four

major U.S. financial institutions. The majority of the Company’s cash equivalents

include U.S. Government Federal Agency Securities, short-term marketable secu-

rities,  and  overnight  repurchase  agreements.  Deposits  held  with  banks  may

exceed  the  amount  of  insurance  provided  on  such  deposits.  Generally  these

deposits may be redeemed upon demand and, therefore, bear minimal risk.

Historically, the Company has relied on a limited number of customers for

a  substantial  portion  of  its  revenue.  During  fiscal  year  2000,  Sprint,  Qwest

Communications and GTS Network Ltd. each accounted for at least 10% or more

64
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

of CIENA’s revenue and all three combined accounted for 60.9% of the Company’s

fiscal  2000  revenue.  During  fiscal  year  1999  Sprint,  MCI  WorldCom,  and  GTS

Network Ltd. each accounted for at least 10% or more of CIENA’s revenue and all

three  combined  accounted  for  46.2%  of  the  Company’s  fiscal  1999  revenue.

During fiscal 1998 Sprint was the only 10% customer and in total accounted for

52.5 % of the Company’s fiscal 1998 revenue. The Company expects that a sig-

nificant portion of its future revenue will continue to be generated by a limited

number of customers. The loss of any one of these customers or any substan-

tial reduction in orders by any one of these customers could materially adversely

affect  the  Company’s  financial  condition  or  operating  results.  Additionally,  the

Company’s  access  to  certain  raw  materials  is  dependent  upon  single  and  sole

source suppliers. The inability of any supplier to fulfill supply requirements of

the Company could impact future results.

CIENA  performs  ongoing  credit  evaluations  of  its  customers  and  gener-

ally  does  not  require  collateral  from  its  customers.  CIENA  maintains  an

allowance for potential losses when identified. CIENA’s allowance for doubtful

accounts as of October 31, 2000 was $29.6 million. Approximately $27.8 mil-

lion  relates  to  provisions  made  for  doubtful  accounts  associated  with  iaxis

Limited, one of CIENA’s European customers. In September 2000, CIENA was

informed  that  an  administrative  order  had  been  issued  by  a  London  court

against  iaxis  Limited.  As  a  result  of  this  order,  joint  administrators  were

appointed  to  manage  the  business  of  iaxis  Limited  while  they  marketed  the

business  for  sale  and  formulated  a  reorganization  of  the  company.  In

November 2000, CIENA was notified that Dynegy Inc. and its subsidiaries had

entered  into  a  proposed  agreement  to  acquire  the  assets  and  stock  of  iaxis

Limited from the administrators. As a consequence of the terms of (a) the pro-

posed  agreement  between  the  administrators  of  iaxis  Limited  and  Dynegy,

and  of  (b)  a  related  sales  agreement  between  CIENA  and  Dynegy,  CIENA

expects  to  realize  approximately  $8.9  million  of  the  gross  outstanding

accounts receivable balance due from iaxis Limited as of October 31, 2000.

While the proposed purchase agreement between the administrators of iaxis

Limited  and  Dynegy  is  subject  to  certain  administrative  and  judicial

approvals, CIENA believes that such approvals will be ultimately obtained and

that  CIENA  will  be  successful  in  collecting  the  net  $8.9  million  outstanding

accounts  receivable  balance  from  the  customer.  However,  should  such

approvals not occur, additional write-offs might be required.

65
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

As of October 31, 2000, the trade accounts receivable included three cus-

tomers who each accounted for 28%, 16%, and 13% of the trade accounts receiv-

able,  respectively.  As  of  October  31,  1999,  the  trade  accounts  receivable

included  three  customers  who  each  accounted  for  30%,  14%,  and  12%  of  the

trade accounts receivable, respectively.

Revenue Recognition

CIENA recognizes product revenue in accordance with the shipping terms speci-

fied  and  where  collection  is  probable.  For  transactions  where  CIENA  has  yet  to

obtain customer acceptance, revenue is deferred until the terms of acceptance are

satisfied. Revenue for installation services is recognized as the services are per-

formed unless the terms of the supply contract combine product acceptance with

installation, in which case revenues for installation services are recognized when

the  terms  of  acceptance  are  satisfied  and  installation  is  completed.  Revenues

from installation service fixed price contracts are recognized on the percentage-

of-completion  method,  measured  by  the  percentage  of  costs  incurred  to  date

compared to estimated total costs for each contract. Amounts received in excess

of revenue recognized are included as deferred revenue in the accompanying bal-

ance  sheets.  For  transactions  involving  the  sale  of  software,  revenue  is  recog-

nized  in  accordance  with  Statement  of  Position  No.  97–2  (SOP  97–2),  “Software

Revenue  Recognition,”  including  deferral  of  revenue  recognition  in  instances

where vendor specific objective evidence for undelivered elements is not deter-

minable.  For  distributor  sales  where  risks  of  ownership  have  not  transferred,

CIENA recognizes revenue when the product is shipped through to the end user.

Revenue-Related Accruals

The Company provides for the estimated costs to fulfill customer warranty and

other contractual obligations upon the recognition of the related revenue. Such

reserves are determined based upon actual warranty cost experience, estimates

of  component  failure  rates,  and  management’s  industry  experience.  The

Company’s contractual sales arrangements generally do not permit the right of

return of product by the customer after the product has been accepted.

66
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Research and Development

The Company charges all research and development costs to expense as incurred.

Income Taxes

The Company accounts for income taxes in accordance with Statement of Financial

Accounting Standards No. 109 (SFAS No. 109), “Accounting for Income Taxes.” SFAS

No. 109 is an asset and liability approach that requires the recognition of deferred

tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences attributable to

differences  between  the  carrying  amounts  of  assets  and  liabilities  for  financial

reporting purposes and their respective tax bases, and for operating loss and tax

credit carryforwards. In estimating future tax consequences, SFAS No. 109 gener-

ally considers all expected future events other than the enactment of changes in tax

laws or rates. Valuation allowances are provided if, based upon the weight of the

available evidence, it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax

assets will not be realized. Tax savings resulting from deductions associated with

stock options and certain stock warrants are credited directly to additional paid in

capital when realization of such benefit is fully assured and to deferred tax liabili-

ties prior to such point. See Note 9.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

The  carrying  amounts  of  the  Company’s  financial  instruments,  which  include

marketable  debt  securities,  accounts  receivable,  accounts  payable,  and  other

accrued expenses, approximate their fair values due to their short maturities.

Foreign Currency Translation

The  majority  of  the  Company’s  foreign  branches  and  subsidiaries  use  the  U.S.

dollar  as  their  functional  currency,  as  the  U.S.  parent  exclusively  funds  the

branches  and  subsidiaries’  operations  with  U.S.  dollars.  For  those  subsidiaries

using  the  local  currency  as  their  functional  currency,  assets  and  liabilities  are

translated at exchange rates in effect at the balance sheet date. Resulting trans-

lation adjustments are recorded directly to a separate component of stockhold-

ers’  equity.  Where  the  U.S.  dollar  is  the  functional  currency,  translation

adjustments  are  recorded  in  other  income.  The  net  gain  (loss)  on  foreign  cur-

rency  re-measurement  and  exchange  rate  changes  for  fiscal  1998,  1999  and

2000 was immaterial for separate financial statement presentation.

67
1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Computation of Basic Net Income (Loss) per Common Share and Diluted Net

Income (Loss) per Common and Dilutive Potential Common Share

The Company calculates earnings per share in accordance with the Statement of

Financial  Accounting  Standards  No.  128,  “Earnings  per  Share”  (SFAS  No.  128).

SFAS No. 128 simplifies the earnings per share (EPS) computation and replaces

the presentation of primary EPS with a presentation of basic EPS. This statement

also requires dual presentation of basic and diluted EPS on the face of the income

statement for entities with a complex capital structure and requires a reconcili-

ation of the numerator and denominator used for the basic and diluted EPS com-

putations. See Note 7.

Software Development Costs

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 86, “Accounting for the Costs of

Computer Software to be Sold, Leased or Otherwise Marketed”, requires the capi-

talization of certain software development costs incurred subsequent to the date

technological feasibility is established and prior to the date the product is generally

available for sale. The capitalized cost is then amortized over the estimated prod-

uct life. The Company defines technological feasibility as being attained at the time

a working model is completed. To date, the period between achieving technologi-

cal feasibility and the general availability of such software has been short and soft-

ware  development  costs  qualifying  for  capitalization  have  been  insignificant.

Accordingly, the Company has not capitalized any software development costs.

Accounting for Stock Options

In October 1995, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Statement of

Financial Accounting Standards No. 123 (SFAS No. 123), “Accounting for Stock-

Based Compensation,” which is effective for the Company’s consolidated finan-

cial  statements  for  fiscal  years  1998,  1999,  and  2000.  SFAS  No.  123  allows

companies to either account for stock-based compensation under the new pro-

visions  of  SFAS  No.  123  or  using  the  intrinsic  value  method  provided  by

Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 25 (APB No. 25), “Accounting for Stock

Issued to Employees,” but requires pro forma disclosure in the footnotes to the

financial statements as if the measurement provisions of SFAS No. 123 had been

adopted.  The  Company  has  elected  to  continue  to  account  for  its  stock  based

compensation in accordance with the provisions of APB No. 25 as interpreted by

FASB Interpretation No. 44, “Accounting for Certain Transactions Involving Stock

Compensation, and Interpretation of APB Opinion No. 25”, (“FIN 44”) and present

the pro forma disclosures required by SFAS No. 123. See Note 10.

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Segment Reporting

In  June  1997,  the  Financial  Accounting  Standards  Board  issued  Statement  of

Financial  Accounting  Standards  No.  131  (SFAS  No.  131),  “Disclosures  about

Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information.” The Statement is effective for

the Company’s fiscal year 1999. SFAS No. 131 establishes annual and interim report-

ing standards for operating segments of a company. It also requires entity-wide dis-

closures about the products and services an entity provides, the material countries

in  which  it  holds  assets  and  reports  revenues,  and  its  major  customers.  The

Company is not organized by multiple operating segments for the purpose of mak-

ing operating decisions or assessing performance. Accordingly, the Company oper-

ates in one operating segment and reports only certain enterprise-wide disclosures.

Newly Issued Accounting Standards

In  June  1998,  the  Financial  Accounting  Standards  Board  issued  Statement  of

Financial  Accounting  Standards  No.  133  (SFAS  No.  133),  “Accounting  for

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities.” This Statement requires compa-

nies to record derivatives on the balance sheet as assets or liabilities, measured

at fair value. Gains or losses resulting from changes in the values of those deriv-

atives  would  be  accounted  for  depending  on  the  use  of  the  derivative  and

whether  it  qualifies  for  hedge  accounting.  SFAS  No.  133,  as  amended  by  SFAS

No.  137,  “Accounting  for  Derivative  Instruments  and  Hedging  Activities—

Deferral  of  the  Effective  Date  for  SFAS  No.  133,”  will  be  effective  for  the

Company’s  fiscal  year  ending  October  31,  2001.  The  Company  believes  the

adoption of SFAS No. 133 and SFAS No. 137 will not have a material effect on the

consolidated financial statements.

In December 1999, the Securities and Exchange Commission released Staff

Accounting  Bulletin  No.  101,  “Revenue  Recognition  in  Financial  Statements,”

(SAB 101) which clarifies the Securities and Exchange Commission’s view on rev-

enue recognition. Subsequently, the SEC released SAB 101B, which delayed the

implementation  date  of  SAB  101  for  registrants  with  fiscal  years  that  begin

between December 16, 1999 and March 15, 2000. The Company is required to

be  in  conformity  with  the  provisions  of  SAB  101,  as  amended,  no  later  than

January 31, 2001, with the impact of such adoption being treated on a cumula-

tive basis as of November 1, 2000. While management will continue to assess

SAB 101, CIENA presently believes its existing revenue recognition policies and

procedures are generally in compliance with SAB 101 and, therefore, SAB 101’s

adoption will have no material impact on CIENA’s financial condition, results of

operations or cash flows.

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In July 2000, the FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force (“EITF”) reached a final

consensus that the income tax benefit realized by a company upon the exercise

of  a  nonqualified  stock  option  or  the  disqualifying  disposition  of  an  incentive

stock  option  should  be  classified  in  the  operating  section  of  the  statement  of

cash flows. The consensus is effective for the Company’s quarters ending after

July  20,  2000.  All  comparative  cash  flow  statements  as  presented  have  been

restated to comply with this consensus.

In  September  2000,  the  FASB  issued  SFAS  No.  140,  “Accounting  for  the

Transfers  and  Servicing  of  Financial  Assets  and  Extinguishments  of  Liabilities.”

SFAS  No.  140  is  effective  for  transfers  occurring  after  March  31,  2001  and  for

disclosures  relating  to  the  securitization  transactions  and  collateral  for  fiscal

years ending after December 15, 2000. The company is reviewing the provisions

of SFAS No. 140.

Reclassification

Certain  prior  year  amounts  have  been  reclassified  to  conform  to  current  year

consolidated financial statement presentation.

(2) Business Combinations

Omnia

On July 1, 1999, the Company completed a merger with Omnia in a transac-

tion  valued  at  approximately  $483  million.  Omnia  is  a  telecommunications

equipment  supplier  which  focuses  on  developing  solutions  to  allow  public

telephone network operators to offer services cost effectively over integrated

metropolitan fiberoptic access and transport networks. Under the terms of the

merger  agreement,  the  Company  acquired  all  of  the  outstanding  shares  and

assumed the stock options of Omnia in exchange for approximately 30.4 mil-

lion  shares  of  CIENA  Common  stock  and  1.6  million  CIENA  shares  issuable

upon  exercise  of  stock  options.  The  transaction  constituted  a  tax-free  reor-

ganization  and  has  been  accounted  for  as  a  pooling  of  interests  under

Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 16. Accordingly, all prior period con-

solidated  financial  statements  presented  have  been  restated  to  include  the

combined results of operations, financial position and cash flows of Omnia as

though it had been a part of CIENA.

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The  following  table  shows  the  separate  historical  results  of  CIENA  and

Omnia for the periods prior to the consummation of the merger of the two enti-

ties. No financial information has been presented for the fiscal year ended 1996

as Omnia did not commence operations until June 1997. Omnia’s fiscal year end

was  December  31.  CIENA’s  results  for  the  years  ended  October  31,  1997  and

1998 include Omnia’s financial results from June 3, 1997 (date of inception) to

December 31, 1997 and January 1, 1998 to December 31, 1998, respectively

(in thousands).

Revenues:

CIENA

Omnia

Intercompany eliminations

Consolidated revenues

Net income (loss):

CIENA

Omnia

Year Ended October 31,
1998
1997

Nine Months
Ended July 31,
1999

$413,215

$508,087

$340,733

—

—

—

—

—

—

$413,215

$508,087

$340,733

$115,967

$ 51,113

$ (1,020)

(399)

(5,413)

(7,403)

Consolidated net income (loss)

$115,568

$ 45,700

$ (8,423)

Lightera

On March 31, 1999 the Company completed a merger with Lightera in a transac-

tion valued at approximately $459 million. Lightera is a developer of carrier class

optical core switches for fiberoptic communications networks. Under the terms of

the merger agreement, the Company acquired all of the outstanding shares and

assumed  outstanding  stock  options  and  warrants  of  Lightera  in  exchange  for

approximately 35.0 million shares of CIENA Common stock and 5.8 million CIENA

shares  issuable  upon  exercise  of  stock  options  and  warrants.  The  transaction

constituted a tax-free reorganization and has been accounted for as a pooling of

interests under Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 16. Accordingly, all prior

period consolidated financial statements presented have been restated to include

the combined results of operations, financial position and cash flows of Lightera

as though it had been a part of CIENA.

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The  following  table  shows  the  separate  historical  results  of  CIENA  and

Lightera for the periods prior to the consummation of the merger of the two enti-

ties. No financial information has been presented for the fiscal year ended 1997

as Lightera did not commence operations until April 1998 (in thousands).

Revenues:

CIENA

Lightera

Intercompany eliminations

Consolidated revenues

Net income (loss):

CIENA

Lightera

Consolidated net income

Terabit

Year Ended
October 31,
1998

Six Months
Ended April 30,
1999

$508,087

$211,907

—

—

—

—

$508,087

$211,907

$ 53,194

(2,081)

$ 51,113

$ 8,046

(6,169)

$ 1,877

During  April  1998,  the  Company  completed  an  Agreement  and  Plan  of

Reorganization  with  Terabit  Technology,  Inc.  (“Terabit”),  a  developer  of  optical

components known as photodetectors or optical receivers. Terabit is located in

Santa Barbara, California. The purchase price was approximately $11.5 million

and consisted of the issuance of 268,780 shares of CIENA Common stock, the

payment of $1.1 million in cash, and the assumption of certain stock options.

The  transaction  was  recorded  using  the  purchase  accounting  method  with  the

purchase  price  representing  approximately  $9.5  million  in  purchased  research

and development, $1.8 million in goodwill and other intangibles, and approxi-

mately $0.2 million in net assets assumed. The amortization period for the intan-

gibles,  based  on  management’s  estimate  of  the  useful  life  of  the  acquired

technology, is five years. The operations of Terabit are not material to the con-

solidated  financial  statements  of  the  Company  and,  accordingly,  separate  pro

forma financial information has not been presented.

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In connection with the Terabit acquisition, the Company recorded a $9.5 million

charge in the year ended October 31, 1998 for purchased research and development.

This  generally  represents  the  estimated  value  of  purchased  in-process  technology

related  to  Terabit’s  avalanche  photodiodes  (APD)  that  had  not  yet  reached  techno-

logical feasibility and had no alternative future use at the time of the acquisition.

The amount of purchase price allocated to in-process research and develop-

ment was  determined  using  the  discounted  cash  flow  method.  This  method

consisted of estimating future net cash flows attributable in-process APD tech-

nology for a discrete projection period and discounting the net cash flows back

to  their  present  value.  The  discount  rate  includes  a  factor  that  takes  into

account  the  uncertainty  surrounding  the  successful  development  of  the  pur-

chased  in-process  technology. The estimated revenue associated with the APD

technology future net cash flows assumed a five year compound annual growth

rate of between 5% to 43%. The revenue growth rates were developed consider-

ing, among other things, the current and expected industry trends and accept-

ance of the technologies in historical growth rates for similar industry products.

Management’s estimates or projections were based upon an estimated period of

ten years with revenues reaching a peak in 2002 and declining through 2008.

The  estimated  net  cash  flows  were  discounted  to  present  value  at  a  rate  of

return, which considers the relative risk of achieving the net cash flows and the

time value of money. A 30% discount rate was used to effect the risk associated

with Terabit’s APD technology. This rate is higher than the Company’s normal dis-

count  rate  due  to  inherent  uncertainties  surrounding  the  successful  develop-

ment  of  purchase  in-process  technology,  the  useful  life  of  the  technology,  and

the profitability levels of such technology.

The resulting net cash flows from the APD project was based on management’s

estimates  of  revenues,  cost  of  sales,  research  and  development  costs,  selling

general and administrative costs, and income taxes associated with the project.

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Alta

On  February  19,  1998,  the  Company  completed  a  merger  with  ATI  Telecom

International  Ltd.,  (“Alta”),  a  Canadian  corporation  headquartered  near  Atlanta,

Georgia, in a transaction valued at approximately $52.5 million. Alta provides a

range  of  engineering,  furnishing  and  installation  services  for  telecommunica-

tions  service  providers  in  the  areas  of  transport,  switching  and  wireless  com-

munications.  Under  the  terms  of  the  merger  agreement,  the  Company

exchanged 2 million shares of its Common stock for all the Common stock of

Alta. The merger constituted a tax-free reorganization and has been accounted

for as a pooling of interests under Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 16.

Accordingly,  all  prior  period  consolidated  financial  statements  presented  have

been restated to include the combined results of operations, financial position

and cash flows of Alta as though it had been a part of CIENA.

Prior  to  the  merger,  Alta’s  year  ended  on  December  31.  In  recording  the

business  combination,  Alta’s  prior  period  financial  statements  have  been

restated to conform to CIENA’s fiscal year end.

All  intercompany  transactions  between  CIENA  and  Alta  have  been  elimi-

nated  in  consolidation.  Certain  reclassifications  were  made  to  Alta  financial

statements  to  conform  to  CIENA’s  presentation.  No  material  adjustments  were

made to conform to CIENA’s accounting policies.

The  following  table  shows  the  separate  historical  results  of  CIENA  and

Alta for the periods prior to the consummation of the merger of the two enti-

ties (in thousands):

Revenues:

CIENA

Alta

Intercompany eliminations

Consolidated revenues

Net income (loss):

CIENA

Alta

Consolidated net income

Year Ended October 31,

1996

1997

$54,838

33,625

—

$373,827

39,531

(143)

$88,463

$413,215

$14,718

2,545

$17,263

$112,945

3,022

$115,967

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Astracom

During  December  1997,  the  Company  completed  an  Agreement  and  Plan 

of Merger with Astracom, Inc. (“Astracom”), an early stage telecommunications

company  located  in  Atlanta,  Georgia.  The  purchase  price  was  approximately

$13.1  million  and  consisted  of  the  issuance  of  339,508  shares  of  CIENA

Common stock, the payment of $2.4 million in cash, and the assumption of cer-

tain stock options. The transaction was recorded using the purchase accounting

method  with  the  purchase  price  representing  approximately  $11.4  million  in

goodwill  and  other  intangibles,  and  approximately  $1.7  million  in  net  assets

assumed. The amortization period for the intangibles, based on management’s

estimate of the useful life of the acquired technology, is five years. The opera-

tions of Astracom are not material to the consolidated financial statements of the

Company  and,  accordingly,  separate  pro  forma  financial  information  has  not

been presented.

(3) Marketable Debt Securities

Marketable debt securities are comprised of the following (in thousands):

Commercial paper

U.S. Government obligations

1999

$105,215

13,741

$118,956

October 31,

2000

$90,745

4,386

$95,131

(4) Inventories

Inventories are comprised of the following (in thousands):

Raw materials

Work-in-process

Finished goods

Reserve for excess and obsolescence

October 31,

1999

2000

$ 49,298

$ 52,576

16,386

26,369

92,053

(12,445)

48,300

58,641

159,517

(18,238)

$ 79,608

$141,279

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(5) Equipment, Furniture and Fixtures

Equipment, furniture and fixtures are comprised of the following (in thousands):

October 31,

1999

2000

Equipment, furniture and fixtures

$182,794

$ 290,726

Leasehold improvements

30,231

213,025

43,394

334,120

Accumulated depreciation and amortization

(88,716)

(147,638)

Construction-in-progress

943

2,749

$125,252

$ 189,231

(6) Accrued Liabilities

Accrued liabilities are comprised of the following (in thousands):

Warranty and other contractual obligations

$28,582

$27,605

Accrued compensation and payroll related tax

Other

15,471

14,433

34,163

22,395

$58,486

$84,163

October 31,

1999

2000

(7) Earnings (Loss) Per Share Calculation

The  following  is  a  reconciliation  of  the  numerators  and  denominators  of  the

basic net income (loss) per common share (“basic EPS”) and diluted net income

(loss) per common and dilutive potential common share (“diluted EPS”). Basic EPS

is computed using the weighted average number of common shares outstanding.

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1 0 – K   C I E N A   C o r p o r a t i o n

Diluted EPS is computed using the weighted average number of common shares

outstanding,  stock  options  and  warrants  using  the  treasury  stock  method  (in

thousands except per share amounts).

1998

October 31,
1999

2000

Net income (loss)

$ 45,700

$ (3,924)

$ 81,387

Weighted average shares—basic

235,980

267,042

281,621

Effect of dilutive securities:

Employee stock options and warrants

19,808

—

18,041

Weighted average shares—diluted

255,788

267,042

299,662

Basic EPS

Diluted EPS

$

$

0.19

0.18

$

$

(0.01)

(0.01)

$

$

0.29

0.27

Approximately  1,538,000,  23,772,000  and  1,203,123  options  and  restricted

stock were outstanding during fiscal 1998, 1999 and 2000 respectively, but were not

included in the computation of the Diluted EPS as the effect would be anti-dilutive.

(8) Stockholders’ Equity

Authorized Shares

On March 16, 2000, the shareholders of the Company approved an increase to

the authorized number of shares of Common stock from 360 million to 460 mil-

lion shares.

Stock Split

The Board of Directors authorized the splitting of the Company’s Common stock

on a two-for-one basis for shareholders of record on August 28, 2000 and the

resulting shares from the split were distributed on September 18, 2000. All ref-

erences to share and per-share data for all periods presented have been adjusted

to give effect to this two-for-one stock split.

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Stockholder Rights Plan

In  December  1997,  the  Company’s  Board  of  Directors  adopted  a  Stockholder

Rights  Plan.  This  plan  is  designed  to  deter  any  potential  coercive  or  unfair

takeover  tactics  in  the  event  of  an  unsolicited  takeover  attempt.  It  is  not

intended to prevent a takeover of the Company on terms that are favorable and

fair  to  all  shareholders  and  will  not  interfere  with  a  merger  approved  by  the

Board of Directors. Each right entitles shareholders to buy a “unit” equal to one

one-thousandth of a share of Preferred Stock of the Company. The rights will be

exercisable  only  if  a  person  or  a  group  acquires  or  announces  a  tender  or

exchange offer to acquire 15% or more of the Company’s Common stock or if the

Company  enters  into  certain  other  business  combination  transactions  not

approved by the Board of Directors.

In the event the rights become exercisable, the rights plan allows for CIENA

shareholders to acquire stock of the surviving corporation, whether or not CIENA

is the surviving corporation, having a value twice that of the exercise price of

the rights. The rights were distributed to shareholders of record in January 1998.

The rights will expire December 2007 and are redeemable for $0.001 per right

at the approval of the Company’s Board of Directors.

Other Offerings

During 1998 and 1999, Omnia issued 10,753,330 and 368,990 shares of Common

stock in exchange for approximately $12,801,000 and $66,000, respectively.

During  1998,  Lightera  issued  a  total  of  33,155,010  shares  of  Common

stock  in  exchange  for  certain  technology  rights,  notes  receivable  totaling

$211,000 and proceeds of approximately $15,893,000. In 1999, Lightera issued

1,937,022 shares of Common stock in exchange for approximately $104,000.

Accumulated Comprehensive Income

The  components  of  accumulated  comprehensive  income  (loss)  are  as  follows 

(in thousands):

Net income (loss)

October 31,

1999

2000

$(3,924)

$81,387

Change in accumulated translation adjustments

67

(863)

Total comprehensive income (loss)

$(3,857)

$80,524

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(9) Income Taxes

Income (loss) before income taxes and the provision (benefit) for income taxes

consists of the following (in thousands):

Income (loss) before income taxes.

$81,900

$(5,991)

$120,574

Provision (benefit) for income taxes:

1998

October 31,
1999

2000

Current:

Federal

State

Foreign

36,865

4,444

40

5,175

44,914

235

75

4,640

250

Total current

41,349

5,485

49,804

Deferred:

Federal

State

Foreign

(4,496)

(7,477)

(10,013)

(653)

—

(75)

—

(604)

—

Total deferred

(5,149)

(7,552)

(10,617)

Provision (benefit) for income taxes

$36,200

$(2,067)

$ 39,187

The tax provision (benefit) reconciles to the amount computed by multiplying

income before income taxes by the U.S. federal statutory rate of 35% as follows:

Provision at statutory rate

Non-deductible purchased research 

and development

State taxes, net of federal benefit

Research and development credit

Foreign sales corporation benefit

Non-deductible merger costs and other

1998

35.0%

4.3

4.3

(4.0)

(1.6)

6.2

44.2%

October 31,
1999

35.0%

—

(2.6)

48.9

28.7

(75.5)

(34.5)%

2000

35.0%

—

2.2

(5.5)

(0.7)

1.5%

32.5%

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The  significant  components  of  deferred  tax  assets  and  liabilities  were  as

follows (in thousands):

Deferred tax assets:

October 31,

1999

2000

Reserves and accrued liabilities

$14,931

$ 33,846

Other

Net operating loss and credit carry forward

Gross deferred tax assets

Valuation allowance

637

11,244

26,812

(1,427)

1,178

109,410

144,434

(1,405)

Net current deferred tax asset

$25,385

$143,029

Deferred tax liabilities:

Equipment leases

Services

Depreciation and other

$ 8,738

$ 8,885

23,916

4,299

24,319

5,941

Deferred long-term tax liabilities

$36,953

$ 39,145

As of October 31, 2000, the Company has a $249.2 million net operating loss

carry forward and an $18.1 million income tax credit which begin to expire in fis-

cal 2016 and 2014, respectively. Management believes that, after considering the

anticipated future operating results of the Company, the net deferred tax assets

will be realized. However, there cannot be complete assurance that this will occur.

The  income  tax  provision  does  not  reflect  the  tax  savings  resulting  from

deductions associated with the Company’s stock option plans. Tax benefits from

exercises of stock options of approximately $11.0 million and $154.6 million in

fiscal  1999  and  fiscal  2000,  respectively,  were  credited  directly  to  additional

paid-in-capital.

The IRS is currently examining the Company’s federal income tax returns for

fiscal 1997 and fiscal 1998. Management does not expect the outcome of these

examinations to have a material adverse affect on the Company’s consolidated

financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

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(10) Employee Benefit Plans

Stock Incentive Plans

In August of 1999, the Company approved the 1999 Non-Officer Incentive Stock

Plan  (the  “1999  Plan”).  Under  the  1999  Plan,  24,000,000  shares  of  the

Company’s  authorized  but  unissued  Common  Stock  are  reserved  for  options

issuable  to  employees  who  are  not  executive  officers  of  the  Company.  These

options vest to the employee over four years and are exercisable once vested.

Options under the 1999 Plan are categorized as non-qualified, and the exercise

price for each option shall be established by the Board of Directors provided the

price is not less than 85% of fair market value.

The  Company  has  an  Amended  and  Restated  1994  Stock  Option  Plan  (the

“1994 Plan”). Under the 1994 Plan, 40,100,000 shares of the Company’s author-

ized but unissued Common Stock are reserved for options issuable to employees.

Certain  of  these  options  are  immediately  exercisable  upon  grant,  and  both  the

options and the shares issuable upon exercise of the options generally vest to the

employee over a four year period. The Company has the right to repurchase any

exercised and non-vested shares at the original purchase price from the employees

upon termination of employment. In June 1996, the Company approved the 1996

Outside  Directors  Stock  Option  Plan  (the  “1996  Plan”).  Under  the  1996  Plan,

1,500,000 shares of the Company’s authorized but unissued Common Stock are

reserved  for  options  issuable  to  outside  members  of  the  Company’s  Board  of

Directors. These options vest to the director over periods from one to three years,

depending on the type of option granted, and are exercisable once vested. Under

the 1994 Plan and the 1996 Plan, options may be incentive stock options or non-

qualified options, and the exercise price for each option shall be established by

the Board of Directors provided, however, that the exercise price per share shall

not be not less than the fair market value for incentive stock options and not less

than 85% of fair market value for non-qualified stock options.

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As a result of the Company’s merger with Omnia, the Company assumed the

Omnia 1997 Stock Plan Option Plan (“the 1997 Plan”). The 1997 Plan provided

for  the  granting  of  stock  options  to  employees  and  consultants  of  Omnia.

Options granted under the 1997 Plan were either incentive stock options or non-

statutory stock options. Incentive stock options (“ISO”) could be granted only to

Omnia  employees  (including  officers  and  directors  who  were  also  employees).

Nonstatutory stock options (“NSO”) could be granted to Omnia employees and

consultants. The Company has reserved 1,519,778 shares of Common Stock for

outstanding options under the plan. Options exercised are immediately subject

to a repurchase right held by the Company which lapse over a maximum period

of  four  years  at  such  times  and  under  such  conditions  as  determined  by  the

Board of Directors. To date, options granted generally vest over four years.

As a result of the Company’s merger with Lightera, the Company assumed

the Lightera 1998 Stock Option Plan (“the 1998 Plan”). The 1998 Plan provided

for  the  granting  of  stock  options  to  employees  and  consultants  of  Lightera.

Options  granted  under  the  1998  Plan  were  either  incentive  stock  options  or

nonstatutory  stock  options.  Incentive  stock  options  (“ISO”)  could  be  granted

only  to  Lightera  employees  (including  officers  and  directors  who  were  also

employees).  Nonstatutory  stock  options  (“NSO”)  could  be  granted  to  Lightera

employees  and  consultants.  The  Company  has  reserved  5,058,322  shares  of

Common Stock for outstanding options under the plan. Options exercised are

immediately  subject  to  a  repurchase  right  held  by  the  Company  which  lapse

over a maximum period of five years at such times and under such conditions

as determined by the Board of Directors. To date, options granted generally vest

over four years.

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Following  is  a  summary  of  the  Company’s  stock  option  activity  (shares

in thousands):

Balance at October 31, 1997

Granted

Exercised

Canceled

Balance at October 31, 1998

Granted

Exercised

Canceled

Balance at October 31, 1999

Granted

Exercised

Canceled

Balance at October 31, 2000

Shares

18,220

12,828

(5,296)

(6,680)

19,072

16,262

(3,456)

(1,756)

30,122

12,529

(9,383)

(2,547)

30,721

Weighted Average 
Exercise Price

$ 3.67

9.50

1.20

20.06

2.41

11.73

2.33

6.65

7.22

98.85

4.10

17.13

$44.72

During  September  1998,  the  Company  canceled  and  reissued  outstanding

employee  stock  options  with  exercise  prices  in  excess  of  the  fair  market  value,

except those options held by outside directors and officers of the Company. A total

of 5.8 million options with an average exercise price of $21.44 were canceled and

reissued at $6.19 per share. At October 31, 2000, approximately 0.4 million shares

of Common Stock subject to repurchase by the Company had been issued upon

the exercise of options and restricted stock purchase agreements, 7.0 million of

the  total  outstanding  options  were  vested  and  not  subject  to  repurchase  by  the

Company  upon  exercise.  As  of  October  31,  2000,  approximately  14.5  million

shares are available for issuance under these plans.

83
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The following table summarizes information with respect to stock options

outstanding at October 31, 2000 (shares in thousands):

Options Outstanding
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Weighted
Average
Remaining
Outstanding at Contractual
Life (Years)
Oct. 31, 2000

Weighted
Average
Exercise
Price

Number

3,279

5,202

3,519

3,879

4,566

4,028

6,248
________________________
30,721
________________________
________________________
________________________

7.10

6.23

8.20

8.96

8.97

9.67

9.97

8.51

$ 0.12

3.15

9.65

14.93

24.25

84.05

130.96

$ 44.72

Range of
Exercise Price

$ 0.01–$ 1.13

$ 1.15–$ 6.19

$ 6.28–$ 14.83

$ 14.91–$ 15.78

$ 16.13–$ 57.66

$ 58.25–$127.88

$130.00–$149.50

$ 0.01–$149.50

Options Not Subject to 
Repurchase Upon Exercise
________________________________________________________________________________________

Number at
Oct. 31, 2000

1,392

4,127

878

64

541

—

—
___________________
7,002
___________________
___________________
___________________

Weighted 
Average 
Exercise 
Price

$ 0.17

2.39

9.40

15.20

16.89

—

—

$26.01

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

In  March  1998,  the  shareholders  approved  the  Corporation’s  1998  Stock

Purchase  Plan  (“the  Purchase  Plan”)  under  which  5.0  million  shares  of 

Common stock have been reserved for issuance. Eligible employees may pur-

chase  a  limited  number  of  shares  of  the  Company’s  stock  at  85%  of 

the  market  value  at  certain  plan-defined  dates.  Approximately  693,000 

and  607,000  shares  of  Common  stock  have  been  issued  for  $5.8  million 

and  $3.3  million  during  fiscal  2000  and  fiscal  1999,  respectively.  As  of

October 31, 2000, approximately 3.7 million shares are available for issuance

under this plan.

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Pro forma Stock-Based Compensation

Had compensation cost for the Company’s stock option plans and the Purchase

Plan been determined based on the fair value at the grant date for awards in fis-

cal years 1998, 1999 and 2000 consistent with the provisions of SFAS No. 123,

the  Company’s  net  income  and  net  income  per  share  for  fiscal  1998  and  2000

would have been decreased and the net loss and the net loss per share for fis-

cal 1999 would have been increased to the pro forma amounts indicated below

(in thousands, except per share):

1998

October 31,
1999

2000

Net income (loss) applicable 

to common stockholders—as reported

$45,700

$ (3,924)

$ 81,387

Net income (loss) applicable 

to common stockholders—pro forma

$20,816

$(40,067)

$(26,244)

Basic net income (loss) per share—as reported

$ 0.19

$ (0.01)

$

0.29

Basic net income (loss) per share—pro forma

$ 0.09

$ (0.15)

$ (0.09)

Diluted net income (loss) per share—as reported

$ 0.18

$ (0.01)

$

0.27

Diluted net income (loss) per share—pro forma

$ 0.08

$ (0.15)

$ (0.09)

The above pro forma disclosures are not necessarily representative of the

effects on reported net income or loss for future years.

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The weighted average fair value of each option granted under the various

stock option plans for 1998, 1999 and 2000 is $7.59, $9.45 and $64.99 respec-

tively. The fair value of each option grant is estimated on the date of grant using

the  Black-Scholes  Option  Pricing  Model  with  the  following  weighted  average

assumptions for fiscal years 1998, 1999 and 2000:

2000
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Expected volatility

109%

88%

1998

106%

Employee Stock
Option Plans
____________________________________________________________________________________________
October 31,
1999

Employee Stock 
Purchase Plan
____________________________________________________________
October 31,
1999
____________________________________________________________
106%

88%

2000

Risk-free interest rate

Expected life (years)

Expected dividend yield

4.4%

3.0

0.0%

5.5%

2.8

0.0%

6.1%

2.7

0.0%

5.5%

0.5

0.0%

6.1%

0.5

0.0%

The Black-Scholes option pricing model was developed for use in estimat-

ing  the  fair  value  of  traded  options  that  have  no  vesting  restrictions  and  are

fully transferable. In addition, option pricing models require the input of highly

subjective  assumptions  including  the  expected  stock  price  volatility.  The

Company  uses  projected  volatility  rates,  which  are  based  upon  historical

volatility  rates  trended  into  future  years.  Because  the  Company’s  employee

stock  options  have  characteristics  significantly  different  from  those  of  traded

options, and because changes in the subjective input assumptions can materi-

ally affect the fair value estimate, in management’s opinion, the existing mod-

els do not necessarily provide a reliable single measure of the fair value of the

Company’s options.

86
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Employee 401(k) Plan

The  Company  has  a  401(k)  defined  contribution  profit  sharing  plan.  The  plan

covers all full-time employees who have completed three months of service and

are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement where retirement benefits

are subject to good faith bargaining. Participants may contribute up to 15% of

pre-tax  compensation,  subject  to  certain  limitations.  The  Company  may  make

discretionary annual profit sharing contributions of up to the lesser of $30,000

or  25%  of  each  participant’s  compensation.  The  plan  includes  an  employer

matching  contribution  equal  to  100%  of  the  first  3%  of  participating  employee

contributions, with a five year vesting plan applicable to the Company’s contri-

bution with the exception that participants vest immediately upon turning age

fifty-five. The Company has made no profit sharing contributions to date. During

fiscal  1998,  1999  and  2000,  the  Company  made  matching  contributions  of

approximately $1.1 million, $1.7 million and $2.3 million, respectively.

(11) Commitments and Contingencies

Operating Lease Commitments

The Company has certain minimum obligations under non-cancelable operating

leases  expiring  on  various  dates  through  2006  for  equipment  and  facilities.

Future  annual  minimum  rental  commitments  under  non-cancelable  operating

leases at October 31, 2000 are as follows (in thousands):

Fiscal Year Ending October 31,

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

Thereafter

$14,102

12,293

10,731

10,706

10,111

22,668

$80,611

Rental expense for fiscal 1998, 1999 and 2000 was approximately $6.1 mil-

lion, $9.5 million and $13.7 million, respectively.

87
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Litigation

On October 3, 2000, Stanford University and Litton Systems filed a complaint in

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California alleging that optical fiber

amplifiers incorporated into CIENA’s products infringe U.S. Patent No. 4,859,016.

Due to the early stage of this litigation, CIENA is unable to determine whether

the litigation will have an adverse effect on the Company. The Company intends

to defend this suit vigorously.

On  July  19,  2000,  CIENA  and  CIENA  Properties,  Inc.,  a  wholly  owned  sub-

sidiary  of  CIENA,  filed  a  complaint  in  the  United  States  District  Court  for  the

District  of  Delaware  requesting  damages  and  injunctive  relief  against  Corvis

Corporation.  The  complaint  charges  Corvis  Corporation  with  infringing  three

patents relating to CIENA’s optical networking communication systems and tech-

nology. On September 8, 2000, Corvis filed an Answer and Counterclaim alleging

invalidity, non-infringement and unenforceability of the asserted patents, and tor-

tious  interference  with  prospective  economic  advantage.  CIENA  believes  that

Corvis’ counterclaims are without merit, and intends to defend itself vigorously.

On  June  1,  1998,  the  Company  resolved  the  long-standing  litigation  with

Pirelli S.p.A. The terms of the settlement involve dismissal of Pirelli’s three law-

suits  against  CIENA  previously  pending  in  Delaware,  dismissal  of  CIENA’s  legal

proceedings against Pirelli in the United States International Trade Commission,

a worldwide, non-exclusive cross-license to each party’s patent portfolios, and a

five-year moratorium on future litigation between the parties. As a result of the

settlement, CIENA recorded a charge for the fiscal year ended October 31, 1998

of $30.6 million relating to the Pirelli settlement and associated legal fees.

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(12) Foreign Sales

The Company has sales and marketing operations outside the United States in

Canada,  the  United  Kingdom,  Belgium,  France,  Germany,  Japan,  Mexico  and

Brazil. The Company has distributor or marketing representative arrangements

covering  Italy,  the  Republic  of  Korea,  Japan,  Venezuela,  Columbia  and  Chile.

Included  in  revenues  are  export  sales  of  approximately  $117.1  million,  and

$213.6 million and $283.1 in fiscal years 1998, 1999 and 2000, respectively.

Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants
on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

None.

89
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Part III

Item 10. Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant
Information relating to the directors and executive officers of the Company is set

forth in Part I of this report under the caption Item 1. Business—“Directors and

Executive Officers” and is incorporated by reference herein.

Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance

Larry Huang and Perry Kamel each filed one late Form 4 reporting a single trans-

action. Steve Chaddick filed one late Form 4 reporting a single transaction and

one late Form 5 reporting a single transaction.

Item 11. Executive Compensation
The information is incorporated herein by reference to the Company’s definitive

2001 Proxy Statement.

Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners

and Management

The information is incorporated herein by reference to the Company’s definitive

2001 Proxy Statement.

Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions
The information is incorporated herein by reference to the Company’s definitive

2001 Proxy Statement.

90
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Item 14. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules and

Reports on Form 8–K

(a) 1. The information required by this item is included in Item 8 of Part II of

this Form 10–K.

2. Financial Statement Schedule

Valuation and Qualifying Accounts

(in thousands)

Year ended October 31, 1998

Balance at 
beginning 
of period

Provisions Deductions

Balance 
at end 
of period

Allowance for doubtful accounts

$

722

$

806

$ —

$ 1,528

Allowance for excess 

and obsolete inventory

Year ended October 31, 1999

$ 7,466

$ 9,617

$5,929

$11,154

Allowance for doubtful accounts

$ 1,528

$

250

$

75

$ 1,703

Allowance for excess 

and obsolete inventory

Year ended October 31, 2000

$11,154

$ 6,534

$5,243

$12,445

Allowance for doubtful accounts

$ 1,703

$28,010

$ 132

$29,581

Allowance for excess 

and obsolete inventory

$12,445

$15,021

$9,228

$18,238

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Report of Independent Accountants on Financial Statement Schedule

To the Board of Directors 

and Stockholders of CIENA Corporation:

Our audits of the consolidated financial statements referred to in our report

dated December 6, 2000, appearing in the Annual Report on Form 10–K

for the year ended October 31, 2000 of CIENA Corporation also included

an audit of the financial statement schedule listed in Item 14(a)(2) of this

Form 10–K. In our opinion, this financial statement schedule presents fairly,

in all material respects, the information set forth therein when read in con-

junction with the related consolidated financial statements.

McLean, VA

December 6, 2000

3.  Exhibits:  See  Index  to  Exhibits  on  page  94.  The  Exhibits  listed  in  the

accompanying  Index  to  Exhibits  are  filed  or  incorporated  by  reference  as

part of this report.

(b) Reports  on  Form  8–K:  Form  8–K  (items  5  and  7  reported)  filed  on

September 5, 2000.

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Signatures

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange

Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf

by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Linthicum, County

of Anne Arundel, State of Maryland, on the 7th day of December 2000.

CIENA Corporation

By: /s/ Patrick H. Nettles, Ph.D.

Patrick H. Nettles, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

and Chairman of the Board of Directors

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this

report  has  been  signed  by  the  following  persons  in  the  capacities  and  on  the

date indicated.

Signatures

Title

Date

/s/ Patrick H. Nettles, Ph.D.
Patrick H. Nettles, Ph.D.
(Principal Executive Officer)

/s/ Joseph R. Chinnici
Joseph R. Chinnici
(Principal Financial Officer)

Chief Executive Officer, 
Chairman of the Board of Directors 

December 7, 2000 

Sr. Vice President, Finance 
and Chief Financial Officer 

December 7, 2000 

/s/ Andrew C. Petrik
Andrew C. Petrik 
(Principal Accounting Officer)

Vice President, 
Controller and Treasurer

Director

Director

Director

Director

December 7, 2000 

December 7, 2000 

December 7, 2000 

December 7, 2000 

December 7, 2000 

President, Chief Operating Officer 
and Director

December 7, 2000 

Director

Director

December 7, 2000 

December 7, 2000 

/s/ Stephen P. Bradley
Stephen P. Bradley

/s/ Harvey B. Cash
Harvey B. Cash

/s/ John R. Dillon
John R. Dillon

/s/ Lawton W. Fitt
Lawton W. Fitt

/s/ Gary B. Smith
Gary B. Smith

/s/ Judith M. O’Brien
Judith M. O’Brien

/s/ Gerald H. Taylor
Gerald H. Taylor

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Index to 
Exhibits

Exhibit 
Number

Description

3.1(1)

3.2(1)

3.3(1)

3.5(10)

3.6(10)

4.1(1)

4.2(3)

4.3(4)

Certificate of Amendment to Third Restated Certificate of Incorporation

Third Restated Certificate of Incorporation

Amended and Restated Bylaws

Certificate of Amendment to Third Restated Certificate of Incorporation dated
March 23, 1998

Certificate of Amendment to Third Restated Certificate of Incorporation dated
March 16, 2000

Specimen Stock Certificate

Rights Agreement dated December 29, 1997

Amendment to Rights Agreement

4.4(11)

Amendment No. 2 to Rights Agreement dated September 13, 1998

4.5(4)

Amendment No. 3 to Rights Agreement dated October 19, 1998

10.1(1)

Form of Indemnification Agreement for Directors and Officers

10.2(1)

Amended and Restated 1994 Stock Option Plan

10.3(1)

Form of Employee Stock Option Agreements

10.4(1)

1996 Outside Directors Stock Option Plan

10.5(1)

Forms of 1996 Outside Directors Stock Option Agreement

10.6(1)

Series C Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement dated December 20, 1995

10.7(1)

10.8(1)(8)

10.9(1)(8)

10.10(1)

10.13(1)

Lease Agreement dated October 5, 1995 between the Company and 
CS Corridor-32 Limited Partnership

Purchase Agreement Between Sprint/United Management Company and the
Company dated December 14, 1995

Basic Purchase Agreement between WorldCom Network Services, Inc. and the
Company dated September 19, 1996

Settlement Agreement and Mutual Release, between the Company and William K.
Woodruff & Company, dated August 26, 1996

Employment Agreement dated April 9, 1994 between the Company and 
Patrick Nettles

94
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Exhibit 
Number

10.14(1)

10.15(1)

Description

Lease Agreement dated November 1, 1996 by and between the Company and
Aetna Life Insurance Company

Revolving Note and Business Loan Agreement dated November 25, 1996
between the Company and Mercantile–Safe Deposit & Trust Company

10.16(1)(8) First Addendum to Procurement Agreement between the Registrant and

Sprint/United Management Company dated December 19, 1996

10.17(5)

Third Addendum to Procurement Agreement between the Registrant and
Sprint/United Management Company

10.18(5)

Form of Transfer of Control/Severance Agreement

10.19(6)

Lightera 1998 Stock Option Plan and Form of Stock Option Agreement

10.20(7)

Omnia Communications, Inc. 1997 stock plan and form of agreements

10.21(9)

Employment Agreement dated August 18, 1999 between the Company and
Gary B. Smith

10.22(9)

1999 Non-Officer Stock Option Plan and Form of Stock Option Agreement

10.23(9)

Lease Agreement dated June 1, 1999 between the Company and Ridgeview
Court Associates, L.L.C.

21(2)

23.1

27.1

Subsidiaries of registrant

Consent of Independent Accountants

Financial Data Schedule

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)

Incorporated by reference from the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S–1 (333–17729).

Incorporated by reference from the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S–1 (333–28525).

Incorporated by reference from the Company’s Form 8–K dated December 29, 1997.

Incorporated by reference from the Company’s Form 8–K dated October 14, 1998.

Incorporated by reference from the Company’s Form 10–K dated December 10, 1998.

Incorporated by reference from the Company’s Form 10–Q dated May 21, 1999.

Incorporated by reference from the Company’s Form 10–Q dated August 19, 1999.

Confidential treatment has been granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission with
respect to certain portions of these exhibits.
Incorporated by reference from the Company’s Form 10–K dated December 10, 1999.

Incorporated by reference from the Company’s Form 10–Q dated May 18, 2000.

Incorporated by reference from the Company’s Form 8–K dated September 14, 1998.

95
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Corporate
Information

Corporate Headquarters
CIENA Corporation 
1201 Winterson Road
Linthicum, MD 21090–2205
Telephone: (800) 921–1144 or (410) 865–8500
Website: http://www.CIENA.com

Annual Meeting
CIENA’s annual shareholder meeting will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Monday,
March 12, 2001, at the BWI Airport Marriott Hotel, Linthicum, MD.

Independent Certified Public Accountants
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP 
McLean, VA

General Counsel
Hogan & Hartson 
Baltimore, MD

Transfer Agent
Fleet National Bank 
c/o EquiServe 
P.O. Box 43010 
Providence, RI 02940–3010 
Investor Relations Number: (781) 575–3120 
Internet Address: http://www.equiserve.com

Common Stock Market Data
Since its initial public offering on February 7, 1997, the Company’s Common
Stock has traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol CIEN and
appears in most daily newspaper stock tables as CIEN. As of January 11, 2001,
there were approximately 1,478 stockholders of record and 287,595,957 shares
of Common Stock outstanding.

Investor Relations
For additional copies of this report or other financial information, contact:
Investor Relations 
CIENA Corporation
1201 Winterson Road 
Linthicum, MD 21090–2205
IR Hotline: (888) 243–6223 or (410) 865–8500

Additional information is available on CIENA’s website at http://www.CIENA.com

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