CIENA Reports Third Quarter 2004 Results

8/19/2004–CIENA® Corporation, a leading global provider of intelligent service creation and delivery solutions,reported its third fiscal quarter results for the period ending July 31, 2004. Consistent with information in the Company’s preliminary results announcement of August 3, 2004, revenue for the quarter totaled $75.6 million, representing a 1.2% sequential increase, and an increase of 10.4% for the same period a year ago. On a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, CIENA’s reported net loss for the quarter was $141.5 million, or a net loss of $0.25 per share.

Third Quarter 2004 Highlights:

1 Successfully completed the acquisitions and the operational integration of both Catena Networks and Internet Photonics.
2 Improved gross margin from 11.0% in the fiscal second quarter to 24.9% in the third quarter.
3 Delivered lower-than-anticipated ongoing operating expenses, overachieving cost-reduction targets in the quarter by approximately $10 million.
4 Secured three new customers for the new CN 1000 next-generation broadband access platform and agreed to product trials with a regional Bell operating company (RBOC).
5 Recognized initial revenue from Verizon for DN 7000 series multiservice edge switching deployments.
6 Ended the quarter with cash and short- and long-term investments valued at $1.36 billion.