Ciena facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Ciena Corporation

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: CIEN S&P 400 component
Industry	Networking systems & software
Founded	1992; 33 years ago (1992)
Founder	David Huber, Optelecom (company), and Kevin Kimberlin
Headquarters	Hanover, Maryland , United States
Key people	Patrick Nettles (executive chairman) Gary Smith (president & CEO)
Products	Networking systems and products
Revenue	US$4.01 billion (2024)
Operating income	US$167 million (2024)
Net income	US$83.9 million (2024)
Total assets	US$5.64 billion (2024)
Total equity	US$2.82 billion (2024)
Number of employees	8,657 (2024)

Ciena Corporation is an American company that creates systems and software for optical networking. This means they help send huge amounts of information, like internet data and phone calls, using light through fiber optic cables. Ciena is based in Hanover, Maryland, in the United States.

The company is known as a very important part of how we connect online. As of 2024, Ciena had revenues of over $4 billion and more than 8,500 employees. Gary Smith is the company's president and CEO. Some of Ciena's big customers include major phone and internet companies like AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, KT Corporation, and Verizon Communications.

History of Ciena Corporation

Ciena was started in 1992 by an electrical engineer named David R. Huber. It was first called HydraLite. Another company, Optelecom, helped Ciena get started by offering management help and places to build things. Kevin Kimberlin also provided money to help the company begin.

In 1994, Ciena received $40 million from several investment companies. These companies provide "venture capital," which is money given to new businesses that have a lot of potential to grow. Patrick Nettles became Ciena's first CEO, and the company's name was changed to Ciena. They started working from an office in Dallas.

Early Growth and Public Offering

Ciena's first products were introduced in May 1996 to Sprint Corporation, a large telecommunications company. In its first year, Ciena made $195 million in sales. This was the highest amount ever recorded by a new company at that time. WorldCom also became an early customer. By early 1997, Sprint and WorldCom made up most of Ciena's income. Ciena then started working with more customers and getting smaller contracts.

In February 1997, Ciena became a public company. This means its shares could be bought and sold on the stock market, specifically NASDAQ. This was a very big "initial public offering" (IPO) for a new company, valued at $3.4 billion. Ciena moved its main office to Maryland in March 1997. By October 1997, Ciena had made about $370 million in revenue and $110 million in profit. Other customers at this time included AT&T and Bell Atlantic.

In 1998, there were talks about Ciena joining with another company called Tellabs. Tellabs announced they would buy Ciena for $7.1 billion. However, this merger was later called off. News reports said it was because of Ciena's financial performance and that shareholders did not approve.

Ciena 3903 in SVG format

Ciena's Journey Since the 2000s

Around the early 2000s, many telecommunications companies faced a "telecoms crash." This was a time when sales dropped a lot. Ciena's yearly sales went down from $1.6 billion to about $300 million. To help the company through this tough time, Gary Smith became the new CEO in 2001. Patrick Nettles became the executive chairman. Ciena raised more money by selling shares and bonds, which helped them stay flexible.

Even though many telecom companies struggled, Ciena used its money to grow. They bought 11 other companies between 1997 and 2004. Five of these networking technology companies were bought between 2001 and 2004 for over $2 billion. These purchases helped Ciena offer more advanced networking solutions and other technologies.

In 2001, AT&T signed an agreement to use Ciena's equipment. In 2002, Ciena had sales of $361.1 million and about 3,500 employees. By 2003, Ciena was one of the largest makers of fiber optic equipment in the U.S. In 2003, a court decided that Corvis Corporation, another company started by David Huber, had used a technology that Ciena had a patent for.

By 2008, Ciena earned $902 million and made a profit of $39 million. In 2009, they had sales of $653 million but a loss of $580 million. Most of their income at that time came from the U.S. Ciena had losses until 2015. In 2015, the company made $2.4 billion in sales and a profit of $12 million. Ciena's number of employees around the world grew from 4,300 in 2011 to 5,345 by October 2015.

Ciena continued to grow, earning $2.8 billion in 2017 and about $3.09 billion in 2018. By 2024, their sales crossed the $4 billion mark. The company has also been listed on the Fortune 1000, which ranks the largest companies in the U.S.

How Ciena Grew Through Acquisitions

Ciena has bought many other companies over the years to expand its products and services. Here are some of the companies Ciena has acquired:

In 1997, Ciena bought AstraCom Inc. This added 14 engineers to Ciena's new research and development team in Alpharetta, Georgia. In 1998, Ciena acquired ATI Telecom International Ltd. and its part, Alta Telecom. Alta's products helped service providers with switching and wireless communications. Ciena also bought Terabit Technology Inc., which made detectors for sending data.

In 1999, Ciena bought Lightera Networks Inc. and Omnia Communications Inc. These purchases helped Ciena grow its network offerings. Ciena bought Cyras Corp. in 2001 and ONI Systems in 2002. These companies made equipment for phone and computer data. By buying them, Ciena could focus more on networks in cities.

Ciena bought WaveSmith Networks Inc. in 2003, which made optical-networking equipment. In the same year, Ciena acquired Akara Corp., a company that worked with data storage networks. This helped Ciena offer more products for storing data. In 2004, Ciena bought Catena Networks and Internet Photonics. The purchase of Internet Photonics helped Ciena enter the cable industry.

In 2008, Ciena acquired World Wide Packets Inc. (WWP). WWP made switches and software for Ethernet services, which help connect computers in a network. WWP had many customers in different countries.

Ciena acquired Nortel's optical technology and Carrier Ethernet division between 2009 and 2010. This part of Nortel developed advanced optical-transmission equipment and had many customers. Many of these employees, especially in Ottawa, Canada, joined Ciena. In 2017, Ciena moved its 1,600 Ottawa employees to a new campus. These employees, many of whom came from Nortel, do half of Ciena's research and development work.

Ciena acquired Cyan in 2015, which offers software systems for network operators. In 2016, Ciena bought TeraXion Inc., a network management system company. Ciena also acquired Packet Design in 2016, a company that helps optimize network performance. In 2018, Ciena purchased DonRiver, a software and services company.

Ciena's Work in India

Ciena opened a campus in Gurgaon, India, in 2006. This campus focuses on research and development. In 2018, it was expanded to start making products for local markets in India. As of May 2018, about 1,500 employees worked there, making up 20 percent of Ciena's global workforce.

In 2018, Ciena partnered with Sify, an information and communications technology company. They worked together to increase Sify's network capacity from 100G to 400G. Ciena's products help Sify's data centers handle things like big data (very large sets of data), cloud computing (using internet servers to store and process data), and the Internet of things (connecting everyday objects to the internet).

In 2019, Bharti Airtel used Ciena's equipment to build a huge network connecting over 4,000 locations in India. Ciena provides services to other major Indian companies like Jio and Vodafone Idea Limited. They also supply equipment to the Government of India.

Ciena's Products and Services

Ciena creates and sells equipment, software, and services mainly for the telecommunications industry. They also work with large cloud service companies. Their products help transport and manage voice calls and data traffic on communication networks.

Network Infrastructure Solutions

Ciena's network equipment includes optical network switches and routing platforms. These help manage how much data flows through telecommunications networks. In 2019, Ciena launched its WaveLogic 5 modem platform. This platform can provide network capacity up to 800G, which means it can handle a huge amount of data very quickly. Ciena also provides technology and equipment for undersea cable networks, which are essential for global internet connections.

Software and Analytics Tools

The company's Blue Planet software platform is used by telecom companies to program their communication networks. This includes making networks work automatically. The software has a service that uses machine learning (where computers learn from data without being directly programmed). This service analyzes unusual things happening in a network to predict problems before they occur. It also tells network operators what to do to prevent network outages and other disruptions.

See also

• Ciena Optical Multiservice Edge 6500