Ciena
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| Public | |
| Traded as | : CIEN S&P 400 Component |
| Industry | Telecommunications equipment |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Headquarters | Hanover, Maryland, United States |
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Key people
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Patrick Nettles (executive chairman) Gary Smith (president and CEO) |
| Products | Networking systems and products |
| Revenue | 2.3 Billion USD |
 -$40 million USD
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Number of employees
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5200 |
| Website | www |
Ciena Corporation is a United States-based global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services that support the delivery and transport of voice, video and data service. Its products are used in telecommunications networks operated by telecommunications service providers, cable operators, governments and enterprises. The company was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Hanover, Maryland.
Ciena sells products and services across four segments: Converged Packet Optical, Packet Networking, Optical Transport, and Software & Services. Key current platforms include the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, 5430 Reconfigurable Switching System, CoreDirector Multiservice Optical Switch, 3000 family of service delivery switches, and the 4200 Advanced Services Platform. It also offers the Ciena One integrated network and service management software suite, consulting and support services, deployment services, maintenance and support services, spares and logistics management.
Ciena was founded by David Huber, Kevin Kimberlin, and Optelecom to find ways to increase the capacity to design optical networking tech anagogic communication. In 1994, Sevin Rosen invested $3.3 million in Ciena's Series A Venture financing.
In late 1994, during the transition of the first high-speed optical backbone from public sector control of the National Science Foundation to private companies, Ciena began working with Sprint – an earlier carrier of Internet traffic – to develop "high-capacity fiber optic transmission systems called dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM)." The outcome of their effort was the first commercial dense wave division multiplexing system. With it, the capacity increased "Sprint's nationwide, all-digital fiber-optic network by a stunning 1,600 percent." Sprint therefore became the world's largest carrier of Internet traffic. With success from Sprint and others, Ciena's "first-year sales were the highest ever recorded by a start-up."
In February 1997 Ciena pulled off the biggest initial public offering of a startup company ever, with a first-day valuation of $3.4 billion. Subsequently, Goldman Sachs, in a research note, commented on the records set by Ciena: "1) steepest revenue ramp for any company in history, 2) most profitable company ever in its first year of product shipments, and 3) largest market capitalization of any new IPO." By 2001, Ciena had achieved annual revenues of $1.6 billion and a marketing capitalization of nearly $30 billion.
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Wikipedia