Ciena earnings affected by delayed spending

Maybe it feels like the economic recession already is giving way to something more like cautious optimism, but telecom carriers still are delaying some capital spending as we near the end of the first half of 2009. In reporting fiscal second-quarter earnings this week, Ciena Corp. acknowledged it is still feeling the effects of delayed carrier projects, though the company also said that conversations with its customers suggest the logjam will improve a bit in the third quarter.

Ciena's reported quarterly revenue of $144.2 million, a drop of 41 percent compared to fiscal Q2 2008, and it reported a quarterly loss of about $503.2 million, which included a goodwill write-off of $455.7 million. The loss is far afield from the company's fiscal Q2 2008 profit of $23.8 million.

For more:
- The Wall Street Journal has this Dow Jones Newswires story [1]

Related article
Ciena cut jobs earlier this year amid shrinking sales [2]