Ciena Buy Strategy Paying Off

Ciena bought outfits like short-range optical systems maker ONI and so-called multiservice gearmaker WaveSmith to help enter new product markets. Critics say that at best Ciena's acquisition basket has yet to deliver big winners, while at worst some of the deals were duds.

But Ciena's Smith disputes that. Today, he says, Ciena has four customers buying a range of equipment that contributes to more than 10% of total sales. Back in an earlier era, most revenue came from selling mostly optical transport gear to one or two major customers.

"We are trying to be less dependent on a single customer or a single product," says Smith. "I think the wins we've had at British Telecom (BT) and Telmex (TMX) validate that that strategy was correct."

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