Thursday's Tech Winners & Losers

Shares of Ciena (CIEN) were among technology's winners Thursday, climbing 9% after the optical-networking company reported stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.

Ciena earned $13 million, or 14 cents a share, for the period ended Oct. 31, reversing a year-earlier loss of $253 million, or $3.06 a share. Excluding items, earnings were 16 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call expected earnings of 13 cents a share. Ciena's revenue climbed to $160 million from $118.2 million, meeting Wall Street's forecast.

For the first quarter, Ciena predicted a low single-digit sequential revenue rise. Analysts, on average, target revenue of $163 million. Shares of Ciena recently were up $2.28 to $27.24.

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) jumped 8% after the chipmaker projected better-than-expected savings from a recent merger and forecast strong growth. At an investor conference Thursday, AMD said it now sees cost synergies from its acquisition of ATI Technologies to be $150 million, according to Reuters. The figure is double AMD's prior projection of $75 million. The company also reportedly said it expects demand for microprocessor units to rise 10% in 2007, and it expects its own unit growth to be twice that rate. Shares of AMD were up $1.56 to $21.73 on heavy volume.

Altair Nanotechnologies (ALTI) slid 10% after the company announced plans to sell stock and warrants. The company will sell about 9.3 million units, with each unit consisting of one common share and one warrant to buy 0.25 share at an exercise price of $2.70 a share. Altair expects $23.15 million in net proceeds from the sale to institutional investors. Shares of the company were trading down 31 cents to $2.69.