Brocade Plunges as Outlook Has Never Been 'More Opaque'

Storage infrastructure firm Brocade Communications (BRCD Quote) plunged Wednesday evening after warning of a second-quarter revenue shortfall.

Brocade, which makes fibre-channel switches that connect storage-area networks to one another, has gotten hit hard lately amid the downdraft created by Emulex's (EMLX Quote) warning last week that some of its large customers were delaying their orders. Brocade stayed mum on the subject until Wednesday.

But then the deluge. "We're seeing the effect of a softening economy," said CFO Mike Byrd, who told analysts on the call that since the end of January, the company had been seeing lower order rates for second-quarter shipments. "We now expect growth in our second fiscal quarter to be very modest, and it may even be flat from the first quarter." ...