industry telecommunications equipment founded 1992 ; 24 years ago 1992 headquarters hanover maryland united states key people patrick nettles executive chairman gary smith president and ceo products networking systems and products revenue 2.3 billion usd net income 40 million usd number of employees 5200 website www.ciena.com 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 . 1 the company was founded in 1992 2 and is headquartered in hanover maryland . 3 ciena sells products and services across four segments converged packet optical packet networking optical transport and software & services . 4 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 . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 market downturn and diversification 1.2 the network specialist 2 ciena s acquisition history 3 references 4 external links history edit ciena was founded by david huber kevin kimberlin and optelecom to find ways to increase the capacity to design optical networking tech anagogic communication . 6 7 8 in 1994 sevin rosen invested 3.3 million in ciena s series a venture financing . 9 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 . 10 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 . 8 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 . 11 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 . 9 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 . 12 by 2001 ciena had achieved annual revenues of 1.6 billion and a marketing capitalization of nearly 30 billion . 13 despite setbacks along the way ciena continued to grow over the next few years by both introducing new products and by acquiring companies such as lightera optical switches and omnia local access equipment . with a broader product line ciena s customer base had grown from a small handful to 27 companies as network operators continued building their systems . 14 in 2000 ciena announced the multiwave metro optical transport solution which allowed metropolitan area networks to deliver particular frequencies to individual customer premises . by june 2000 ciena s stock had soared to 120 per share giving it a market capitalization exceeding 30 billion . sales of the company s new line of products prompted the investor optimism though some analysts were beginning to wonder whether the u.s. fiber optic network had been overbuilt . the customer list continued to grow as it approached 50 names . 14 market downturn and diversification edit during 2001 the telecommunications market went through a severe downturn and the segment that included ciena s optical networking equipment fell by nearly 2 3 to 9.1 billion and in 2002 ciena s revenues had declined 80 % to 361 million . 15 to address the firm s challenges gary smith previously president and head of sales was named ceo in may 2001 and patrick nettles ceo since 1994 became executive chairman . gary smith ciena ceo over the next few years ciena re grouped by expanding its product portfolio to include a broader range of advanced networking solutions including optical switching new generation hybrid gear and ethernet technologies . ciena accomplished its diversification effort with internal development as well as a series of acquisitions and strategic partnerships . by 2004 ciena had purchased a total of 11 firms half prior to the downturn with an aggregate value of over 3.3 billion . 16 with a broader range of offerings ciena was able both to offer its existing customers a wider range of solutions as well as compete for new customers in additional segments and regions . the network specialist edit in late 2004 ciena refreshed its branding with the tag line the network specialist 14 to reflect additional capabilities in optical transport and switching . ciena s diversification strategy and numerous acquisitions were accompanied by its ability to integrate new products and technology advances . this success was in contrast to many of its rivals such as nortel alcatel lucent and others that struggled . 16 ciena s acquisition history edit company acquired closed date approximate value us million cyan 000000002015 08 03 0000aug 3 2015 400 nortel metro ethernet networks 000000002010 03 19 0000mar 19 2010 774 world wide packets 000000002008 03 03 0000mar 3 2008 296 internet photonics 000000002004 05 03 0000may 3 2004 100 catena networks 000000002004 05 03 0000may 3 2004 314 akara 000000002003 09 03 0000sep 3 2003 46 wavesmith networks 000000002003 06 13 0000june 13 2003 178 oni systems 000000002002 06 21 0000june 21 2002 398 cyras 000000002001 03 29 0000mar 29 2001 1 100 omnia communications 000000001999 07 01 0000july 1 1999 474 lightera networks 000000001999 03 31 0000mar 31 1999 464 terabit 000000001998 04 22 0000apr 22 1998 12 alta telecom 000000001998 02 19 0000feb 19 1998 52 astracom 000000001997 12 17 0000dec 17 1997 13 in 2010 ciena bought from nortel networks its optical networking and carrier ethernet business for 774 million . this acquisition doubled ciena s size and increased its customer base to over 1000 . 17 on may 4 2015 ciena announced a definitive agreement to acquire cyan . 18 the cyan acquisition was completed on august 3 2015 19 references edit morgenson gretchen . ciena corporation . companies . new york times . archived from the original on 24 november 2009 . retrieved 24 november 2009 . history of ciena pdf . ciena corp moving hq to station ridge in hanover . citybizlist baltimore . citybizlist . ciena reports fiscal first quarter 2013 financial results . ciena corp. ciena 2012 annual report pdf . ciena corp. http 1lwww . sec.goviarchives edgar data 936395 0000950 133 96 00 2787.txt http online.wsj . com article sb89701 0328374193000 . html a b http www.ciena.com about newsroom press releases sprint boosts fiber optic network capacity 1600 percent.html a b mack toni 6 october 1997 . forbes http www.forbes.com forbes 1997 1006 6007070 a.html . missing or empty title help https aresu.dsi.cnrs.fr img pdf dwdm ciena.pdf http articles.baltimoresun.com 1998 08 16 news 1998228038 1 ciena corp nettles general instrument henry mary july 30 1997 ciena corporation breaking the bandwidth barrier goldman sachs u.s. research report http ciena.com a b c http www.fundinguniverse.com company histories ciena corporation history history of ciena ciena corp. retrieved nov. 1 2013 from ciena website a b moritz scott march 7 2008 ciena s secret weapon diversification forbes magazine retrieved nov. 13 2013 smith gary june 9 2012 tenacity and teamwork the new york times retrieved nov. 13 2013 ciena website . retrieved dec 13 2014 1 . retrieved september 25th 2015 external links edit official site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ciena & oldid 737982892 categories cienacompanies listed on the new york stock exchangecompanies formerly listed on nasdaqcompanies based in anne arundel county marylandcompanies based in marylandnetworking companies of the united statesnetworking hardware companiestelecommunications equipment vendorscompanies established in 1992hidden categories pages with citations lacking titlespages with citations having bare urlsuse dmy dates from january 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated 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