Bright outlook at Linthicum-based Ciena Corp.

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), May 1, 2007

Ciena Corp. was upgraded to "overweight" from "market weight" at Thomas Weisel Partners LLC, following an analyst's report that the Linthicum-based computer-networking equipment maker's revenue from optical networking devices may grow more than 35 percent in 2007 and 2008. AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., respectively the largest and second-largest U.S.

phone companies, and Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest U.S. wireless service, are all planning to increase spending on optical switching gear this year, according to analyst Hasan Imam. In addition, BT Group Plc, the U.K.'s largest phone company, is increasing purchases of Ciena optical switches, Imam wrote.