Sycamore Networks Continues Struggle With Sales

Sycamore Networks, once one of the highest flying of the nation's high flying networking companies, reported continuing sales declines and widening net losses in its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2008.

The provider of intelligent bandwidth management solutions for both fixed line and mobile network operators, Sycamore said its revenue in the fourth quarter was $15.1 million -- down from $38 million in the fourth quarter in the previous year. The net loss was $14.1 million versus $6.1 million in the previous year's quarter.

"Sycamore had a disappointing fourth quarter and lower than expected annual revenue results," said Daniel E. Smith, Sycamore's president and chief executive officer, in a statement "We believe the investments we are making to expand our solutions offerings will be effective in positioning Sycamore for long-term success as market demand for more intelligent, packet-capable optical networking equipment evolves in the coming years"

For the full year ended July 31, Sycamore reported Friday that its revenue was $115.5 million in fiscal 2008 compared with $156.0 million in fiscal 2007.

In July, Sycamore said its SN 9000 Intelligent Multiservice Switch successfully completed interoperability tests overseen by the US Defense information Systems Agency (DISA) Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC). The firm noted that US Department of Defense networks that are earmarked for DOD use require JITC approval. The SN 9000 is aimed at use in the 80-320 Gbps bandwidth range.

Also in July, the company said it had settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over issues involving its historical stock option granting practices. The company neither admitted not denied the SEC allegations. Sycamore also said that no monetary penalties were leveled against it in connection with the settlement.