Ciena Announces Strategic Global Agreement with Ericsson

Best-of-breed converged packet-optical and IP solutions to be delivered globally Industry leaders to collaborate on accelerating adoption of SDN-based open architectures

HANOVER, Md. — 02/14/2014

Ciena^® Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings), the network specialist, and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC, news, filings), a world-leading provider of telecommunications equipment and services to mobile and fixed network operators, today announced a strategic global agreement that includes packet-optical distribution, converged IP/optical joint development and distribution as well as an SDN collaboration framework.

Ericsson brings to Ciena a wide range of strategic relationships with global service providers, a strong position in wireless infrastructure and evolved packet-core solutions, and a worldwide professional services organization. Ericsson benefits from Ciena’s best-in-class innovation and packet-optical expertise resulting from years of deep customer relationships across a wide range of network domains.

Ericsson will offer Ciena’s Converged Packet Optical portfolio, including the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform and 5400 family, to deliver a broader set of infrastructure solutions as customers migrate to new converged network architectures. In addition, Ciena’s WaveLogic coherent optical technology will be integrated into Ericsson’s IP portfolio, creating a solution that allows customers to seamlessly interoperate routers with Ciena’s industry-leading photonics.

Ciena and Ericsson are committed to accelerating the availability of open, programmable, software-defined networks. Under a collaboration framework, the companies will seek to leverage their combined resources and expertise with plans to jointly develop and co-market service provider SDN technology.

“The strategic agreement combines Ciena’s and Ericsson’s strengths in the development of an open SDN network for converged IP and Optical transport,” said Jan Häglund, Vice President and Head of Product Area IP & Broadband, Ericsson. “The re-seller agreement will allow Ericsson to complement our 4^th Generation IP portfolio with Ciena’s industry-leading packet-optical products. This will create an even stronger offering to our customers.”

“Consistent with our OPⁿ network architecture for intelligent network evolution, the industry is moving toward an ecosystem of more specialized players as the transformation accelerates toward open, programmable, multi-vendor networks that scale and adapt to network-level applications and services,” said Gary Smith, President and CEO, Ciena. “Together, Ciena and Ericsson will bring best-in-class solutions to customers around the globe to better address the evolving requirements for software-driven, converged networks.”

Live Conference Call / Web Broadcast

Ciena will host a conference call today, Friday, February 14, 2014 at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern), with investors and financial analysts to discuss the strategic global agreement with Ericsson. The live broadcast will be available via Ciena’s homepage at http://www.ciena.com/. An archived version will be available shortly following the conclusion of the live broadcast on the Investor Relations page of Ciena’s website at: http://investor.ciena.com.

About Ciena
Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they perform and compete. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with its OPⁿ architecture for next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. For updates on Ciena news, follow us on Twitter @Ciena or on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/company/ciena. Investors are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website at www.ciena.com/investors, where we routinely post press releases, SEC filings, recent news, financial results, and other announcements. From time to time we exclusively post material information to this website along with other disclosure channels that we use.

Note to Ciena Investors
Forward-looking statements. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof; and Ciena’s actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties associated with its business, which include the risk factors disclosed in its Report on Form 10-K, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 20, 2013. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena’s expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “should,” “will,” and “would” or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investor Contacts:
Gregg Lampf
Ciena Corporation
(877) 243 6273
ir@ciena.com

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