JDSU Goes To The ICU

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 3, 5:23AM EDT

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JDS Uniphase (JDSU) is supposed to be one of the leaders in the optical network equipment that is helping to drive high-speed network deployments by big telephone and cable companies. But, it may be time to bring out the crash carts and ambulances.

So there is not mistake, this is the company’s description of itself: "JDSU offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of optical communication components, modules, and subsystems applications throughout the network. This includes a full selection of both active and passive components as well as increasing levels of intelligence and integration in modules, circuit packs, and subsystems for telecommunications, data communications, and cable television."

Very weird. The peak of spending on the next generation of high-speed fiber broadband is supposedly going on now. Video traffic and software on demand were going to make enterprise optical deployments the next big thing.

But, it appears that JDSU has missed the bus. The company reported a loss in the most recent quarter with red ink hitting $14 million after making $4 million in the same quarter a year ago. Worse, the company guided for revenue to be $325 to $345 million in the current quarter. Wall St. expected $354 million.

JDSU shares dropped 9% after hours to $15.15. That means that the stock is approaching its 52-week low and is down about 50% from its high for that period.

If the company cannot do well in the current environment, it cannot do well at all. Period.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.