Ciena

“Networks continue to experience strong demand for increased bandwidth due to traffic growth, primarily driven by the impact of AI on networks. Impact of AI on Networks. Unprecedented AI workloads are driving substantial changes in how compute and networking infrastructure are designed and operated, and creating greater demands for high-speed connectivity.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Training large-scale AI and foundation models requires massive, coupled GPU clusters that require immense bandwidth, low latency, and power efficiency. These growing demands are influencing data center locations and contributing to greater geographic distribution of training workloads.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“At the same time, the need to monetize AI infrastructure investment and deploy models at scale is making inferencing a primary driver of low-latency, high-capacity networking investment across regions and edge locations, closer to end users. Collectively, these trends are accelerating demand for high bandwidth, low-latency and energy-efficient network solutions in and around data centers and across the wide area network.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Significant economic growth, and the unprecedented nature of AI related demand, can make it more difficult for us and our suppliers to accurately forecast demand and to set optimized levels of manufacturing capacity and inventory.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, the electro-optical component and semiconductor industries have been experiencing increased demand as a result of significant spending related to AI and other cloud-based applications, which has led to a constrained supply environment. These constraints have resulted, and could further result in shortages, extended lead times, or increased costs that adversely impact our revenue and gross margin.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The frequency and sophistication of cybersecurity events globally continues to increase, including through the use of AI, with companies in our industry particularly targeted given the nature of the products that we sell.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Strategy Our strategy is to build on and expand our global leadership in optical networking to drive sustainable, profitable growth while expanding our reach into complementary, high-growth markets and applications. We are focused on helping customers transform their networks to enable enhanced network capacity, service delivery, and automation and to meet accelerating demand for bandwidth and digital services. This strategy leverages our optical leadership, routing and switching capabilities, automation software, and services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Scale Market Presence with Interconnect Modules. A key element of our growth strategy is to expand our market relevance inside and around the data center. Accordingly, we are increasingly prioritizing technology development that addresses the interconnection of data centers (“DCI”) and data center campuses, as well as scale up, scale out, and scale across solutions that address intra-rack, inter-rack and inter-data center connectivity.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Drive Software-Led Transformation. We are committed to meeting network operators’ needs for increasing automation, programmability, and intelligence across networks, including through our primary off-box software platforms. Our Navigator NCS software, Adaptive IP capabilities embedded in our platforms, and Blue Planet® software enable network operators to automate lifecycle management, orchestrate across multi-vendor environments, and evolve toward service-ready networks.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“A key part of this strategy is to leverage our optical technology leadership and expand our addressable market into complementary and adjacent markets by investing in new technologies, including for applications inside and around the data center, and specifically for AI-driven use cases.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We regularly pursue initiatives to scale, transform and optimize our business operations and IT systems through the reengineering of certain processes and investment in automation, including the use of AI.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our solutions support network traffic across a wide range of applications, including cloud, voice, video, data, and artificial intelligence (“AI”).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Optical Networking. Our Optical Networking portfolio includes a range of products that use our WaveLogic coherent optical technology, intelligent photonics solutions and other key components, including lasers, modulators, optical amplifiers, and wavelength multiplexers for efficient signal transmission and management. These products are often combined and sold as solutions that address network applications including cloud and AI networking, datacenter interconnect, long haul, metro, submarine connectivity, and MOFN.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Revenue from this segment is included in product revenue on the Consolidated Statements of Operations. •Platform Software and Services revenue reflects sales of Ciena’s Platform Software and Platform Services. Table of Contents •Platform Software - includes Ciena’s Navigator Network Control SuiteTM domain controller solution and its applications, and legacy software solutions. •Platform Services - includes sales of subscription, support, and consulting services related to Ciena’s software platforms, operating system software and enhanced software features embedded in each of the Networking Platforms product lines above.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“•Blue Planet Automation Software and Services revenue reflects sales of Blue Planet Automation Software and Blue Planet Services. •Blue Planet Automation Software - includes inventory management, orchestration, route optimization and analysis, and unified assurance and analytics software. •Blue Planet Services - includes sales of subscription, installation, support, consulting and design services related to the Blue Planet Automation Platform.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Training large-scale AI and foundation models requires massive, coupled GPU clusters that require immense bandwidth, low latency, and power efficiency. These growing demands are influencing data center locations and contributing to greater geographic distribution of training workloads.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“At the same time, the need to monetize AI infrastructure investment and deploy models at scale is making inferencing a primary driver of low-latency, high-capacity networking investment across regions and edge locations, closer to end users. Collectively, these trends are accelerating demand for high bandwidth, low-latency and energy-efficient network solutions in and around data centers and across the wide area network.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“A significant portion of our revenue is concentrated among a small number of customers. For example, in fiscal 2025, our five largest customers contributed approximately 50% of our revenue, a cloud provider customer accounted for approximately 18% of our revenue, and a service provider accounted for approximately 11% of our revenue.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Scale Market Presence with Interconnect Modules. A key element of our growth strategy is to expand our market relevance inside and around the data center. Accordingly, we are increasingly prioritizing technology development that addresses the interconnection of data centers (“DCI”) and data center campuses, as well as scale up, scale out, and scale across solutions that address intra-rack, inter-rack and inter-data center connectivity.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“A key part of this strategy is to leverage our optical technology leadership and expand our addressable market into complementary and adjacent markets by investing in new technologies, including for applications inside and around the data center, and specifically for AI-driven use cases.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our solutions support network traffic across a wide range of applications, including cloud, voice, video, data, and artificial intelligence (“AI”).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Optical Networking. Our Optical Networking portfolio includes a range of products that use our WaveLogic coherent optical technology, intelligent photonics solutions and other key components, including lasers, modulators, optical amplifiers, and wavelength multiplexers for efficient signal transmission and management. These products are often combined and sold as solutions that address network applications including cloud and AI networking, datacenter interconnect, long haul, metro, submarine connectivity, and MOFN.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Industry and Market Customers We sell our product and service solutions through direct and indirect sales channels to the following customer and market segments: Table of Contents •Cloud Providers. Our cloud provider customers – also referred to in our markets as web-scale, hyper-scale or neo-scale providers – include internet content providers and providers of internet services and infrastructure, including data centers, cloud compute, Software as a Service (“SaaS”), storage, AI, and web hosting services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Ciena’s revenue from a certain cloud provider includes $851.6 million, $532.3 million, and $561.4 million for fiscal 2025, fiscal 2024, and fiscal 2023, respectively. The cloud provider purchased products from the Networking Platforms, Platform Software and Services, and Global Services operating segments for each of the periods presented.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, in fiscal 2025, our five largest customers contributed approximately 50% of our revenue, a cloud provider customer accounted for approximately 18% of our revenue, and a service provider accounted for approximately 11% of our revenue.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Business Overview We are a network technology company, providing hardware, software, and services to a wide range of network operators and enabling enhanced network capacity, service delivery, and automation.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Products and services at a point in time $ 3,493,492 $ 67,013 $ 21,842 $ 55,036 $ 3,637,383 Products and services transferred over time — 236,860 47,328 464,978 749,166 Total revenue by timing of revenue recognition $ 3,493,492 $ 303,873 $ 69,170 $ 520,014 $ 4,386,549 •Networking Platforms revenue reflects sales of Ciena’s Optical Networking and Routing and Switching product lines. •Optical Networking - includes the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, the Waveserver® system, the 6500 Reconfigurable Line System (RLS), coherent pluggable transceivers, and other optical networking products. •Routing and Switching - includes the 3000 family of service delivery platforms and 5000 family of service aggregation platforms, the 8100 Coherent IP networking platforms, virtualization software, and other routing and switching portfolio products.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition to their direct purchases, these customers have also been significant purchasers of capacity on service provider submarine and wireline networks globally, and have heavily influenced networking solution demand and technology and architecture adopted by service providers. •Service Providers. Our communications service provider (“service provider”) customers include regional, metro, national and international wireline and wireless carriers, submarine network operators, and access network providers.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Strategy Our strategy is to build on and expand our global leadership in optical networking to drive sustainable, profitable growth while expanding our reach into complementary, high-growth markets and applications. We are focused on helping customers transform their networks to enable enhanced network capacity, service delivery, and automation and to meet accelerating demand for bandwidth and digital services. This strategy leverages our optical leadership, routing and switching capabilities, automation software, and services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Drive Software-Led Transformation. We are committed to meeting network operators’ needs for increasing automation, programmability, and intelligence across networks, including through our primary off-box software platforms. Our Navigator NCS software, Adaptive IP capabilities embedded in our platforms, and Blue Planet® software enable network operators to automate lifecycle management, orchestrate across multi-vendor environments, and evolve toward service-ready networks.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We regularly pursue initiatives to scale, transform and optimize our business operations and IT systems through the reengineering of certain processes and investment in automation, including the use of AI.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“•Blue Planet Automation Software and Services revenue reflects sales of Blue Planet Automation Software and Blue Planet Services. •Blue Planet Automation Software - includes inventory management, orchestration, route optimization and analysis, and unified assurance and analytics software. •Blue Planet Services - includes sales of subscription, installation, support, consulting and design services related to the Blue Planet Automation Platform.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In recent years there has been a shift in bandwidth demands, traffic patterns, and computing functions to the edge of networks. Wireline service providers are responding to similar service and end customer demands by extending fiber to the home and deeper into access networks. With a higher percentage of data flows concentrating closer to the network edge, more capacity and higher bandwidth to home and enterprise locations are required. •Cloud-Based Services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Table of Contents Grow Addressable Market in Next-Generation Metro and Edge Networking. We are extending our solutions into metro and edge architectures by integrating Internet Protocol (“IP”) routing with coherent optical technologies. These solutions enable operators to achieve improved network effectiveness, including with respect to power and space, and reduce the total cost of ownership.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Products and services at a point in time $ 3,493,492 $ 67,013 $ 21,842 $ 55,036 $ 3,637,383 Products and services transferred over time — 236,860 47,328 464,978 749,166 Total revenue by timing of revenue recognition $ 3,493,492 $ 303,873 $ 69,170 $ 520,014 $ 4,386,549 •Networking Platforms revenue reflects sales of Ciena’s Optical Networking and Routing and Switching product lines. •Optical Networking - includes the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, the Waveserver® system, the 6500 Reconfigurable Line System (RLS), coherent pluggable transceivers, and other optical networking products. •Routing and Switching - includes the 3000 family of service delivery platforms and 5000 family of service aggregation platforms, the 8100 Coherent IP networking platforms, virtualization software, and other routing and switching portfolio products.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Revenue also includes $500.7 million, $475.3 million, and $464.7 million from AT&T for fiscal 2025, fiscal 2024, and fiscal 2023, respectively. AT&T purchased products and services from each of Ciena’s operating segments for each of the periods presented.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Table of Contents Grow Addressable Market in Next-Generation Metro and Edge Networking. We are extending our solutions into metro and edge architectures by integrating Internet Protocol (“IP”) routing with coherent optical technologies. These solutions enable operators to achieve improved network effectiveness, including with respect to power and space, and reduce the total cost of ownership.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Significant economic growth, and the unprecedented nature of AI related demand, can make it more difficult for us and our suppliers to accurately forecast demand and to set optimized levels of manufacturing capacity and inventory.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, the electro-optical component and semiconductor industries have been experiencing increased demand as a result of significant spending related to AI and other cloud-based applications, which has led to a constrained supply environment. These constraints have resulted, and could further result in shortages, extended lead times, or increased costs that adversely impact our revenue and gross margin.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our sourcing strategy focuses on control over supplier selection and commercial terms for significant inputs into our products. Our manufacturers and component distribution partners procure components necessary for assembly and manufacture of our products based on our specifications. We work closely with these partners and our suppliers to manage forecasts, material, quality, cost and delivery times, and inventory levels.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our products include optical and electronic components for which reliable, high-volume supply is often available only from sole or limited sources.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Communications technologies, given their capability to transmit sensitive information, have frequently been the target of threat actors, including nation states and other malicious parties, and we expect these threats to increase with the growing prevalence of AI.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The frequency and sophistication of cybersecurity events globally continues to increase, including through the use of AI, with companies in our industry particularly targeted given the nature of the products that we sell.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Increased regulation of product security, cybersecurity and data practices could adversely affect our business and results of operations We operate in a regulatory environment that is rapidly evolving with respect to product security, cybersecurity, and the collection, use, and retention of data. Governments around the world continue to adopt new, and expand existing, laws and regulations imposing heightened requirements on companies related to these topics.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Ciena relies on a small number of contract manufacturers to perform the majority of the manufacturing for its products. If Ciena cannot effectively manage these manufacturers or forecast future demand, or if these manufacturers fail to deliver products or components on time, Ciena’s business and results of operations may suffer.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Increasing tensions between the United States and China—including tariffs, export controls, investment restrictions, and evolving data security or technology transfer requirements—could disrupt our supply chain. Any escalation of these tensions, or similar geopolitical volatility in other regions, could result in reduced demand, increased costs, supply shortages, product delays or other adverse consequences to our business and operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Increasing tensions between the United States and China—including tariffs, export controls, investment restrictions, and evolving data security or technology transfer requirements—could disrupt our supply chain. Any escalation of these tensions, or similar geopolitical volatility in other regions, could result in reduced demand, increased costs, supply shortages, product delays or other adverse consequences to our business and operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Tariffs recently implemented that have impacted or could materially impact our business include tariffs on U.S. imports: •from Canada and Mexico, as products making up a significant portion of our revenue are manufactured in or distributed from Mexico, and we generally introduce new products and conduct related early volume manufacturing in Canada; •of steel, aluminum, and copper, including derivative goods that include certain of our products; •from China, as our supply chain includes certain China-based suppliers; and •from a wide range of countries globally, including Thailand and Vietnam, where we also rely on third-party manufacturing operations for a significant portion of our revenue.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Enterprises and consumers continue to replace locally-housed computing and storage by adopting a broad array of innovative cloud-based models – including Platform as a Service (PaaS), SaaS and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – and an expanding range of cloud-based services that host key applications, store data, enable the viewing and downloading of content, and utilize on-demand computing resources. In addition, content is increasingly moving to the network edge, creating capacity and traffic demands closer to the user.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Traffic from mobile web applications, including video, internet, and data services, has expanded with the continued proliferation of smartphones and other wireless devices. Because much of wireless traffic ultimately travels across a wireline network to reach its destination, growth in mobile communications continues to place higher demands upon wireline networks, including the backhaul and fronthaul portions of networks emanating from cell sites. •High Definition Video Streaming and Over-the-Top (“OTT”) Services.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“OTT content refers to video, multimedia and other applications provided directly from the content source to the viewer or end user across a third-party network. Traffic from streaming and OTT services, including high definition and ultra-high definition video, has expanded with the increased availability of, and end-user demand for, video content accessible through a variety of devices and media.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Competition is particularly intense in certain geographies where we have research and development centers and in certain technology areas where we are looking to expand our business.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Operations and Supply Chain Management Our product manufacturing strategy is designed to support capabilities closer to our product engineering teams during product introduction and manufacturing in lower labor cost regions for volume. We rely upon third-party contract manufacturers, including those with facilities in Canada, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States, to perform design and prototype development, and to manufacture, support, and ship our products.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our technology solutions are developed, marketed, sold, and supported by our global workforce of 9,080 employees as of November 1, 2025, approximately 98% of whom were full-time employees. We have a broad base of talent in 39 countries, with approximately 56% in the Americas, 36% in APAC, and 8% in EMEA, the majority of whom are in engineering, operations, or sales roles.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The current global macroeconomic environment is volatile and can be adversely impacted by exchange rates, interest rates, inflation, public health emergencies, natural disasters and geopolitical trends adversely impacting customer spending, global supply chains, and component costs, any of which could also have an adverse impact on us.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“These investments are sensitive to interest rate movements, and their fair value will decline as interest rates rise and increase as interest rates fall.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our business and results of operations are exposed to movements in foreign currency exchange rates. Some of our transactions are non-U.S. Dollar denominated, with the Euro, Indian Rupee, and Canadian Dollar being our most significant foreign currency revenue exposures.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“During fiscal 2025, 9.9% of revenue was non-U.S. Dollar denominated.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Moreover, AI technology is subject to rapidly evolving domestic and international laws and regulations, including executive orders by the U.S. government and the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, which could impose significant costs and obligations on the Company.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The current global macroeconomic environment is volatile and can be adversely impacted by exchange rates, interest rates, inflation, public health emergencies, natural disasters and geopolitical trends adversely impacting customer spending, global supply chains, and component costs, any of which could also have an adverse impact on us.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Enterprises and consumers continue to replace locally-housed computing and storage by adopting a broad array of innovative cloud-based models – including Platform as a Service (PaaS), SaaS and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – and an expanding range of cloud-based services that host key applications, store data, enable the viewing and downloading of content, and utilize on-demand computing resources. In addition, content is increasingly moving to the network edge, creating capacity and traffic demands closer to the user.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The current global macroeconomic environment is volatile and can be adversely impacted by exchange rates, interest rates, inflation, public health emergencies, natural disasters and geopolitical trends adversely impacting customer spending, global supply chains, and component costs, any of which could also have an adverse impact on us.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our business and results of operations are exposed to movements in foreign currency exchange rates. Some of our transactions are non-U.S. Dollar denominated, with the Euro, Indian Rupee, and Canadian Dollar being our most significant foreign currency revenue exposures.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Commencing in fiscal 2026, GCE will be organized around the following customers and geographies: (i) global cloud and content networking customers; (ii) the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America (“Americas”); (iii) Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”); and (iv) Asia Pacific, Japan and India (“APAC”).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Due to our concentration of revenue in the United States, we would expect to incur a more significant impact from any change impacting the capital spending environment or causing market weakness in the United States.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our revenue is concentrated, with approximately 72% of our revenue in fiscal 2025 coming from the United States.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For the periods indicated, Ciena’s geographic distribution of revenue was as follows (in thousands): Geographic distribution: Americas $ 3,606,407 $ 2,951,915 $ 3,110,347 EMEA 731,912 648,870 643,142 APAC 431,188 414,170 633,060 Total revenue by geographic distribution $ 4,769,507 $ 4,014,955 $ 4,386,549 Ciena’s revenue includes United States revenue of $3.4 billion for fiscal 2025, and $2.8 billion for both fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2023.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Commencing in fiscal 2026, GCE will be organized around the following customers and geographies: (i) global cloud and content networking customers; (ii) the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America (“Americas”); (iii) Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”); and (iv) Asia Pacific, Japan and India (“APAC”).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For the periods indicated, Ciena’s geographic distribution of revenue was as follows (in thousands): Geographic distribution: Americas $ 3,606,407 $ 2,951,915 $ 3,110,347 EMEA 731,912 648,870 643,142 APAC 431,188 414,170 633,060 Total revenue by geographic distribution $ 4,769,507 $ 4,014,955 $ 4,386,549 Ciena’s revenue includes United States revenue of $3.4 billion for fiscal 2025, and $2.8 billion for both fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2023.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Commencing in fiscal 2026, GCE will be organized around the following customers and geographies: (i) global cloud and content networking customers; (ii) the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America (“Americas”); (iii) Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”); and (iv) Asia Pacific, Japan and India (“APAC”).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself