SEC Levels Fraud Charges at WorldCom The telecom teeters closer to the brink, as the SEC moves quickly to restore confidence. (more)

WorldCom Overstated $3.8B in Cash Flow
The disclosure of accounting improprieties puts the future of the reeling telecom giant in danger. (more)

Qwest Swaps At Heart of SEC Probe
As much as $1.4 billion in Qwest Communications fiber sales are under the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) microscope as part of an accounting probe begun last February. (more)

Ciena Completes ONI Acquisition
Job cuts at both companies to follow nearly $400 million stock swap transaction. (more)

CyberOptics Reduces Workforce by 20%
Minneapolis-based CyberOptics Corp. (Quote) said it would reduce approximately 20% of its worldwide workforce due to "persistently sluggish conditions in the electronics assembly and semiconductor capital equipment markets." Annualized savings from this workforce reduction are expected to total approximately $3.5 million. As a result, this measure will significantly reduce CyberOptics' breakeven cost structure and accelerate the company's return to profitability, officials said. A one-time charge related to this action will be incurred in the second quarter of 2002 ending June 30.

Steven M. Quist, CyberOptics CEO, said he is taking a 50% salary reduction to make a "personal contribution" to the company's cost-reduction effort.

Cisco's COMET Flies With Optical
The company addresses the needs of metropolitan-area optical networks with its new ONS 15530 DWDM and ONS 15454 SDH. (more)

Cisco Key To World's Largest Metro Ethernet Network
The networking equipment maker's products help connect more than 40 percent of Hong Kong's 2.1 million households at the same time. (more)

Venture Capital News

Santur Secures $23M In Second Round
Santur Corporation, a privately held vertically integrated optical components company, announced the completion of its second round of venture financing that netted $23 million. Thomas Weisel Venture Partners led the round, with all previous venture capital investors, including Sequoia Capital and Menlo Ventures, as well as strategic investors, contributing.

Santur will use the second-round capital to complete Telcordia qualification of its initial product - the TL1010-C tunable laser - as well as to accelerate product delivery and development of its tunable laser solutions.

Product News

3Com Adds GigE Switch
3Com Corp. (Quote) announced the 3Com Switch 4050, a high-performance Layer 3 switch designed to support 3Com's XRN technology unveiled in March. With a higher density of copper Gigabit ports than the Switch 4060 that has more fiber ports, the Switch 4050 offers all the benefits of high performance networking and ensures that users have secure access to all business applications at Gigabit performance. In addition, when the XRN Interconnect Kit ships later this year, the Switch 4050 will become part of 3Com's alternative "pay-as-you-grow" solution for building highly reliable enterprise LAN cores.

The Switch 4050 is a highly resilient LAN switch that offers high availability, high performance, secure, Layer 3 switching with advanced network management and Webcache support. 3Com offers a rich set of features that are aligned with enterprise customers' demands today. The Switch 4050 is priced at $15,995 and is currently scheduled to be available worldwide in July 2002.

Mindspeed Allows for Upgrades to OC-48 and OC-192
Mindspeed Technologies, the Internet infrastructure business of Conexant Systems Inc. (Quote), has introduced the industry's first CMOS octal serializer/deserializer (SerDes) transceiver that enables networking equipment manufacturers to offer their customers seamless system upgrades from OC-12 to OC-48 and OC-192 speeds.

The M27218 Octal SkyRail is the only transceiver that allows manufacturers to protect expensive investments in existing backplanes and port cards. It offers an adaptive high-speed interface between low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) and current-mode logic (CML), and the ability to operate at both 622Mbps (OC-12) and 2.488Gbps (OC-48).

The M27218 Octal SkyRail SerDes transceiver will sample in July and volume production will begin in the fourth quarter of 2002. Packaged in a 23mm-x-23mm, 324-pin HSFBGA, the M27218 OEM price is $109 in volumes of 1,000.

Other News

Sprint, Ciena in Optical Switching Deal
Ciena Corp. (Quote) announced that Sprint Corp. (Quote) has selected its optical switching solutions to enable the carrier to more cost-effectively operate its international network. Sprint has purchased and deployed Ciena's CoreDirector intelligent optical core switch in more than 20 cities in its international network, and has placed orders for Ciena's MetroDirector K2 metro switch for deployment this summer. (more)

LNG Holdings Markets Euro Networks to Americas Carriers
LNG Holdings SA (formerly FirstMark Communications Europe) and its subsidiary, LambdaNet Group, has announced plans to market its network reach, capacity and carrier services experience in Europe to telecommunications companies in the Americas. The company will target carriers that either have gaps in their own European coverage or do not have a European network -- yet have multi-national customers with operations in Europe.

LambdaNet Group operates a fiber network in Europe (22,000 km or 13,670 miles) with a footprint that extends to 104 cities in 10 countries, servicing more than 170 telecommunications customers. The LambdaNet network is fully operational in Germany (23 cities), France (17 cities) and Spain (56 cities) with several connections to major cities such as London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Copenhagen and Vienna. Prague will soon be integrated into the network.

LambdaNet's European customer base is said to be stable, serving a broad range of telecommunications operators (telcos, voice/access, mobile, ISP, ASP and CATV) including Vodaphone D2, Cable & Wireless and Telia. In recent days, LambdaNet said it has acquired more than 20 KPN/Qwest customers who were facing possible network loss as a result of that company's bankruptcy filing.

Finisar, Sumitomo Cross-License Optical Transceiver Technology
Finisar Corp. (Quote), a developer of gigabit fiber optic solutions for high-speed data networks, and optical fiber, cable and components supplier Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. (SEI) have signed a cross-licensing agreement covering certain intellectual properties in fiber optic transceivers that both companies own.