Avanex Updates Outlook for Financial Results

FREMONT, Calif., March 1 -- Avanex Corp., designer of photonic processors that accelerate the deployment of optical networks, announced a revised outlook for the third fiscal quarter ending March 30, 2001, for fiscal year 2001 and for calendar year 2001.
    The company announced that it expects sales in the third quarter of fiscal year 2001 to be about $41 million (compared to $10.5 million in the third fiscal quarter of 2000) and pro forma diluted earnings per share to be $0.02 to $0.03 (compared to a loss of $0.04 in the third fiscal quarter of 2000). Avanex expects gross margins in the quarter to be about 46.5 percent as a result of the revision in revenue estimates.
    For fiscal year 2001, Avanex now expects revenues of about $169 million (compared to $41 million in fiscal year 2000) and pro forma diluted earnings per share to be $0.15-$0.16 (compared to a loss of $0.11). For calendar year 2001, the company expects revenues of about $200 million (compared to $113 million in calendar year 2000) and pro forma diluted earnings per share to be $0.20-$0.21 (compared to EPS of $0.05).
    "Orders for our more mature product line, PowerFilter, have been temporarily impacted by the carriers' lower spending on legacy systems, even though we continue to see significant increases in international orders, in orders for our next-generation products and in the number of customers we serve," said Walter Alessandrini, Avanex chairman and CEO.
    Alessandrini said that the company expects its next-generation PowerMux and PowerExchanger to represent over 70 percent of revenues in its third quarter, compared to about 45 percent in the second quarter, while international sales will grow to over 50 percent of revenues as compared to about 20 percent in the second quarter. The company also expects to add a new 10 percent customer, Alcatel, in its third quarter.