Ciena Corp Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: David Vogt - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Analyst : Great. Can you maybe talk about what you're seeing directly from web scale? What's sort of driving sort of this inflection that you're speaking of from an orders perspective? Is it just under investment and optimization that's been sort of transpiring for the last 4 to 6 quarters? Or is it maybe AI related or a combination of maybe the digestion in AI? I just would love to get some more color on what you're seeing there in terms of the order inflection and then why you think maybe [SPE] orders follow closely thereafter from an inflection point perspective. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 31, 2023 / 12:30PM, CIEN.N - Q3 2023 Ciena Corp Earnings Call

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : I have a couple. But maybe if I can start with the growth outlook or just the comments that you made that next year will be a growth year. And not to get into specifics, but how much of that confidence should I interpret as coming from recent uptick that you're seeing in cloud orders? Or is there confidence given sort of the activity you're seeing outside the Tier 1 telcos as well, the telco as well as the vertical grows next year? Any thoughts around that, please? And then I have a quick follow-up.

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. Great. And Jim, I guess the follow-up was for you in terms of -- you're sticking to your 10% to 12% 3-year outlook, which sort of means that generally, the other parts of that plan should hold. When we think about inventory that you want to carry through that plan, how does that compare to what you were sort of carrying pre-pandemic, which was more like $300 million or so and right now, you're tracking by the end of the year, about $900 million plus? So how are you thinking about like, is that plan still intact to get back to a pre-pandemic level? Or how do you want to plan around inventory exiting that window?