Back to GetFilings.com



Table of Contents

 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 


 

FORM 10-K

 


 

(Mark One)

 

  x ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)

OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the fiscal year ended July 31, 2003

 

OR

 

  ¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)

OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the transition period from                              to                             

 

Commission File Number: 000-27273

 


 

SYCAMORE NETWORKS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 


 

Delaware   04-3410558

(State or other jurisdiction of

incorporation or organization)

 

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification No.)

 

220 Mill Road

Chelmsford, Massachusetts 01824

(Address of principal executive office)

 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (978) 250-2900

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: NONE

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

COMMON STOCK $0.001 PAR VALUE

(Title of class)

 


 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x        No  ¨.

 

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K  x.

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  x        No  ¨.

 

As of September 30, 2003 there were 272,072,352 shares outstanding of the registrant’s common stock, $0.001 par value. As of January 25, 2003, the aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $529,822,000.

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

 

PART III—Portions of the definitive Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on December 18, 2003 are incorporated by reference into Part III (Items 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14) to this Form 10-K.

 



Table of Contents

PART I

 

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

 

We incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware on February 17, 1998 and shipped our first product in May 1999. We completed our initial public offering on October 21, 1999 and a follow-on public offering on March 14, 2000. Our principal executive offices are located at 220 Mill Road, Chelmsford, Massachusetts 01824. Our telephone number is (978) 250-2900, and our website address is www.sycamorenet.com. We provide our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports free of charge on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we file these reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

Overview

 

Sycamore develops and markets optical networking products for telecommunications service providers worldwide. Our current and prospective customers include domestic and international large, established telecommunications service providers (sometimes referred to as incumbent service providers), Internet service providers, non-traditional telecommunications service providers, newer start-up service providers (sometimes referred to as emerging service providers), systems integrators, governments and enterprise organizations with private fiber networks. We believe that our products enable service providers to easily and cost-effectively transition their existing fiber optic network into a network infrastructure that can provision, manage and deliver economic, high-bandwidth services to their customers.

 

While the growth of the Internet and the deregulation of the telecommunications industry continue to drive an increase in data traffic on service provider networks, in fiscal 2001 the telecommunications industry began a severe decline which has impacted telecommunications equipment suppliers, including Sycamore. Total revenue for fiscal 2003 was $38.3 million, a decrease of 41% compared to fiscal 2002. Total revenue for fiscal 2002 was $65.2 million, a decrease of 83% compared to fiscal 2001. The decline in the telecommunications industry has continued into fiscal 2004, impeding our ability to secure additional customers and causing current customers’ purchases to decline. The decrease in the demand for our products has resulted in an adverse impact on our revenue and profitability.

 

In response to the telecommunications industry downturn, we enacted three separate restructuring programs through the fourth quarter of fiscal 2002. As part of our fourth quarter fiscal 2002 restructuring program, we discontinued the development of our standalone transport products and focused our business exclusively on optical switching products. As a result of our restructuring programs we have incurred net charges totaling $402.4 million, comprised as follows: $175.1 million of net charges related to excess inventory, $202.5 million of net charges for restructuring and related asset impairments, and $24.8 million of losses on investments, as described in detail in Note 10 to our consolidated financial statements.

 

Throughout the telecommunications industry downturn, we have maintained a significant cost structure, particularly within the research and development, sales and customer service organizations. We believe this cost structure is necessary to develop, market and sell our products to our current and prospective customers. As a result of the adverse market conditions, our restructuring programs and our decision to maintain a significant cost structure, our net losses for fiscal 2003 and 2002 were $55.1 million and $379.7 million, respectively, and we have incurred a cumulative net loss of $736.2 million as of July 31, 2003.

 

In fiscal 2004, we expect to continue to focus exclusively on the optical switching market and expand our customer base. We will continue to balance cash management with strategic investments in the business and incur operating losses as a result of maintaining a significant cost structure.

 

2


Table of Contents

Industry Background

 

Industry Trends

 

The world’s telecommunications infrastructure is largely supported by fiber optic networks primarily owned and operated by service providers. Following deregulation and privatization in the global telecommunications industry, there were many new entrants into the service provider market. Emerging service providers built networks and began competing with incumbent service providers in an effort to accommodate rapid traffic growth and projected growth on the public network. At the same time, readily available capital further fueled the growth in the number of service providers. Many equipment vendors offered substantial vendor financing to service providers as an inducement to build their networks. These events created significant demand for networking equipment.

 

During fiscal 2001, access to capital decreased and in response service providers began curtailing their network build-outs. Within a short time period, service providers dramatically reduced their overall capital spending. Equipment vendors also ceased providing vendor financing, which further decreased available capital. As a result, there was a slowdown in service provider equipment purchases and a sharp decline in demand for networking equipment. During this time period, several service providers failed and a number of them sought bankruptcy protection. At the same time, however, service providers looked to new optical products to help them more efficiently expand their networks to handle the increased traffic load while also managing their spending and expenses.

 

Optical networking

 

Despite the telecommunications industry’s economic difficulties, data traffic on the public telecommunications network continues to increase with the widespread use of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Consumers and businesses increasingly use the Internet for applications such as electronic mail, electronic commerce, and other voice, video and data services. This growth is expected to increase the demand for capacity, or bandwidth, at all levels of the public network.

 

We believe that a service provider’s competitive advantage and differentiation comes from its ability to provide bandwidth when and where needed and to create and offer new services quickly and cost effectively. Given the economic decline in the telecommunications industry, we believe that service providers want to minimize their capital expenditures, lower their operating costs and improve the profitability of their voice and data services.

 

Most service providers own and operate traditional optical networks designed primarily to support voice traffic. These traditional optical networks have a number of limitations on a service provider’s ability to offer services which provide a competitive advantage due to the following factors:

 

  Networks initially designed for voice traffic. Service providers initially built and operated their traditional optical networks to transmit voice traffic using specialized equipment and sophisticated operational processes. As a result, these traditional optical networks cannot easily or cost-effectively accommodate the growing levels of data traffic across the network.

 

  Inefficient utilization of network capacity. In traditional optical networks, only one half of the available capacity is used for delivering services. The other half remains idle in the event of a network failure. This traditional architecture supports the high-availability requirements of traditional voice services, but is inefficient for data traffic, which is more dynamic in nature and does not always require the same level of protection.

 

  Expensive to build and operate. Building traditional optical networks is a capital-intensive process, and requires the interconnection and management of multiple network devices. These separate devices require substantial space and power, and increase the cost and complexity of network operations.

 

3


Table of Contents
  Time consuming, complex service delivery. In traditional optical networks, the delivery of high-speed services is a highly complex, labor-intensive process that requires a highly skilled workforce and can take months to complete.

 

  Difficult and expensive network expansion. Adding or changing high-speed services in traditional optical networks is difficult and expensive. As a result, service providers cannot quickly or cost-effectively respond to unplanned changes in their customers’ demand or accommodate rapid increases in data network traffic.

 

  Limited ability to offer new services. Traditional optical network services are optimized for voice, not data. The inefficient nature of traditional optical networks limits the types of high-speed services that can be offered to customers. In addition, the high cost of creating and managing high-speed services in traditional optical networks impacts a service provider’s market competitiveness.

 

The Sycamore Solution

 

Sycamore’s intelligent optical switching solutions enable service providers to transition from inefficient, voice-centric networks to more efficient, data-optimized networks. The Company believes that its advanced hardware capabilities and software allow service providers to transform their existing network infrastructure into an intelligent network that enables them to provision, manage, and deliver communications services to their customers. We believe that our fully integrated, edge-to-core intelligent optical switching products reduce service providers’ capital and operating costs, simplify network operations, and provide the foundation for a new generation of optical network services.

 

  Improved network design. Using our expertise in optical technology, network management, data networking, and advanced hardware and software systems design, we develop innovative optical switching products that lower the costs of building and managing optical networks, and optimize the network for the growing level of data traffic.

 

  Improved utilization of network capacity. Our fully integrated optical switching products exchange real-time information about network traffic to enable better utilization of otherwise idle capacity, improve network efficiencies, and adapt more dynamically to data traffic patterns.

 

  Cost-effective solution. Our products replace multiple traditional networking devices with a single, compact intelligent optical switching system which simplifies the network architecture. Our products are designed to reduce initial capital expenditures and ongoing operating costs and simplify the management of network services.

 

  Rapid service delivery. Our optical switching products enable service providers to rapidly deliver high-speed services, simplify operational procedures and automate labor-intensive provisioning and network management processes. In some cases the time it takes service providers to deliver revenue-generating services to their customers is decreased from months to nearly real-time.

 

  Easy network expansion. Our optical switching products enable service providers to easily and cost-effectively increase bandwidth when and where needed. In addition, the ability of our optical switches to communicate real-time information enables the network to quickly respond to rapid increases in data-oriented network traffic.

 

  Creation of new services. Our products enable service providers to create new high-speed services and deliver such services more cost-effectively and efficiently. As a result, service providers can generate new sources of revenue and further differentiate their high-speed service offerings.

 

  Compatible with existing network devices. We designed our standards-based products to be compatible with existing network devices, enabling service providers to protect their traditional network investments while easily and cost-effectively transitioning to a more flexible and efficient high-speed service infrastructure. In addition, we offer comprehensive network management, planning and administration software that communicates with existing network management systems through common standards.

 

  Complete optical networking solution. Our optical switching product portfolio, along with our comprehensive management capabilities, is designed to enable service providers to extend the benefits of intelligent optical networking from the edge to the core of the network.

 

4


Table of Contents

Sycamore’s Strategy

 

Our objective is to be a leading provider of intelligent optical networking products. Throughout the telecommunications industry decline, Sycamore’s strategy has been focused on balancing strategic investment in the business with our efforts to carefully manage operating costs and preserve our cash position. We continue to invest significant amounts in research and development in order to continue to deliver innovative optical networking solutions and to reduce the manufacturing costs of our products. We are also investing in our sales and customer service infrastructure, which we believe is necessary to sell to and support our current and prospective customers. While we continue to invest in these areas of the business, we also continue to focus on cost management and cash preservation. Key elements of our strategy include the following:

 

  Expand our customer base domestically and internationally. We intend to actively pursue additional new customers both domestically and internationally, while continuing to expand our relationships with existing customers. While the telecommunications industry decline has impacted our ability to secure new customers, we believe that data traffic growth will cause service providers to seek optical networking solutions that will optimize network capacity and transition their networks toward a more flexible and data-optimized infrastructure.

 

  Target incumbent service providers. Our sales and marketing efforts focus primarily on incumbent service providers. Since incumbent service providers have the largest fiber optic infrastructure, we believe that our intelligent optical networking solutions offer them the most cost-effective way to expand and operate their networks and offer new revenue-generating services. We also focus our efforts on selling our products to systems integrators who in turn target governments and, to a limited extent, large enterprise customers.

 

  Maintain research and development investment. We believe that continued investment in research and development is necessary in order to continue to provide innovative optical networking solutions that meet our current and prospective customers’ needs. In order to provide such products to our customers, we believe we must make significant and sustained investment in research and development. We believe that this investment in research and development is necessary even during periods when our revenue has declined as a result of the decreased demand for telecommunications equipment.

 

  Maintain sales and customer service investment. We believe that continued investment in sales and customer service is necessary in order to expand and support our customer base both domestically and internationally. We believe that ongoing sales and customer service is critical to successful long-term relationships with, and follow-on sales to, our current and prospective customers.

 

  Pursue strategic relationships and acquisitions. We will pursue strategic relationships with telecommunications equipment providers to expand our access to a broader set of customers around the world. We believe that such strategic relationships may address portions of the market that we cannot reach with our own sales force without significant investment of time and resources. In addition, we may also pursue acquisitions of companies that have innovative technologies that are complementary to our intelligent optical switching products.

 

  Manage costs and preserve cash. We believe that our cash position with no long-term debt differentiates us from our competition. While we continue to invest in strategic areas of the business, we also continue to focus on cost management and cash preservation.

 

  Outsource manufacturing. We outsource the manufacturing of our products and purchase key components from third parties. Outsourcing enables us to reduce expenses and focus on our core competencies such as product development, sales and customer service.

 

  Drive demand for new services. We work collaboratively with our customers to help them identify and create new services for their end-user customers. Our professional and customer service teams provide assistance in such areas as network planning, design and implementation to facilitate the introduction of these services. By helping our customers to create new services, we help generate additional revenue opportunities for our customers and enhance the value proposition of our products.

 

5


Table of Contents

Sycamore’s Intelligent Optical Networking Products

 

Sycamore’s intelligent optical networking product portfolio includes fully integrated edge and core optical switching products, network management products, and network design and planning tools.

 

Intelligent optical switching. Our family of intelligent optical switches, including the SN 16000 SC, the SN 16000 and the SN 3000, are designed to enable service providers to provision and manage network bandwidth more efficiently in the metropolitan, regional, and core segments of the optical network. The SN 16000 SC is a single chassis system that provides optimal traffic management for the metropolitan and regional segments of the network. The SN 16000 is a multi-chassis system that provides optimal traffic management at the core of the optical network. The SN 3000 provides optimal traffic management in metropolitan networks. Our optical switches combine multiple functions in a single, highly compact system and address different capacity requirements within various segments of the network. As a result, our optical switches enable service providers to lower costs, simplify network operations, optimize network capacity and transition their networks towards more flexible and efficient infrastructures.

 

Network management. SILVX®, our optical network management system, provides end-to-end management of services across a service provider’s optical switch network. SILVX provides comprehensive network management, planning and administration software tools that communicate with existing network management systems through common standards. SILVX simplifies network configuration, service provisioning and network management by automating many labor-intensive operational processes. The combination of SILVX and our sophisticated networking software allows the SN 3000, SN 16000 SC and SN 16000 to exchange real-time information about network traffic, thereby enabling service providers to quickly provision services and more efficiently manage network capacity. In addition, SILVX allows service providers to model a broad range of optical network architectures, forecast and plan for capacity expansion, and analyze network traffic.

 

Services. We offer complete engineering, furnishing, installation and testing services as well as comprehensive customer support from multiple locations worldwide.

 

Customers

 

Our current and prospective customers include domestic and international large, established telecommunications service providers, Internet service providers, non-traditional telecommunications service providers, newer start-up service providers, systems integrators, governments and enterprise organizations with private fiber networks. We expect that substantially all of our revenue will be generated from a limited number of customers. We currently have ten product revenue customers as of July 31, 2003.

 

During the year ended July 31, 2003, three customers, Vodafone Group PLC, Louis Dreyfus Communications and NTT Communications, a subsidiary of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, accounted for 43%, 22% and 14% of our revenue, respectively. During the year ended July 31, 2002, two customers, Vodafone and NTT Communications, accounted for 45% and 20% of our revenue, respectively. During the year ended July 31, 2001, two customers, Williams Communications Group, Inc. and 360networks Inc., accounted for 47% and 11% of total revenue, respectively. International revenue was 91% of total revenue during the year ended July 31, 2003, compared to 87% of total revenue during the year ended July 31, 2002, and 35% of total revenue during the year ended July 31, 2001. See “Segment Information” in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements for additional details.

 

Our contracts with customers typically include the purchase of our hardware products, the license of our SILVX network management system, and in some cases, maintenance and support services. These contracts include terms and arrangements that are customary and standard in our industry, such as payment, delivery and termination. We have experienced significant order cancellations and fluctuations in order backlog levels that have led us to conclude that we do not have a business history of firm backlog. None of our customers are contractually committed to purchase any minimum quantities of products from us and orders are generally

 

6


Table of Contents

cancelable prior to shipment. As a result, we do not disclose our order backlog, since we believe that our order backlog at any particular date is not necessarily indicative of actual revenue for any future period.

 

Sales and Marketing

 

There are a small number of current and prospective customers in each geographic market. Each service provider owns and operates a unique fiber optic network. The network complexity affects the integration of our optical networking products into their network. As a result, sales are made on a customer-by-customer basis and the sales cycle may extend beyond one year.

 

We have a worldwide sales force and we sell our products through a direct sales force with a local presence in several locations around the world. In certain markets, we also have distribution partners, independent marketing representatives or independent sales consultants. We intend to further establish relationships with selected distribution and marketing partners to extend our reach to serve new markets.

 

The primary focus of our sales efforts is to develop strong relationships with incumbent service providers. Our sales and presales engineering organizations work collaboratively with both current and prospective customers to identify optical switching applications that create value in their network as well as create new services that they can offer to their customers. We also provide comprehensive post-sales customer support including network planning and deployment, technical assistance centers and logistics support. Our customer support organization leverages a network of highly qualified service partners to extend our reach and capabilities.

 

In support of our sales efforts, we conduct marketing programs to position and promote market awareness of Sycamore and our products. We also participate in conferences, trade shows and provide marketing information on our website. In addition, we conduct public relations activities, including interviews and demonstrations for the business and trade media, and industry analysts.

 

Research and Development

 

We believe that continued investment in research and development is necessary in order to continue to provide innovative optical networking solutions that meet our current and prospective customers’ needs. We believe that our current and prospective customers require optical networking solutions that will allow them to optimize bandwidth and capacity management while also allowing them to reduce their capital expenditures and operating costs. In order to provide such products to our customers, we believe we must make significant and sustained investment in research and development. Our research and development effort focuses primarily on improvements to the features and functionality of existing products and the development of new products. We believe that this investment in research and development is necessary even during periods when our revenue has declined as a result of the decreased demand for telecommunications equipment. Sycamore intends to focus its research and development efforts on optical switching and may pursue strategic alliances or acquisitions to address current and prospective customers’ needs.

 

Our research and development expenditures were $52.4 million, $109.7 million and $159.6 million for the years ended July 31, 2003, 2002 and 2001, respectively. All of our expenditures for research and development, as well as stock-based compensation expense relating to research and development of $3.0 million, $9.9 million and $34.2 million, for the years ended July 31, 2003, 2002 and 2001, respectively, have been expensed as incurred. As of July 31, 2003, we had approximately 232 employees involved in research and development.

 

Competition

 

Competition in the optical networking market is intense, particularly since our current and prospective customers have reduced their capital expenditures. Based on the current level of spending by telecommunications service providers, competition has been and will continue to be very intense.

 

7


Table of Contents

Sycamore’s competition includes established vendors of network infrastructure equipment and optical networking equipment, such as Nortel Networks, Lucent Technologies, Alcatel and Ciena Corporation. Many of our established competitors have longer operating histories and greater financial, technical, sales, marketing and manufacturing resources and are able to devote greater resources to the research and development of new products. In addition, many of our competitors have more extensive customer bases and broader customer relationships than us, including relationships with our potential customers. In addition, to a lesser extent, we see new entrants into the optical networking market with new products that compete with our products. In order to compete effectively in this market, we must deliver products that:

 

  provide a cost-effective solution to service providers for expanding capacity and bandwidth management;

 

  lower a service provider’s cost of building and operating their fiber optic network;

 

  provide extremely high network reliability;

 

  interoperate with existing network devices;

 

  simplify the network architecture by replacing multiple traditional networking devices into a single compact optical switch; and

 

  provide effective network management.

 

In addition, we believe that our knowledge of telecommunications infrastructure requirements and experience working with service providers to develop new services for their customers are important competitive factors in our market.

 

Proprietary Rights and Licensing

 

Our success and ability to compete are dependent on our ability to develop and maintain the proprietary aspects of our technology and to operate without infringing on the proprietary rights of others. We rely on a combination of patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright law and contractual restrictions to protect the proprietary aspects of our technology. We license software to our customers pursuant to signed or shrinkwrap license agreements, which impose certain restrictions on the licensee’s ability to utilize the software. Our practice is to require employees and consultants to execute non-disclosure and proprietary rights agreements upon commencing employment or consulting with us. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products or to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. We enforce our intellectual property rights vigorously against infringement or misappropriation.

 

We license third party software, including certain technologies that are (i) embedded into our hardware platforms and into our SILVX network management system; (ii) used internally by us as hardware design tools and (iii) used internally by us as software development tools. We also utilize publicly available technology. The majority of these licenses have perpetual terms but will generally terminate after an uncured breach of the agreement by us. We believe, based upon past experience and standard industry practice, that such licenses generally could be obtained on commercially reasonable terms in the future. Nonetheless, there can be no assurance that the necessary licenses would be available on acceptable terms, if at all.

 

As of July 31, 2003, we had received 18 United States patents and had pending 56 United States patent applications. We also have eight pending foreign patent applications. Of the United States patents that have been issued, the earliest any will expire is February 2019. As of July 31, 2003, we had seven allowed or registered United States trademarks and fourteen allowed or registered foreign trademarks. All of the registered United States trademarks have a duration of ten years from the date of application, the earliest of which will expire in February 2011.

 

Manufacturing

 

We outsource almost all of the manufacturing of our products. We utilize contract manufacturers, who provide manufacturing services, including material procurement and handling, printed circuit board assembly and

 

8


Table of Contents

mechanical board assembly. We design, specify, and monitor all of the tests that are required to meet our internal and external quality standards. We work closely with our contract manufacturers to manage costs and delivery times. Our contract manufacturing agreements generally have indefinite terms and are cancelable by either party with advance notice. We believe that outsourced manufacturing enables us to deliver products more quickly and allows us to focus on our core competencies, including research and development, sales and customer service.

 

We have limited internal manufacturing operations. Our internal manufacturing operations primarily consist of quality assurance for materials and components, and final testing, assembly and shipment of our products. We also use a limited number of other manufacturers to supply certain non-significant product sub-assemblies and components.

 

Our optical networking products utilize hundreds of individual parts, some of which are customized for our products. Component suppliers in the specialized, high technology end of the optical communications industry are generally not as plentiful or, in some cases, as reliable, as component suppliers in more mature industries. We work closely with our strategic component suppliers to pursue new component technologies that could either reduce cost or enhance the performance of our products.

 

We currently purchase several key components, including commercial digital signal processors, central processing units, field programmable gate arrays, switch fabric, and optical transceivers, from single or limited sources. We purchase each of these components on a purchase order basis and have no long-term contracts for these components. Although we believe that there are alternative sources for each of these components, in the event of a disruption in supply, we may not be able to develop an alternate source in a timely manner or at favorable prices.

 

Throughout the downturn in the telecommunications industry, the optical component industry has been downsizing manufacturing capacity while consolidating product lines from earlier acquisitions. Several suppliers have exited the market for optical components, and others have announced reductions of their product offerings. These announcements, or similar decisions by other suppliers, could result in reduced competition and higher prices for the components we purchase. In addition, the loss of a source of supply for key components could require us to incur additional costs to redesign our products that use those components.

 

Employees

 

As of July 31, 2003, we employed approximately 373 persons of which 232 were primarily engaged in research and development, 45 in sales and marketing, 27 in customer service and support, 25 in manufacturing, and 44 in finance and administration. None of our employees are currently represented by a collective bargaining unit. We believe our relations with our employees are good.

 

Executive Officers

 

Set forth below is information concerning our current executive officers and their ages as of October 21, 2003.

 

Name


   Age

  

Position


Daniel E. Smith

   54   

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Frances M. Jewels

   38   

Chief Financial Officer, Vice President, Finance and Administration, Treasurer and Secretary

John E. Dowling

   50   

Vice President, Operations

Araldo Menegon

   44   

Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Support

Kevin J. Oye

   45   

Vice President, Systems and Technology

 

Daniel E. Smith has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our Board of Directors since October 1998. From June 1997 to July 1998, Mr. Smith was Executive Vice President and

 

9


Table of Contents

General Manager of the Core Switching Division of Ascend Communications, Inc., a provider of wide area network switches and access data networking equipment. Mr. Smith was also a member of the board of directors of Ascend Communications, Inc. during that time. From April 1992 to June 1997, Mr. Smith served as President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Cascade Communications Corp.

 

Frances M. Jewels has served as our Vice President of Finance and Administration, Treasurer and Secretary since June 1999 and Chief Financial Officer since July 1999. From June 1997 to June 1999, Ms. Jewels served as Vice President and General Counsel of Ascend Communications, Inc. From April 1994 to June 1997, Ms. Jewels served as Corporate Counsel of Cascade Communications Corp. Prior to April 1994, Ms. Jewels practiced law in private practice and, prior to that, practiced as a certified public accountant.

 

John E. Dowling has served as our Vice President of Operations since August 1998. From July 1997 to August 1998, Mr. Dowling served as Vice President of Operations of Aptis Communications, a manufacturer of carrier-class access switches for network service providers. Mr. Dowling served as Vice President of Operations of Cascade Communications Corp. from May 1994 to June 1997.

 

Araldo Menegon has served as our Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Support since August 2002. From April 2001 to June 2002, Mr. Menegon served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations for Tenor Networks, a provider of networking equipment. From August 1999 to March 2001, Mr. Menegon served as Area Operations Director for Cisco Systems, Inc. From July 1997 to July 1999, Mr. Menegon served as Director of Service Provider Operations for Cisco Canada. Prior to joining Cisco in July 1996, Mr. Menegon spent 14 years with NCR and held several senior management positions, including an international assignment with NCR’s Pacific Group from January 1988 to February 1992.

 

Kevin J. Oye has served as our Vice President, Systems and Technology since November 2001. From October 1999 through November 2001, Mr. Oye served as our Vice President, Business Development. From March 1998 to October 1999, Mr. Oye served as Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at Lucent Technologies, Inc. and from September 1993 to March 1998, Mr. Oye served as the Director of Strategy, Business Development, and Architecture at Lucent Technologies, Inc. From June 1980 to September 1993, Mr. Oye held various positions with AT&T Bell Laboratories where he was responsible for advanced market planning as well as development and advanced technology management.

 

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

 

We currently lease four facilities in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, containing approximately 388,000 square feet in the aggregate. In Wallingford, Connecticut, we currently lease one facility containing a total of approximately 30,000 square feet. These facilities consist of offices and engineering laboratories used for administration, sales and customer support, research and development, and ancillary light manufacturing, storage and shipping activities. We also maintain smaller offices to provide sales and customer support at various domestic and international locations. These facilities are presently adequate and suitable for our needs, and we do not expect to require additional space during fiscal 2004. We own a parcel of undeveloped land, containing approximately 106 acres, in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts. This land was acquired for the purpose of developing a campus that would serve as our corporate headquarters, if we should require additional facilities over the next several years.

 

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

 

Beginning on July 2, 2001, several purported class action complaints were filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the Company and several of its officers and directors (the “Individual Defendants”) and the underwriters for the Company’s initial public offering on October 21, 1999. Some of the complaints also include the underwriters for the Company’s follow-on offering on March 14, 2000. The complaints were consolidated into a single action and an amended complaint was filed on April 19, 2002.

 

10


Table of Contents

The amended complaint, which is the operative complaint, was filed on behalf of persons who purchased the Company’s common stock between October 21, 1999 and December 6, 2000. The amended complaint alleges violations of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, primarily based on the assertion that the Company’s lead underwriters, the Company and the other named defendants made material false and misleading statements in the Company’s Registration Statements and Prospectuses filed with the SEC in October 1999 and March 2000 because of the failure to disclose (a) the alleged solicitation and receipt of excessive and undisclosed commissions by the underwriters in connection with the allocation of shares of common stock to certain investors in the Company’s public offerings and (b) that certain of the underwriters allegedly had entered into agreements with investors whereby underwriters agreed to allocate the public offering shares in exchange for which the investors agreed to make additional purchases of stock in the aftermarket at pre-determined prices. The amended complaint alleges claims against the Company, several of the Company’s officers and directors and the underwriters under Sections 11 and 15 of the Securities Act. It also alleges claims against the Company, the individual defendants and the underwriters under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act. The amended complaint seeks damages in an unspecified amount.

 

The action against the Company is being coordinated with approximately three hundred other nearly identical actions filed against other companies. The actions seek damages in an unspecified amount. On October 9, 2002, the court dismissed the Individual Defendants from the case without prejudice based upon Stipulations of Dismissal filed by the plaintiffs and the Individual Defendants. The Company has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) and related agreements which set forth the terms of a proposed settlement between the Company and the plaintiff class. It is anticipated that any potential financial obligation of the Company to plaintiffs pursuant to the terms of the MOU and related agreements will be covered by existing insurance. Therefore, the Company does not expect that the settlement will involve any payment by the Company. The MOU and related agreements are subject to a number of contingencies, including the negotiation of a settlement agreement and its approval by the Court. The Company is unable to determine whether or when a settlement will occur or be finalized. In the event that a settlement is not finalized, the Company is not currently able to estimate the possibility of loss or range of loss, if any, relating to these claims.

 

On April 1, 2003, a complaint was filed against the Company in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York by the creditors’ committee (the “Committee”) of 360networks (USA), inc. and 360networks services inc. (the “Debtors”). The Debtors are the subject of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding but are not plaintiffs in the complaint filed by the Committee. The complaint seeks recovery of alleged preferential payments in the amount of approximately $16.1 million, plus interest. The Committee alleges that the Debtors made the preferential payments under Section 547(b) of the Bankruptcy Code to the Company during the 90-day period prior to the Debtors’ bankruptcy filings. The Company believes that the claims against it are without merit and intends to defend against the complaint vigorously. The Company is not currently able to estimate the possibility of loss or range of loss, if any, relating to these claims.

 

The Company is subject to legal proceedings, claims, and litigation arising in the ordinary course of business. While the outcome of these matters is currently not determinable, management does not expect that the ultimate costs to resolve these matters will have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations or financial position.

 

ITEM 4. SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS

 

None.

 

11


Table of Contents

PART II

 

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS

 

Price Range of Common Stock

 

Our common stock has been traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol “SCMR” since October 22, 1999. The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the high and low closing sale prices as reported on the Nasdaq National Market for Sycamore common stock, as adjusted for all stock splits.

 

     High

   Low

Fiscal year 2003:

             

Fourth Quarter ended July 31, 2003

   $ 4.63    $ 3.12

Third Quarter ended April 26, 2003

     3.25      2.90

Second Quarter ended January 25, 2003

     3.46      2.48

First Quarter ended October 26, 2002

     3.04      2.29
     High

   Low

Fiscal year 2002:

             

Fourth Quarter ended July 31, 2002

   $ 3.86    $ 2.80

Third Quarter ended April 27, 2002

     5.01      3.44

Second Quarter ended January 26, 2002

     6.44      4.31

First Quarter ended October 27, 2001

     7.48      3.29

 

As of July 31, 2003, there were approximately 1,432 stockholders of record.

 

Dividend Policy

 

We have never paid or declared any cash dividends on our common stock or other securities and do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to pay cash dividends will be at the discretion of the board of directors and will be dependent upon our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, general business condition and such other factors as the board of directors may deem relevant.

 

12


Table of Contents

ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

 

The following selected financial data has been derived from our consolidated financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto and with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and other financial data included elsewhere in this report. The historical results are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for any future period.

 

    Year Ended July 31,

 
    2003

    2002

    2001

    2000

    1999

 
    (in thousands, except per share data)  

Consolidated Statement of Operations Data:

                                       

Revenue

  $ 38,276     $ 65,174     $ 374,746     $ 198,137     $ 11,330  

Cost of revenue

    35,104       152,704       317,796       106,419       8,587  
   


 


 


 


 


Gross profit (loss)

    3,172       (87,530 )     56,950       91,718       2,743  

Operating expenses:

                                       

Research and development

    52,438       109,654       159,607       71,903       17,979  

Sales and marketing

    19,763       39,687       83,478       30,650       4,064  

General and administrative

    7,239       10,166       16,820       9,824       3,056  

Stock-based compensation

    6,627       22,812       62,092       19,634       3,547  

Restructuring charges and related asset impairments

    (4,447 )     124,990       81,926       —         —    

Acquisition costs

    —         —         4,948       —         —    
   


 


 


 


 


Total operating expenses

    81,620       307,309       408,871       132,011       28,646  
   


 


 


 


 


Loss from operations

    (78,448 )     (394,839 )     (351,921 )     (40,293 )     (25,903 )

Losses on investments

    —         (24,845 )     —         —         —    

Interest and other income, net

    23,342       40,027</