JDS Uniphase President & CEO Kevin Kennedy has resigned and will be taking over as the CEO of another unnamed company, though he is going to remain on with JDS’s Board of Directors as Vice Chairman. A replacement CEO hasn’t been named. A telecom industry veteran, Kennedy has been helping bring JDS back from the brink. JDS stock has lost more than half its value so far this year and is trading at about $6 a share. The telecom equipment market is facing tough times as carriers tighten their belts to deal with the current economic slowdown. That is bound to have a negative impact on companies downstream — such as JDS Uniphase.
I used to work at JDS Uniphase back between 2000 and 2002. I was a manufacturing engineer in the DWDM segment, and was part of the massive cash-cow that vaulted JDS all the way up the charts. It’s hard to believe at this point, but the stock hit around $152 per share if I remember correctly back then. Shortly afterwards JDS had the largest corporate write-off in history involving all the goodwill from the companies they acquired. Hard to imagine it’s at $6 nowadays. Last I heard they leased out a big part of the massive 800,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Nepean to the local RCMP.
@Duane
thanks for the post. man those were the days as they say. i remember the press parties thrown by JDS…. now it is nothing but a shell of its formal self. Apparently they are in further-cutting mode now.
Back in the day they used to own two boxes (36 seats) in the Corel Center. We’d often get treated to free NHL games, including beer and pizza. Part of the recruitment process for new grads involved taking them to a hockey game. Those were the days indeed!