Corvis drops, Sycamore gains on GIG BE contract outlook (CORV, SCMR, CIEN, JNPR, CSCO, LU) By Tomi Kilgore
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Merrill Lynch said its research indicates that Ciena (CIEN) will be awarded a contract to provide the optical transport and switching (OTS) for the U.S. government's Global Information Grid Bandwidth Expansion (GIG BE) project, vs. current industry expectations that Corvis (CORV) would win the contract. Corvis shares tumbled 58 cents, or 29 percent, to $1.40 on volume of 68.6 million, which was already nearly 7 times the full-day average. Meanwhile, Analyst Tal Liani expects Ciena to lose out to Sycamore Networks (SCMR) for the optical digital cross-connect (ODXC) portion of the project. Sycamore surged 80 cents, or 19 percent, to $4.93 while Ciena dipped 12 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $6.84. Liani believes Cisco Systems (CSCO) will win the multi-service provisioning platform (MSPP) contract and Juniper Networks (JNPR) will win the Internet protocol routers contract. Lucent Technologies (LU) was believed to have a chance for the MSPP contract, and Cisco was thought to have a chance at IP routers. Lucent edged up a nickel to $2.25 and Cisco slipped 12 cents to $20.59.