March 10, 2010 (FinancialWire) — Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) said it has priced an offering of $375 million aggregate principal amount of its convertible senior notes due 2015, in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers.

The notes will bear interest at the rate of 4% per annum from the date of issuance, payable semi-annually on March 15 and September 15, commencing on September 15, 2010. They will mature on March 15, 2015.

The notes may be converted prior to maturity at the option of the holder into shares of Ciena common stock at the initial conversion rate of 49.0557 shares of Ciena common stock per $1,000 in principal amount of Notes, which is equal to an initial conversion price of around $20.38 per share and represents a 35% conversion premium over the closing price of Ciena common stock of $15.10 on March 8, 2010.

The closing of the offering is scheduled to occur on March 15, 2010, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Ciena plans to use around $243.8 million of the net proceeds of this offering to replace its existing contractual obligation to issue 6% senior convertible notes due 2017 as part of the aggregate purchase price for its pending acquisition of the optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets of Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Networks business.

Maryland-based Ciena is a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services that support the delivery and transport of voice, video and data services. Its products are used in telecommunications networks operated by telecommunications service providers, cable operators, governments and enterprises.

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