Juniper Grappling With Stock Options Scandal, Can't Release Q3 Earnings

The company is in the midst of an internal investigation into backdating of stock options and has already disclosed that it will need to restate some financial results to record additional charges.

"Similar to the second quarter, Juniper is not in a position to announce detailed financial results for the third quarter," said Robert Dykes, CFO and executive vice president of business operations at Juniper, Sunnyvale, Calif., during a conference call with financial analysts. The company, which is currently delinquent in its regulatory filings, plans to file all necessary forms and restatements by the end of the year, Dykes said.

Stock options scandal aside, Juniper is finding success in both the enterprise and service provider markets, said Scott Kriens, chairman and CEO of Juniper. "We're a $2 billion company in a $20 billion market with opportunity everywhere," Kriens said.

As part of its effort to capitalize on that opportunity, the networking company today launched its first line of Ethernet switches, the MX960 Ethernet Services Router line of routing switches for the service provider space. Kriens called the product launch "a dramatic statement." The high-density platform provides up to 960 Gigabits per second (Gbps) of switching and routing capacity, the company said.

Juniper this week also beefed up its enterprise portfolio with new products in its WAN optimization and application acceleration lines.

For the quarter ending September 30, Juniper reported revenue of $573.6 million, up about 5 percent over the $546.4 million reported for the same quarter a year ago.

Channel sales rose for quarter, with direct sales contributing 23 percent of revenue, down from 25 percent in the previous quarter.

For the fourth quarter, Juniper expects to report sales of $590 million to $595 million and earnings of 19 cents per share, excluding charges.

Shares of Juniper closed up 26 cents at $17.62 prior to the announcement.