Cowen & Co notes that last night Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ:RVBD), a leading provider of WAN optimization solutions, pre-announced that its Q1 revenue would be roughly $72.0-$73.0mm, well below its original guidance range of $79.0-$82.0mm. Riverbed's main competitors include both Cisco and Juniper.
On the call management noted that the shortfall was mainly the result of delayed purchases with respect to its larger deals. Furthermore, it noted that while some larger deals got pushed others were downsized.
Given Riverbed's weaker then expected results and given that it participates in one of the fastest growing market segments within enterprise networking; they believe that this increases the risk associated with all enterprise facing vendors operating results including Cisco, Foundry, Juniper, NETGEAR, and Polycom.
Notablecalls: RVBD represents the sexiest part of networking. With these guys failing to come at least in-line w/ guidance people should be worried about the current state of business at CSCO & JNPR.
