For smaller companies, losing business from a big customer can be painful. That was the case recently for Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE), a maker of optical networking and laser components. In early April, Lumentum reported that a top customer had canceled a large order -- thus sharply reducing sales (and profitability) for at least the next two quarters.  

It wasn't Apple, which uses Lumentum's laser components for 3D sensing in the iPhone -- and accounts for 29% of its revenue. Rather, it was Lumentum's other top customer, Ciena (NYSE: CIEN). So what should investors make of this news? Let's take a look.

In a prepared statement, Lumentum CEO Alan Lowe said that the big order cancellation came from "a network equipment manufacturer who represented more than 10 percent of our fiscal second quarter revenue." Network equipment isn't the domain of Apple. That is the specialty of Ciena, which counts 85% of the world's communications service providers -- companies like AT&T, Comcast, and Alphabet -- as customers.  

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Source Fool.com