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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (21454)	7/23/2004 12:45:43 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Respond to of 57684

from the Real Estate thread, Once a tech highflier, Aether lands in mortgage securities Aether Systems Inc., an Owings Mills company whose rise and fall embodied the dot-com investment craze, threw in the towel on technology yesterday, announcing its plan to sell the remainder of its wireless communications business and invest instead in a wholly different field: mortgage-backed securities. "We were spending more than we were bringing in," said David C. Reymann, Aether's chief financial officer. "This is a strategic decision to get out of the existing businesses ... to basically eliminate the burn." Four years ago, when the company's stock soared past $300 a share, Aether founder David S. Oros was worth more on paper than Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart. Area leaders hoped Aether's rapid rise would make Baltimore the "Silicon Valley of wireless." But missed opportunities, too many acquisitions too fast, and the plunge in technology investment overall hurt the company. After having once employed about 1,400 people, its staff could be cut to 10 when the conversion from technology developer to mortgage investor is complete, Reymann said. Since going public in 1999, Aether has reported a combined net loss of more than $2.4 billion. baltimoresun.com