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Technology Stocks : Nextwave Telecom Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (1074)	9/24/2008 5:05:23 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1088

A Spark of Life >> NextWave Looks To Dispose of Infrastucture Division Restructuring to follow as wireless group secures $100 million debt financing John Walko EE Times Europe (London) 09/18/2008 eetimes.com One of the fastest growing wireless chip and system companies, NextWave Wireless Inc.(San Diego, California), has received a commitment from Avenue Capital Management II, L.P. and Sola for $100 million of much needed new financing. A major restructuring will follow once the financing is completed, which expected to close in a few weeks. NextWave says that through a combination of cost reduction actions, the planned divestiture of its infrastructure businesses and the sale of other business assets, the $100 million in net proceeds from the financing is projected to fund its business operations into 2010. "This financing will provide the runway we need to execute our strategic plan in an orderly and efficient manner. It will allow us to seek to maximize the value of our assets, including our spectrum, as we implement a global restructuring of our business," commented Allen Salmasi, chief executive officer and president of NextWave Wireless. He added the company is looking to divest its infrastructure business units "in the near term." "In addition, we have recently taken important steps to reduce our operating costs including reducing our global workforce by over 20 percent and scaling back corporate overhead expenses." The company also said it intends to appoint Michael Murphy, a Managing Director of AlixPartners, as its interim chief operating officer and interim chief administrative officer. Murphy is already working with the management team and NextWaves board of directors to implement the cost reduction strategies. NextWave also announced that it has engaged consultancy and banking group Lazard to help it develop and implement its business divestiture strategy. NextWave was originally a holding company for government 1.9-GHz PCS spectrum. It was intended to be a carrier, but NextWave Wireless aimed from its inception to own spectrum blocks for licensed broadband while assembling a system-level infrastructure business and a dedicated component business offering baseband and RF chips for the merchant market. The company went public in 2006, acquired basestation manufacturer GO Networks in February 2007 and U.K. start-up IPWireless two months later. GO develops basestations for WiMax and municipal Wi-Fi mesh networks. Earlier this year, the company reorganized into two operating units. The Mobile Products division comprises the company's PacketVideo (PV) subsidiary and semiconductor development group. The other division, NextWave Network Products, includes the IPWireless and GO Networks subsidiaries, whose designs will be sold under the NextWave Wireless brand. The unit also includes NextWave's network services and systems development businesses, and focuses on providing network operators with wireless infrastructure equipment and end-to-end, wireless broadband and mobile broadcast network systems. ### - Eric -