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July 22, 2013

Former WiMAX Superstar Alvarion in Receivership, Lays Off All Employees

By Jacqueline Lee, Contributing Writer

Alvarion, an Israel-based tech company, is in receivership, and all of its employees have been laid off.



In 2007, Alvarion had over 1,000 employees, a number that shrank to 300 in 2012 as LTE (News - Alert) replaced WiMAX as the industry's preferred broadband network technology. Alvarion sold off its WiMAX business in 2012 but continued to hold onto its distributed antenna systems and Wi-Fi business segments.

After attempting to refocus on vertical and carrier Wi-Fi, Alvarion (News - Alert) CEO Hezi Lapid resigned last April. On July 15, Alvarion was turned over to a receiver by the District Court of Tel Aviv-Yaffo after one of its creditors, Silicon Valley Bank, petitioned the court.

A receiver is a third party with a single goal: to recoup as much money as possible to settle unpaid loans. The receiver, Yoav Kfir, examined Alvarion's bank accounts, which consisted of $200,000 in cash. Then, he looked at Alvarion's liabilities, which included $3 million in debt to Silicon Valley Bank.

The $200,000 was only enough to pay 17 of Alvarion's employees. As a result, Kfir issued layoff notices with the caveat that he hopes to rehire as many as possible if the company's fortunes improve.

Alvarion employees petitioned the court to order Silicon Valley Bank to transfer $1 million to the receiver's account. Employees argue that if Alvarion only has 17 employees, it will lose lucrative contracts and look unattractive to potential investors and buyers. The company could also have difficulty collecting accounts receivable from its customers.

In mid-June, Alvarion released the BreezeULTRA dual radio. Using 802.11n technology, the Wi-Fi radio has a throughput of 500 Mbps. It utilizes channel combining to simultaneously use two frequency bands. This configuration maximizes bandwidth as well as providing automatic failover if one of the channels experiences interference.

Surprisingly, all of Alvarion's employees came to work even after receiving their layoff notices, hoping to show investors that they are ready to keep working.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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