SAN DIEGO-Wireless Facilities Inc., a provider of wireless telecommunications systems, said it received notice of contract suspension and termination from Metricom Inc. with regard to remaining RF engineering and deployment services for Metricom’s data network build-out.
Wireless Facilities expects the Metricom-related revenue impact in the first quarter to be no greater than 8 percent of forecasted revenue and no greater than 4 percent of revenue in the second quarter.
“While we are obviously disappointed by [the] announcement, we will move as quickly as possible to re-deploy our teams,” said Tom Munro, president of WFI. “Metricom has indicated to us that it anticipates re-starting its market build-outs at some point in the future and we are hopeful that we will be part of that opportunity.”
The news, announced Feb. 23, sent WFI’s stock down more than $4 per share to a 52-week low of $12.75 per share. The company’s stock rebounded last week to as high as $16.50 per share before settling back to around $14 per share. WFI’s stock was trading as high as $163.50 per share last year.
Metricom recently announced poor uptake of its Ricochet high-speed wireless service and that it could run out of money by the middle of this year unless it finds additional investments.
