Aviat Networks, Inc. a leading provider of wireless transmission solutions announced that Michael Pangia, who was Aviat Networks’ SVP and Chief Sales Officer, has been appointed President & CEO and a member of the Board of Directors. Former CEO Chuck Kissner will continue as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Kissner became CEO on June 28, 2010 to lead a transformation of Aviat’s business. Pangia has led the Sales and Services operations of the company since he joined inMarch 2009 and was part of the management team that led the restructuring and turnaround efforts over the past year.
During that time, the company has reduced costs, refocused its business, introduced new products, stabilized its top line, and streamlined operations.
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“I’m delighted that the Board has expressed their confidence in me and the management team going forward,” said Pangia. “We made tremendous progress over the last year on many fronts, and believe we are now well-positioned to move Aviat to the next stage. We now have a company with better operating leverage, a strong pipeline of new products, and an enthusiastic customer base. I expect the transition to be a smooth one, and look forward to reporting our Q4 FY11 and full year results in August.”
“The Aviat Networks team accomplished its goals over the past year,” said Kissner. “As expected, we essentially completed our fiscal 2011 restructuring program to reduce operating costs, continued to roll out innovative new products, and saw the resumption of strong demand for our products and services. We now have a strong roadmap for the future.”
Prior to joining Aviat Networks, Pangia held a number of executive positions at Nortel Networks in Sales, Operations, and Finance. As President of the Asia Region, he had P&L responsibility for $1.8 billion in sales.
On May 5, 2011, the Company provided revenue guidance of $105 million to $120 million for the fourth quarter FY2011, based on backlog, business trends and operational changes, and some supply risks specific to Japan. “Although we have not yet finalized and completed all reviews of the financial results for the fourth quarter, we now believe revenue for the fourth quarter FY2011 will be in the range of $115 million to $120 million.
In addition, we expect to report that the orders book-to-bill ratio was greater than 1 and that the company’s cash balance increased from end of the previous quarter. As the company is still assessing revenue as part of its year end close, this guidance is subject to change until fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2011 results are announced in August. Also, given the need to complete the year end audit, this is the only guidance we intend to provide at this time”.
In a related development, Aviat Networks has announced that it will supply its recently introduced Aviat WTM 6000 trunking microwave radios to Wataniya Telecom Maldives. Since 2008, Aviat Networks has served as the sole microwave backhaul provider for Wataniya Telecom Maldives as it moved from 2G to 3G. Now, WTM 6000 long-distance trunking radios will support its transition to Next Generation Networks and eventually to 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless, with up to 4Gbps aggregate IP-data throughput in the backhaul network.
Specifically, Aviat Networks will: Supply end-to-end turnkey products and services to deploy high-capacity WTM 6000 radios in Wataniya’s backhaul to extend its existing backbone of Aviat Networks’ TRuepoint 6500 radios. Radios will be used as the core elements to backhaul 2G, 3G and leased-line traffic from Wataniya customers.
They will also provide network design and logistics services to support the Wataniya backhaul network expansion. “Based on superior performance of its TRuepoint 6500 radios and superb execution of our 2008 network rollout, we’ve chosen Aviat Networks for the next phase of our network build,” said Stephen Smith, chief operating officer of Wataniya Telecom Maldives. “We’re impressed by WTM 6000’s performance characteristics and our prior experience with Aviat Networks’ technical competency in link engineering over difficult all-water terrain while still completing the project on time. We’re confident that WTM 6000 supported by Aviat Networks professional services will enable a smooth evolution to Next Generation Network operation and then to 4G.”