Big investment is starting to roll towards WiMAX, and one of the biggest beneficiaries is likely to be Alvarion (Nasdaq: ALVR; TASE: ALVR). Private WiMAX services provider Clearwire has raised $900 million. The money came from Intel and Motorola, among other sources. It is earmarked for investment in the next generation of WiMAX. Intel's venture capital arm invested the lion's share of the amount, $600 million.
While the financing round itself won't affect Alvarion directly, SurTerre Research analyst David Fore believes that such a large investment in this field is likely to lead to renewed interest in WiMAX, Alvarion's main area of activity. 28% of broadband communications technology company Alvarion's first quarter revenue derived from WiMAX sales.
Alvarion is traded on Nasdaq and on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange at a market cap of $365 million. Since the report of the Clearwire fund raising round, Alvarion's share price has shot up 8%. "We are still at the very early stages of adoption of WiMAX technology," Alvarion president and CEO Tzvika Friedman said a few weeks ago, "We believe that he number of deployments of the system will grow steadily, and expect progress in this area in the second half of the year."
Alvarion recently announced the deployment of its WiMAX system by Chilean telecommunications company Entel.
Alvarion is due to release its second quarter financials on August 2. The analysts covering the company expect quarterly revenue of $49.8 million, and a net loss per share of $0.04.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 6, 2006
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