Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Ricochet Takes an Upward Bounce with New Owner

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2003 15:11:29 -0500

Ricochet Takes an Upward Bounce with New Owner
BY KAREN BROWN
DECEMBER 5, 2003

Financially troubled Ricochet Networks Inc. broadband wireless service has taken
another bounce, and this time it is upward.
After months of rumors that the Denver-based broadband wireless provider would
close up shop for good, parent company Aerie Networks Inc. has sold it to EDL
Holdings Inc., itself owned by the Victor Mitchell Family L.P. Mitchell, founder
and CEO of Centennial, Colo.-based wireless distributor Advantage Wireless, will
take over as CEO of the newly formed Ricochet. Former Ricochet CEO Greg Sadler
will remain with the company.

Terms of the deal are not being released.

Ricochet offers broadband wireless service to about 9,000 customers in Denver
and San Diego. Not only will EDL keep the service running but it also plans to
expand the networks in both markets by about 50 percent within the next few
months. In Denver, that means extending service northward to Boulder and
southward to Castle Rock, while in San Diego the coverage will reach northward
to Oceanside and southward to the Mexican border.

Also in the works are service price reductions to make the service more
competitive, addition of more than 300 retailers to the reseller network and
kiosks installed in some shopping malls, according to EDL.

With those changes "we should see an immediate spike in sales," Mitchell said in
a written release. "The customers who use the Ricochet service are very happy
with it, and very loyal, but the coverage ignored over half the Denver and San
Diego populations, and the services were not priced competitively enough. We
plan to introduce a compelling low-priced alternative with the coverage
customers need."

Ricochet also will be taking on 30 new employees in the Denver market -- many of
whom were recently laid off from the company. The work force likely will double
in the next year, according to Mitchell.

The acquisition marks the second time Ricochet has been salvaged by a new owner.
The service started out under Metricom Inc. in the mid-1990s, and at its peak in
early 2001 it claimed 51,000 customers in 17 cities. But its propriety microcell
technology, which requires placing base stations on light poles in a dense
array, generated more than $1 billion in debt, and the company was forced to
declare bankruptcy in August 2001.

Denver-based Aerie picked up much of the Ricochet network assets for $8.25
million in a bankruptcy auction in November 2001. It relaunched the service in
Denver in August 2002 and in San Diego three months later.

Ricochet has offered up to a 128 kilobit-per-second connection for $44.95
monthly, and this spring it added a $29.95 'bring your own access' service.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=document&doc_id=129020&verticalID=34&vertical=Business+and+Finance&industry=

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