Airspan Networks Shares Drop on 1Q Loss (AP)

NEW YORK - Shares of Airspan Networks Inc. tumbled Thursday, after the wireless-communications supplier posted a wider first-quarter loss, citing a revenue deferral for one of its Japanese customers.

Stock of the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company fell 66 cents, or 11 percent, to $5.28 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Thursday's weakest level, on heavy volume, was $5.25. On a 52-week basis, there was a low of $4.24 on June 9 and a high of $6.96 on April 3.

According to the company, the bulk of the first-quarter loss came from a $5.5 million revenue deferral from Yozan Inc., a primary customer for its WiMAX deployment in Japan.

The total revenue was to be recorded as separate transactions, but were then combined at the last minute, said Airspan Chief Financial Officer Peter Aronstam, when the question was raised as to the fair value of the product.

Roth Capital analyst Dave Kang summed it up as Airspan's auditors getting cold feet and requesting more information.

"We should note that its auditors, Grant Thornton, were recently hired," Kang said, adding the new hire arrangement also caused delays to Airspan's fourth-quarter filing.

For the April quarter, Airspan reported a net loss of $8.29 million, or 21 cents a share. That exceeds a net loss of $2.91 million, or 8 cents a share, in the prior first quarter.

Revenue rose to $23.8 million from $22.2 million.

Airspan had previously announced it expected a first-quarter loss of 15 cents a share on revenue in the range of $25 million to $26 million.

Wall Street had expected a loss of about 14 cents a share on revenue of $26 million.

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