Amedia Networks evicted

With only a handful of employees left, equipment vendor Amedia Networks has been evicted from its Eatontown, New Jersey, offices for failing to pay its rent.

In recent weeks, the company’s dire financial straits have forced it to delay payments to vendors, defer management salaries and curb product development plans.

A court order obtained by the company’s landlord and submitted to Amedia last week required the company to vacate its headquarters by today. The landlord had originally accused Amedia of failing to pay rent for February and March of this year.

“The company is currently in the process of seeking suitable replacement premises,” Amedia said in a regulatory filing last week. “No assurance can be given that the company will be able to raise the working capital needed to cure [its] default or find suitable replacement premises.”

Four weeks ago, the company released all seven of its non-executive employees, leaving only its Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officers. But the seven stayed on through at least early September based on the company’s promise to reinstate them if additional financing were secured.

“If the company is unable to raise additional capital on an immediate basis, it will be forced to lay off its remaining workforce and either restructure or cease operations entirely,” Amedia said in the filing.

The 13-year-old company, which took its current name when it entered the broadband access equipment space three years ago, obtained a series of short-term loans in recent years. Last month it claimed more than $2.5 million in total assets and more than $14 million in total liabilities, including nearly $2.4 million in accrued penalties. It also reported $234,000 in sales for the first six months of 2007 and a net loss of more than $6.3 million.

In April 2006, Amedia agreed to jointly develop IP home gateways for Motorola in exchange for $1.9 million. This year, Motorola took over development of that gear, promising to pay Amedia $5 for every unit it made. This summer, Motorola paid Amedia $200,000 as an advance on the first 40,000 gateways.

In February, Amedia promised to introduce a new product later this year that would combine the functions of an optical network terminal with a broadband home router that would move the terminating gear in a fiber-to-the-home network inside the house.