Carrier Access officers decline pay amid new cuts

Carrier Access announced new restructuring plans late Monday after disclosing preliminary second-quarter results that fell below expectations. Those plans include a voluntary elimination of salary for Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Roger Koenig and his wife, Corporate Development Officer Nancy Pierce.

The access equipment vendor expects to report between $7.5 million and $7.7 million in revenue for the second quarter, well below the roughly $9 million analysts had expected. That represents a 10% to 13% sequential decline and a 70% drop from a year earlier.

Last week the company’s directors approved a new restructuring plan that included “a focus on key customers and product lines, consolidation of management positions, and a further and accelerated [research and development] transition to Carrier Access’ Shanghai development center.”

The plan is still being finalized, so the company declined to be more specific until its second-quarter earnings call at the end of the month. But it did say that Koenig, 53, and Pierce, 49--both directors as well as officers--have volunteered to decline their annual salaries, while still taking medical benefits.

Koenig, who co-founded the company in 1992, earned a total compensation of $412,313 in 2006, including a $325,000 base salary. Pierce earned $256,600 in total compensation last year, including a $232,600 base salary.

Carrier Access recorded a $400,000 charge in the second quarter for previous restructuring efforts, including the down-sizing of some of its remote development centers and the elimination of some contractors.

The company has been struggling with declining revenues and cost-cutting since last year’s third quarter, complaining of a drop in spending among wireless carrier customers. The company has also been working to diversify its customer base (more than a third of its revenue last year came from one customer). In March it acquired multiservice switch vendor Mangrove Systems for $8 million. A month later, it announced the addition of four new senior executives.