Teligent again seeks a revival

Like a cat with multiple lives, fixed broadband wireless provider Teligent is again aiming for a comeback--albeit on a less grand scale. A previous effort by senior management to purchase the company’s assets in bankruptcy court last year came to naught, and for a time it appeared Teligent would disappear.

Now, that same senior management team--headed by COO Jim Continenza, who will slide over into the CEO seat--says it has the financial backing of senior lenders and hopes to restart in earnest in the second quarter of this year in its existing 74 markets with a base of 3000 to 4000 long-distance customers. The Herndon, Va.-based firm anticipates positive cash flow within two years.

“It’s the existing management team,” said a company source. “It's a real vote of confidence by the senior lending group and the work we’ve done to create this new company and to continue with the vision of providing fixed wireless, albeit in a wholesale fashion rather than a retail fashion.”

That senior lending group is reinvesting funds that it’s received from the sale of company assets, including a $60 million chunk for subsidiary company Executive Conference, in bankruptcy proceedings that started last May and continue in the New York District Bankruptcy Court.

“The new company will have to seek all the necessary approvals to create the new company, and the bankruptcy judge will be part of that,” the Teligent source said.

Nevertheless, if all things go well, there should be a new Teligent on the scene by the second quarter of this year.

“We’ve been given a second chance,” the source said.