Airvana goes private for $530M

Four private equity firms are buying out Airvana for $530 million and taking the company private again.

72 Mobile Holdings LLC--a new company held by S.A.C. Private Capital Group, LLC, GSO Capital Partners LP, Sankaty Advisors LLC, and ZelnickMedia--will buy out the femtocell and cdma2000 software company.

Merle Gilmore, former head of Motorola's Communications Enterprise business,  will become the company's new chairman, while Airvana executives CEO Randy Battat and founders Vedat Eyuboglu and Sanjeev Verma, among others, will receive an equity interest in 72 Mobile Holdings in exchange for a portion of their shares in Airvana.

Airvana shareholders will get $7.65 a share. The acquisition should be completed in the first quarter 2010.

However, the deal is already being questioned by Levi & Korsinsky LLP, a firm that specializes in securities and shareholder litigation.

"The investigation concerns whether the Airvana Board of Directors breached their fiduciary duties to Airvana shareholders given that the offer price is only a small premium over the $7.06 price the Company's shares traded at as recently as Sept. 28, and at least one analyst set a price target for Airvana stock at $8.50 per share," the firm said.

For more:
- see this Unstrung article [1]

Related articles:
Airvana wins 3G femtocell agreement with Sprint [2]
Airvana demos benefit of femtocells for broadband boost [3]
Airvana: Smartphones create mobile network 'load multiplier effect' [4]