It was designed to be a way to compete against Motorola Inc.’s FLEX technology, but instead the joint venture between Nexus Telocation Systems Ltd. and American Paging Inc. has dissolved into a lawsuit and counter lawsuit.
In the most recent round of feuding, American Paging has filed a counter suit against Israel-based Nexus, Nexus confirmed.
Nexus and American Paging began a joint venture called American Messaging Services in July 1993. AMS was to develop a wide-area spread-spectrum, frequency-hopping technology that would overlay existing one-way paging systems to provide a return path for two-way paging and telemetry services, competing with Motorola ReFLEX 25 technology in the United States.
Nexus filed a lawsuit against American Paging Inc. in January at the American Arbitration Association in New York, claiming the U.S. paging carrier breached the joint-venture agreement.
Nexus claims API breached its obligation to form a consortium of paging carriers to use the return-channel technology and that API refused to acknowledge termination of the joint-venture agreement that breach caused. Nexus said it seeks an arbitration award declaring the joint-venture agreement terminated and asks for about $90 million in damages.
This charge is a result of API’s announcement last year that it cease funding the joint venture to focus instead on repairing its core paging business. Later that year, API announced a merger with Fort Lee, N.J.-based TSR Paging Inc. to form TSR Wireless Inc. That merger was completed March 20.
API’s counter suit alleges that it was Nexus that breached its obligations by failing to establish a nationwide two-way paging system using the technology. API is asking for $100 million in damages.
Nexus said it believes API’s counter lawsuit is “without merit and will continue to pursue vigorously its claims in the arbitration proceeding.”
Officials at American Paging would not comment on the lawsuit or about its past relations with Nexus.
