Boingo to focus on DAS, carrier offload, military and multifamily housing
According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and based on comment by the company, Boingo Wireless is dividing its business between “core” and “legacy” units. Along with this shift, the company is eliminating 80 employees, 16% of its workforce, in an effort to save $11 million in annual operating costs.
The SEC document, signed by CFO Peter Hovenier, characterizes legacy business as “retail and advertising” while “core” businesses are delineated as: “providing services to wireless carriers,” “generating business on military bases and,” “growing the company’s multifamily business.”
A company spokesperson told RCR Wireless News in an emailed statement, “Our business has changed significantly over the past few years, with the growth of DAS, carrier offload, military and multifamily. Yet key parts of our organization are still aligned around what we consider ‘legacy’ products, like retail Wi-Fi and advertising…Legacy products will be managed to maximize profitability with minimal incremental investment.”
“While this difficult step was a necessary one, it will not impact our strategy of continuing to acquire key strategic venues to monetize with our carrier services technologies. We remain committed to investing in the core areas of our business.”
In February, Boingo’s board of directors announced that Mike Finley, formerly a Qualcomm executive, would take over for the retiring David Hagan. Hagan led the company through an IPO in 2011.
When Boingo reported its most recent quarterly financials, the company tallied two new DAS installs during Q3 for a total of 71 live DAS venues comprising more than 37,000 nodes. At the time Finely said there’s another 62 DAS venues in the pipeline. The company has also been pushing new technologies like Wi-Fi 6 and CBRS.
In 2018, Boingo made public its $28 million acquisition of Elauwit Networks, a Wi-Fi provider focused on serving student housing and multifamily dwellings.
According to the form 8-K, the board approved the reorg and staff reduction on Dec. 11 and, “Affected employees have received notification and are eligible to receive severance payments based on their responsibilities within the organization and years of service, contingent upon an affected employee’s execution (and non-revocation) of a separation agreement, which includes a general release of claims against the company.”
Boingo said it expects the restructuring “to be completed in early 2020.”
