Vivato Hires Crisis CEO

Troubled wireless LAN startup Vivato Inc. has tapped the chairman and CEO of crisis management firm Regent Pacific, Gary J. Sbona, as its new head man.

According to Regent Pacific’s Website, the firm specializes “in the restructuring, recovery and renewal of underperforming companies.” An employee at Regent Pacific confirmed that Sbona will continue to hold his position at the firm while taking the CEO reigns at Vivato.

A spokesman for Vivato admits that the vendor has “a new CEO and management team” but could not provide further details. According to industry scuttlebutt, most of the VPs listed on its management team Website page have been axed.

Sbona is the third CEO to take the top spot at Vivato, following the departure of Don Stalter and the original chief, Ken Biba (see Vivato's New Broom, Vivato Shuffles Management, and Vivato CEO Steps Down).

Officially launched in November 2002, the company has raised a total of $67 million in VC funding but has never been far from speculation surrounding its health (see Vivato: Shaken & Stirred Up and Vivato Cuts Again). Last year the vendor made a high-profile move away from the 802.11 switch business, focusing instead on metropolitan-area networking and other large-scale deployments (see Vivato Switches Sides and Vivato Goes Wide).

A recent message board posting on Unstrung suggests Vivato closed its San Mateo, Calif., headquarters earlier this month, leaving its R&D office in Spokane, Wash., as its primary business outfit. Vivato would not comment on this matter.

— Justin Sbringham, Senior Editor, Europe, Unstrung