Brad Weinert, president of San Diego-based Novatel Wireless, has suddenly left the company and won’t be replaced. Peter Leparulo, chairman and CEO of the maker of wireless broadband access solutions for carriers and OEMs – which has a research and development operation in Calgary – said in a release that with Weinert’s departure, “we will operate with a more streamlined management structure and his responsibilities will be taken over by the senior management team.”
In May the company’s audit committee began investigating the booking of several transactions, which resulted in some $34. million in revenue and expenses being shifted from the first to the second quarter. The committee concluded in September that no restatement of the financial statements is required, nor was any misconduct by senior management found. But it did recommend certain procedural changes.
The news comes as Novatel Wireless announced that in the first half of next year it will release the pocket-sized MiFi line of intelligent mobile hotspots. MiFi devices create what the company calls “a personal cloud of high-speed Internet connectivity” that can be shared between multiple users and Wi-Fi devices such as laptops, cameras, gaming devices and multimedia players through a cellular connection. An internal battery is said to provide over forty hours standby and up to four hours of active use on a single charge. Pricing was not announced.