Lake Forest-based electronics maker Comarco Inc. is selling its business making and servicing emergency roadside call boxes for about $3 million in cash.
Comarco, which has seen roughly half of its sales vanish in the past year, sold the call box business in a management-led buyout to Case Systems LLC.
Case Systems appears to be a holding company set up and run by Comarco executive Sebastian Gutierrez, general manager of the call box business.
The move is part of Comarco’s bid to get out of red ink.
Last year, it hired Palo Alto-based Pagemill Partners LLC to help review its business and “improve shareholder value.”
“The sale of our call box business is an important step in our strategy to extract value from our non-strategic assets,” Chief Executive Sam Inman said.
The company has two other businesses.
It makes power adapters that charge notebook computers, cell phones and other mobile gear.
It also makes software and equipment used to test and maintain wireless networks.
Comarco is set to focus on its power adapter line of products, called ChargeSource, after the call box business is sold off, Inman said.
Comarco’s had a rough year.
It’s faced complaints by shareholders in response to its plunging stock price. A good number of its executives have left.
Shares are off some 50% in the past 12 months with a market value of about $20 million. No analysts track the stock.
Last year the company lost nearly half of its revenue when a big contract for its ChargeSource products came to an end. Comarco has yearly sales of $23 million.
In a separate announcement Tuesday Comarco’s board made permanent positions held by Inman and finance chief Winston Hickman.
Both Inman and Hickman have held the posts on an interim basis since March.
Inman, a veteran of IBM Corp. and other technology companies, was named interim president and chief executive to replace longtime leader Thomas Franza, who stepped down from the post and gave up his seat on the board.
Franza ran the company since 2000 and stayed on as a consultant.
Hickman replaced former chief financial officer Daniel Lutz, who stepped down earlier this year.
Comarco’s chairman, Erik van der Kaay, also stepped down a few months ago.
The board picked Jeffrey Hultman, chief executive of Los Angeles-based IPTV Corp. as its lead director.
Last month, Comarco added Robert Majteles to the board.
Majteles is founder and managing partner of Berkeley-based investment firm Treehouse Capital LLC.
