Quartics Buys Qureshey’s Avaz
By ANDREW SIMONS
Where in the world is Avaz Networks Inc.?
Avaz, an Irvine-based networking company backed by technology entrepreneur Safi Qureshey, quietly was acquired by an Irvine company called Quartics LLC, according to Quartics’ Web site.
The “deal” was inked last year, according to a small mention on the Web site. All of Avaz’s workers joined Quartics as a part of the deal.
“The acquired assets include physical assets, a patent portfolio, all trademarks and other intellectual property rights,” Quartics said in a statement. “Quartics will leverage the engineering talent and the core technologies which Avaz had developed to accelerate development of its solutions and to offer a broader range of services and solutions to its customers. As part of the transaction, Quartics will continue to support Avaz’s customer support obligations.”
Quartics is a privately held maker of networked video communication products, according to the company’s Web site. Avaz develops devices for sending voice and fax information as blocks of data on packet switched networks.
A call to Quartics headquarters seems to indicate that deal might simply be a name change. An attendant who answered said that Quartics only has about 20 people and that Qureshey is one of Quartics’ investors.
Qureshey couldn’t be reached for comment. Inquiries to Quartics’ officials weren’t returned.
Qureshey is best known as the founder of AST Research Inc. The now-defunct Irvine company once ranked among the top computer makers before crashing hard in the mid-1990s.
Samsung Electronics Co. bought AST in 1997 and later dissolved the business.
Qureshey funded Avaz in 2000 through his Irvine Ventures LLC investment firm. He was Avaz’s chairman and chief executive.
Qureshey’s venture firm had a big initial hit that later fizzled. The first company backed by Irvine Ventures was San Francisco-based NextCard Inc., the online credit card issuer. Qureshey provided seed funding for NextCard and had been a director since 1997.
NextCard, which went public in early 1999, was among the first companies to offer instant online credit approvals and initially soared on Wall Street.
But federal regulators shut down the credit card operation in 2002. NextCard filed for bankruptcy protection that year.
Avaz had raised $15.5 million in funding. Investors included Irvine Ventures, San Bruno’s VantagePoint Venture Partners and San Diego’s Sorrento Associates Inc.
Avaz went through hard times during the meltdown of the telecommunications industry in the past three years. Avaz employed about 50 people,including 40 in Qureshey’s native Pakistan,at the time of the Quartics deal. At its peak, Avaz counted 120 people.
The company also changed gears by pitching its products to other industries, such as cable and wireless.
Other Orange County startups that initially targeted telecom customers also have refocused on cable. Irvine startup OpVista Inc. recently hired a cable industry veteran as its chief executive and is looking for more cable customers.
Qureshey has been busy in the past year. He served on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s transition team last year. He now is a director at Powerwave Technologies Inc., a Santa Ana maker of wireless amplifiers.
