To strengthen its position in the high-growth wireless communications sector, RF communications products supplier PCTEL Inc., Chicago, Ill., has entered into an agreement to acquire selected assets associated with Andrew Corporations' mobile antenna business. The company has agreed to pay $10 million in cash for the selected assets. These include Andrew's GPS, On-Glass, and Antenna Specialists’ brand of professional antenna products. These product lines will now be developed, manufactured and supported by PCTEL's Maxrad Product Group, which in turn was acquired from Andrew early this year. The acquisition is expected to be completed within the next 30 days.

To restructure its manufacturing operations, PCTEL is purchasing a 75,000-square-foot building in Bloomingdale, Ill., that will house all its antenna brands, including Maxrad. The company is moving manufacturing from two of Andrew's factories in Mexico to this new facility and will increase its headcount here by about 45 employees. At the same time, it will sell its existing Hanover Park, Ill., facility.

With this acquisition, the company estimates that it will achieve more than $40 million in antenna-related revenue in 2005. Some of these products include the well-known Antenna Specialists line of professional antennas, as well as Andrew Corporation's Micropulse GPS antenna products and the legacy Antenna Company mobile products.

"We are committed to grow the antenna business and to provide Steve Deppe (Maxrad Product Group's president) and his team the resources to develop Maxrad into a global supplier of high-quality antenna products," said Marty Singer, PCTEL's chairman and CEO. "The addition of these product lines, which are complementary to Maxrad products, is consistent with this strategy," added Singer.

Separately, Andrew will discontinue service and manufacturing for its automotive antenna product line. Existing automotive antenna customers will be transitioned to alternative suppliers. Andrew expects to record a $7.1 million pre-tax loss in its fiscal fourth quarter related to exiting the automotive and mobile antenna product lines. Combined sales for the automotive and mobile antenna product lines were $29 million in fiscal 2004

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