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UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K

     
(Mark One)
   
þ
  ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934.
 
    For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002
 
or
 
o
  TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934.
 
    For the transition period from           to

Commission file number 000-26963

Netro Corporation

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
     
Delaware   77-0395029
(State of incorporation)   (IRS Employer Identification No.)

3860 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95134

(408) 216-1500
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code,
of Registrant’s principal executive offices)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Common Stock, $.001 per share par value


      Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days:     Yes þ     No o.

      Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant’s knowledge, in the definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.     o

      Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2):     Yes þ     No o.

      The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $58,630,594, computed by reference to the last sales price reported on The Nasdaq Stock Market on June 28, 2002.

      There were 38,687,729 shares of the registrant’s common stock issued and outstanding as of March 1, 2003.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

      None.




TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I
Item 1. Business
Item 2. Properties
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
Item 4. Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
PART II
Item 5. Market for the Registrant’s Common Stock and Related Stockholder Matters
Item 6. Selected Consolidated Financial Data
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants and Financial Disclosure
PART III
Item 10. Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant
Item 11. Executive Compensation
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions
Item 14. Controls and Procedures
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules and Reports On Form 8-K
SIGNATURES
CERTIFICATIONS
EXHIBIT INDEX
EXHIBIT 10.16
EXHIBIT 10.17
EXHIBIT 10.18
EXHIBIT 21.1
EXHIBIT 23.1
EXHIBIT 99.1


Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

                 
Page

PART I
  Item  1.     Business     2  
  Item  2.     Properties     10  
  Item  3.     Legal Proceedings     10  
  Item  4.     Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders     12  
PART II
  Item  5.     Market for Registrant’s Common Stock and Related Stockholder Matters     13  
  Item  6.     Selected Consolidated Financial Data     14  
  Item  7.     Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations     16  
  Item  7A.     Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk     35  
  Item  8.     Financial Statements and Supplementary Data     36  
  Item  9.     Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure     64  
PART III
  Item  10.     Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant     64  
  Item  11.     Executive Compensation     67  
  Item  12.     Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters     73  
  Item  13.     Certain Relationships and Related Transactions     75  
  Item  14.     Controls and Procedures     75  
PART IV
  Item  15.     Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules and Reports on Form 8-K     75  
Signatures     80  
Certifications     81  

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PART I

 
Item 1.      Business

      Certain matters discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K contain certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding our business strategy, product capability, financial condition, results of operation and business. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “plan,” “intend” and similar expressions, as they relate to Netro, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors including, but not limited to, economic, key employee, competitive, regulatory, governmental and technological factors affecting our growth, operations, markets, products, services, licenses and other factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in the section entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” We cannot be sure that any of our expectations will be realized.

Overview

      We design, market and sell broadband, point-to-multipoint, fixed wireless equipment. Telecommunications service providers use our equipment as an alternative to using wired connectivity or point-to-point fixed wireless equipment. The three principal applications for our products are:

  •  Providing voice and high speed data access connections to residences, which we do principally through our Angel product line,
 
  •  Providing voice and high speed data access connections for businesses, which we do principally through our AirStar® product line, and
 
  •  Connecting mobile phone base stations to the core telecommunications network, which we do through our AirStar product line.

      We began commercially shipping our first point-to-multipoint product, AirStar, in 1998 and have a significant installed base for this product. AirStar operates at the higher end of the licensed frequency spectrum (10 - 39 GHz) with support for an additional frequency at the lower range (3.5 GHz).

      In February of 2002 we acquired from AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. their fixed wireless development team, a license to intellectual property, equipment and proprietary software assets. This product, called Angel, was commercially deployed in the United States by AT&T Wireless, however since acquiring it, we have modified the Angel platform to conform to international standards and we are marketing this product line principally in international locations. Angel operates at the lower end of the licensed frequency spectrum (1.9 - 3.5 GHz). To date, we have not had material sales of Angel.

      Both the AirStar and Angel platforms have been designed to minimize the costs of deployment and operation and to permit operators to offer a broad range of voice, Internet Protocol, or “IP”, and data services. We offer complete solutions that operate at point-to-multipoint frequencies licensed in every major geography in the world, including Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America, which we believe is a significant competitive advantage.

      We were incorporated in California on November 14, 1994 and were reincorporated in Delaware on June 19, 2001. Our principal corporate offices are located at 3860 North First Street, San Jose, California 95134.

The Netro Solution

      The global telecommunications industry has experienced substantial deregulation during the past several years. Simultaneously, the emergence of the Internet and other telecommunications services has increased the demand for bandwidth. In addition, we believe that there is a growing demand for public telecommunications voice services in some less developed countries where the number of telephone lines per 100 inhabitants, known as teledensity, is below 10.0, but there is significant per capita income growth. This is driving local

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access service providers to upgrade their networks and increase their service offerings. However, the public telecommunications infrastructure does not currently meet all the public access demand and therefore fixed wireless access systems have emerged as an alternative to copper wired infrastructure for telephony and access to the Internet. Fixed wireless technology is an attractive solution for network access needs, since it offers quick deployment, independence from the limitations of an existing wired network, lower infrastructure costs and lower operating costs.

      At the same time that deregulation and the emergence of the Internet have influenced telecommunications networks around the world, governments are also licensing mobile service providers to use new spectrum for advanced mobile phone services that include both voice calls and data functionality, such as Internet browsing. This next generation of cellular phone service, typically referred to as 3G, is expected to require significantly more hub sites than existing cellular topologies. In addition, these hub sites will be transmitting not only voice, but also high speed data traffic. We believe that point-to-multipoint technology such as AirStar can be a more efficient and cost-effective alternative for connecting these 3G cellular hubs to the core mobile network than alternate methods, such as leased lines and point-to-point radios.

      Our AirStar system operates at the higher licensed frequencies (10 - 39 GHz, with a low frequency version for 3.5 GHz) and is designed to allow service providers to offer a wide range of high speed data and voice services to small and mid-sized enterprises and to enable mobile service providers to deploy cost effective transmission infrastructure for their 3G cellular networks. AirStar has an impressive track record of performance and stability across a worldwide installed base. AirStar can handle a wide range of services providing on-demand bandwidth and allowing for oversubscription of available spectrum, thereby allowing service providers to maximize revenues from their broadband wireless installation.

      Our Angel system operates at the lower licensed frequencies (1.9 - 3.5 GHz) and is designed to offer residences and small businesses primary voice and high speed data services with speeds similar to those offered by DSL. Angel uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, or “OFDM”, to allow service providers non-line-of-sight coverage within a cell, to ensure that up to 95 percent of the population within a given cell will be covered by the base station. This non-line-of-sight capability, along with the quality of the services offered by Angel, make it a leading edge solution. Angel was deployed in the United States to 47,000 subscribers and was the first solution of its kind to be mass deployed and field proven.

      Both AirStar and Angel are designed to provide the following benefits to service providers:

  •  Carrier Class Voice and High Speed Data Services. Many existing high speed access technologies are optimized for either voice or data traffic. However, offering both voice and data services can increase the average revenue per user a service provider can realize. Voice traffic requires fixed-speed, low-capacity transmissions, while data traffic requires variable-speed, high-capacity transmissions. Consequently, network operators wishing to carry both types of traffic, whether because they offer access solutions or are aggregating mobile phone traffic, often must choose among setting aside capacity to service peak transmission data traffic requirements, which typically requires installing more base stations, allowing degradation of service during heavy usage, or servicing a smaller number of subscribers. In contrast, service providers using the Angel or AirStar systems can support voice and high speed data from the same system without having to make these performance compromises.
 
  •  Cost-Effective Deployment and Operation. Both AirStar and Angel use point-to-multipoint deployment architectures. By employing a point-to-multipoint architecture, one hub radio can serve multiple subscriber radios. This results in lower total radio costs than point-to-point architectures in which each radio can communicate with only one other radio. In addition, a significant portion of the cost to build an AirStar or Angel network is directly related to subscriber growth. To add subscribers in a sector, a provider simply installs equipment at the subscriber’s premises and activates the service remotely, allowing the service provider to incur costs concurrently with the subscriber growth. The Angel system also uses OFDM and therefore allows non-line-of-sight deployment, meaning that there is up to a 95 percent chance in a given cell that a subscriber can indeed be connected to the network even if the path between the subscriber and the hub is obstructed. This reduces capital expenditures in terms of the number of hubs that need to be deployed and reduces service provider operating costs since there

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  are fewer cases where, due to unanticipated coverage gaps, a service technician will fail to connect a subscriber who has requested service.
 
  •  Quality of Service and Reliability. Service providers using Netro’s products can deploy bundles of voice and high speed data services at different price points to different market segments with high levels of service availability. In addition, AirStar permits differentiated service levels among subscribers. AirStar can prioritize transmissions depending on their source and type, and fill available transmission capacity with lower priority transmissions. Furthermore, Netro’s products are engineered to enable service providers to offer the same high reliability and availability for services that traditional service providers have historically offered for voice services. Reliability is accomplished through an error correction algorithm, redundancy and comprehensive network management software.
 
  •  Global Market Coverage. We currently offer products to address point-to-multipoint licensed frequencies in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, and South America. We are also in the process of adapting our products to additional frequencies to address new markets and new spectrum auctions ongoing in our existing markets. We believe our experience around the world makes our products more attractive to service providers with multi- country strategies and enhances our ability to apply learning from established markets to developing markets.
 
  •  Rapid Time to Market. Service providers using Netro’s products can achieve rapid time to market for integrated voice and high speed data connections through efficient installation, network management software and the ability to dynamically allocate capacity among subscribers. Service providers that we target have typically committed a high level of capital investment to enter the high speed wireless telecommunications services market, and thus are focused on quickly realizing a return on their investment. Our systems are scalable and allow service providers to rapidly offer new services to existing or incremental subscribers within a coverage area by a simple software command and a radio installation that is automatically configured by the base station with little technician intervention. By installing one base station, the service provider can attain coverage of many potential subscribers. For example, an AirStar cell operating at the 26 GHz frequency band can cover ranges from 5 to 15 square miles, depending on local conditions, and has a transmission capacity of over 600 Mbps. Compared to other high speed, wire-based technologies that often require lengthy and expensive upgrades before offering service or do not support integrated voice and data services, our products allow a service provider to rapidly deploy integrated voice and high speed data services as demand warrants.

Strategy

      Our objective is to be the leading worldwide supplier of broadband wireless, point-to-multipoint equipment used by telecommunications service providers. Key elements of our strategy include the following:

      Reduce Product Costs. We believe that a key element to enabling the market for fixed broadband wireless is to reduce the cost per customer served and improve the business case for the service provider. We have reduced the cost of our 26 GHz AirStar customer premise equipment by more than 50 percent in the past twelve months. We are in the process of applying this platform to other AirStar frequencies. In addition, we have recently embarked on a similar process for our Angel products, which we expect to be complete during the first half of 2003.

      Focus on Large Influential Service Providers. We believe the best way to increase product sales and overall market acceptance of our products is by establishing our products in the networks of the largest and most influential service providers, particularly those who have networks in multiple countries. Given the limited sales and marketing resources that we possess, we are focusing our direct sales and customer support efforts on these service providers while utilizing distributors and value added resellers for other customers.

      Capitalize on Technology Expertise. We have dedicated ourselves to bringing technologically advanced, innovative and cost effective solutions to the broadband fixed wireless market. We believe that our expertise in relevant core technologies and our customer oriented approach to product definition and development have enabled us to achieve technological leadership in the broadband fixed wireless market.

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      Leverage our Leadership Position. We believe that AirStar is one of the most mature point-to-multipoint broadband wireless systems and has one of the largest worldwide installed bases. We have deployed the AirStar in several commercial networks worldwide including in Europe, South America and Asia. Similarly, Angel was the first solution of its kind to be mass deployed and field proven, and was deployed to over 47,000 residences in the United States. We intend to leverage our successful commercial deployments at our existing AirStar service providers by extending our sales into the networks that those same service providers are establishing in other countries and by using these customers as reference accounts for new service providers. We intend to capitalize on Angel’s maturity and capabilities in the low frequency market segment to enter into international markets we are targeting for Angel.

Products and Technology

      We currently develop, market and sell the AirStar product for access offerings to small and mid-sized businesses and mobile infrastructure, and the Angel platform for access offerings to residences and small businesses. Each of our product lines is comprised of three principal components:

  •  Customer Premise Equipment, which includes a radio element which sends and receives signals to and from the hub equipment, and a digital signal processing unit, which connects and provides interfaces to the end-user’s telecommunications and/or data network;
 
  •  Hubs, which include several radio elements that each send and receive signals from multiple customer premise equipment units and an aggregation unit, which aggregates data from the outdoor units and interfaces to the telecommunications service provider’s core network; and
 
  •  Network Management Software, which controls and monitors the operation of hubs and customer premise equipment.

      We believe our AirStar and Angel products have industry-leading technologies including air interface technology, software and hardware implementations, advanced networking architecture, radio transmission technology and networking software capabilities. Key technology elements of Netro products include the following:

      Air Interface Protocol. We believe our products’ proprietary air interface protocols maximize the benefit of our point-to-multipoint architecture, and advanced peak traffic management techniques. Our air interface technology for AirStar, CellMACTM, schedules transmissions from each subscriber in very small increments. It allows subscribers to request additional capacity from the base station for peak demand data services through a capacity reservation mechanism that requires little wasted radio frequency. The base station can prioritize the requests according to service level agreements and allocates just enough capacity or time slots to enable the transfer of each transmission. Our air interface technology for Angel uses OFDM, which allows deployment in non-line-of-sight mode. In addition, Angel’s air interface technology supports adaptive modulation, thereby increasing bandwidth to some subscribers and doing the opposite for others, all based on a dynamic analysis of the link characteristics for each subscriber. This results in a larger effective transmission capacity and better bandwidth utilization. Angel’s air interface technology also supports circuit-switched voice services and packet data services, with data capacity allocated on demand.

      Effective Combination of Voice and Data. In AirStar, the CellMAC air interface utilizes asynchronous transfer mode, or ATM, to efficiently combine voice and data onto a single stream. This transports voice and data traffic simultaneously and maintains a guaranteed quality of service for each traffic type. Using this architecture, capacity for services can be provided based on average throughput requirements rather than peak throughput requirements. As a result, the capacity of the transmission is increased, resulting in better use of radio frequency and thus lower equipment expenditures. Our Angel technology carries circuit switched voice over narrow channels, without any degradation in voice quality. This leaves more bandwidth for dynamic sharing of data services.

      Radio Technology. Since our inception, we have worked extensively on radio designs and volume manufacturing processes to create robust yet cost-effective radios that support advanced radio technology and peak demand transmission capabilities. The current AirStar radios are fourth generation designs. Current

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Angel radios are third generation designs and we are in the process of developing fourth generation designs which will reduce cost and enhance performance.

      Carrier Class Management Software. We believe that the network management systems we offer provide a significant competitive advantage. Our software architecture and use of object-oriented design principles for both real-time and network management software are key to making our software modular and adjustable to additional communications protocols. Our software extends the ability of our systems to enable the inter-working of voice protocols and support the concentration of voice traffic.

Sales and Marketing

      We have sales representatives in Mexico, China, France, Germany, Singapore and Spain, as well as in Florida, Redmond, Washington and in our corporate headquarters in San Jose, California. We sell our products indirectly through original equipment manufacturers, or “OEMs”, and local resellers in addition to through our direct sales force. In addition, we offer installation and maintenance services through our system integration partners and third-party installation and support organizations.

      During 2002, most of our sales were direct or through local resellers who rely heavily on Netro sales personnel and we expect this to continue in the future. In determining which accounts are appropriate for direct sales, we try to identify those that are key early adopters that can help drive our product feature sets in a manner that will better address the needs of the marketplace as a whole. These customers usually have the ability to install, integrate, service and maintain their systems themselves. For customers requiring significant installations integration and maintenance services, we typically sell our product through OEMs.

      Revenues by geography based on to the location of our original customers were as follows:

                                                 
Percentage of Total
Revenues Revenues


2002 2001 2000 2002 2001 2000






Latin America
  $ 1,815     $ 9,872     $ 6,661       11 %     42 %     10 %
Europe
    12,998       6,028       1,447       76       25       2  
Middle East
    471       482       40       3       2        
Asia
    910       468       192       5       2        
     
     
     
     
     
     
 
International
    16,194       16,850       8,340       95       71       12  
United States
    913       6,809       60,187       5       29       88  
     
     
     
     
     
     
 
    $ 17,107     $ 23,659     $ 68,527       100 %     100 %     100 %
     
     
     
     
     
     
 

      Substantially all of our United States revenues are related to products sold to OEMs and local resellers. In both 2001 and 2000, almost all of their end customers were located outside of the United States. In 2002, $0.4 million of the United States revenues were for an end user located in the United States.

      We derive the substantial majority of our revenues from an international customer base. International sales are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those described under “Risk Factors — If we are unable to manage our international operations effectively, our business would be adversely affected.” Regardless of the distribution channel that services the account, our direct sales force maintains contact with the service provider and the system integrator account team. This contact keeps us close to the evolving needs of the service providers and helps ensure that we are well positioned within each account.

      Our marketing group provides marketing support services for our executive staff, our direct sales force and for our OEMs and resellers. Through our marketing activities, we provide technical and strategic sales support to our direct sales personnel and system integrators or resellers including in-depth product presentations, technical manuals, sales tools, pricing, marketing communications, marketing research, trademark administration and other support functions. Our marketing group is also responsible for product management activities throughout each product’s lifecycle. These include the definition of product features, approval of product releases and specification of enhancements to our future product and service offerings.

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Customers

      Historically, the predominant portion of our revenues have come from sales to OEMs who have in turn resold Netro products to competitive phone service providers in Europe. We have implemented a strategy centered around changing our customer base to incumbent phone service providers and mobile service providers. Although the majority of our revenues in 2002 were ultimately related to installations by competitive phone service providers, our strategy for future growth is dependent on the acceptance of our products by these new target customers.

      Revenues from customers that comprised more that 10 percent of revenue were as follows:

                                                 
Percentage of Total
Revenues Revenues


2002 2001 2000 2002 2001 2000






Lucent
  $ 6,891     $ 7,110     $ 59,220       40 %     30 %     86 %
Techtel
    *       7,007       *       *       30       *  
Condumex
    *       2,390       *       *       10       *  
     
     
     
     
     
     
 
Aggregate amount
  $ 6,891     $ 16,507     $ 59,220       40 %     70 %     86 %
     
     
     
     
     
     
 


Revenues less than 10 percent for period

      See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Operations and Manufacturing

      Our manufacturing activities, based in our San Jose and Redmond facilities, consist primarily of prototype manufacturing, final testing and system staging. Our strategy is to outsource manufacturing to contract manufacturers, which have the expertise and ability to achieve cost reductions associated with volume manufacturing and to respond quickly to customer orders while maintaining high quality standards. This also serves to turn some of our fixed costs into variable costs and enables us to share in the purchasing efficiencies enjoyed by these larger manufacturers.

      Our operations and manufacturing groups facilitate technology transfer between our research and development group and the contract manufacturers. We may also use our own manufacturing operation in situations where we need product before the full product is released to external manufacturers.

Research and Development

      We believe that our extensive experience designing and implementing high-quality network and radio components and system software has enabled us to develop high-value integrated systems solutions. As a result of these development efforts, we believe we have created an industry-leading platform for cost-effective high speed wireless voice and data delivery with dynamic allocation of capacity.

      We believe that our future success depends on our continued investment in research and development in core radio, networking and software technologies, particularly in an effort to reduce product cost, and we expect to continue to invest significant resources in this area. Our research and development expenses were $28.0 million in 2002, $25.8 million in 2001 and $24.3 million in 2000. We are committed to an ongoing research and development program that is focused around reducing the manufacturing cost of our products and a continuous assessment of service providers’ needs and technological changes in the communications market.

Customer Advocacy

      A high level of continuing service and support is critical to our objective of developing long-term customer relationships. We consolidate all aspects of our customer service, satisfaction and quality assurance initiatives into a customer advocacy group. Our customer advocacy organization is based in our San Jose

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headquarters. Our customer advocacy organization in San Jose serves as the interface to our research and development group to highlight certain problems and also provides information about customers’ needs to our marketing and research and development organizations. Our customer support model consists of three tiers of support:

  •  local problem isolation, which provides for on-site problem identification and resolution of relatively simple issues;
 
  •  fault isolation and repair, which provides for consultation and instruction by technicians trained by product experts; and
 
  •  expert level support from product engineering experts for the resolution of problems not remedied by the first two levels of support.

      Our main focus is to provide system integrators and first-tier support partners with the ability to provide local support worldwide to service providers, including training, spare parts, maintenance and installation. As most of the hands-on support is provided through system integrators, local resellers, service and installation partners, or the service providers themselves, we focus on offering various training courses to enable system integrators, service and installation partners and service providers to perform both local problem isolation and fault isolation and repair. Currently, the majority of our service and support activities are related to training and installation support for service providers. These services are provided directly at customer installations by our customer advocacy group or remotely by our San Jose headquarters team.

      We have a number of flexible hardware and software maintenance and customer support programs available for products beyond the applicable warranty period, depending on our customer preferences.

Competition

      The market for high speed, wireless, point-to-multipoint telecommunications equipment is rapidly evolving and highly competitive. Increased competition is likely to result in price reductions, shorter product life cycles, longer sales cycles and loss of market share, any of which would adversely affect our business.

      Depending on the market we are addressing, we face different types of competition:

  •  Enterprise Access. As an enterprise access technology, point-to-multipoint fixed wireless solutions compete with wire-based solutions, such as fiber optic cable and leased T1 and E1 lines and wireless solutions, such as point-to-point radios. As a company within the point-to-multipoint fixed wireless industry addressing small and medium enterprise access, we compete through our AirStar product with large OEMs, such as Alcatel, Ericsson and Marconi, as well as with smaller wireless-only companies, such as Alvarion.
 
  •  Residential and Small Business Access. As a residential and small business access technology, point-to-multipoint fixed wireless solutions compete with wire-based solutions, such as DSL and cable modems. As a company within the point-to-multipoint fixed wireless industry addressing residential and small business access, we compete through our Angel product with established wireless local loop vendors, such as Innowave (a division of ECI Telecommunications which has executed an agreement to be acquired by Alvarion), AirSpan and Alvarion, as well as with numerous startup companies that are developing products for our industry.
 
  •  Mobile Infrastructure. As a technology for connecting cellular base stations to the core telecommunications network, point-to-multipoint fixed wireless solutions compete with wire-based solutions such as leased T1 and E1 lines and wireless solutions such as point-to-point radios. As a company within the point-to-multipoint fixed wireless industry addressing cellular infrastructure, we compete through our AirStar product principally with large systems integrators, such as Alcatel, Ericsson and Marconi.

      We expect competition to persist and intensify in the future. Many of our competitors are substantially larger than we are and have significantly greater financial, sales, marketing, technical, manufacturing and other resources and more established distribution channels. These competitors may be able to respond more

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rapidly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements. They may also be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion, sale and financing of their products than we can. Our competitors may also attempt to influence the adoption of standards that are not compatible with our current architecture. Our larger, more established competitors may have more influence with standards-setting bodies than we do. If standards other than ours are adopted, this may require us to incur additional development and integration costs and may delay our sales efforts.

      Some of our competitors may make strategic acquisitions or establish cooperative relationships to increase their ability to gain customer market share rapidly. These competitors may enter our existing or future markets with solutions that may be less expensive, provide higher performance or additional features or be introduced earlier than our solutions. We also expect that other companies may enter our market with better products and technologies. If any technology that is competing with ours is more reliable, faster or less expensive or has other advantages over our technology, then the demand for our products and services would decrease, which would seriously harm our business.

      We expect our competitors to continue to improve the performance of their current products and to introduce new products or new technologies that may supplant or provide lower cost alternatives to our products. To be competitive, we must continue to invest significant resources in research and development, sales and marketing and customer support. We cannot be sure that we will have sufficient resources to make these investments or that we will be able to make the technological advances necessary to be competitive. As a result, we may not be able to compete effectively against our competitors.

Intellectual Property

      We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality agreements and licensing arrangements, to establish and protect our proprietary rights. We presently have five issued United States patents, with additional applications in process. We have also acquired from AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. a license to several patents and numerous patent applications associated with the Angel platform. Although AT&T Wireless has agreed not to license these patents to our competitors for a period of five years from the date of acquisition, we cannot assure that they will enforce their rights against potential infringors. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, existing copyright, trademark and trade secret laws afford only limited protection. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Attempts may be made to copy or reverse engineer aspects of our products or to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. Accordingly, we may not be able to protect our proprietary rights against unauthorized third-party copying or use. Furthermore, policing the unauthorized use of our products is difficult. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. This litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could have a material adverse effect on our future operating results.

      From time to time, third parties may assert patent, copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights to technologies in various jurisdictions that are important to our business. Any claims could be time-consuming to deal with, result in costly litigation, divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel, cause product shipment delays or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, any of which could have an adverse effect on our operating results. Royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may not be available on terms acceptable to us, if at all. In addition, in our sales agreements, we agree to indemnify our customers for any expenses or liabilities resulting from claimed infringements of patents, trademarks or copyrights of third parties. As part of our acquisition of assets from AT&T Wireless, we were assigned by AT&T Wireless, and we assumed, several contracts with third party software vendors. We are required to indemnify AT&T Wireless against claims that arise out of or in connection with the assumed contracts after the date of assignment and against claims that the assigned software infringes the intellectual or proprietary rights of others.

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Employees

      As of December 31, 2002, we employed approximately 134 full-time employees. Our full-time employees include 87 people in research and development, 23 in sales and marketing, and 24 in general and administrative. None of our employees is represented by collective bargaining agreements, and we consider relations with our employees to be good. However, employee retention may be particularly challenging in light of the recent restructurings and the announcement of our decision to pursue strategic opportunities.

Available Information

      Our website is http://www.netro-corp.com. We make our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, our current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports available free of charge on the website.

 
Item 2.      Properties

      We lease an approximately 100,000 square foot facility in San Jose, California, which we use for executive offices and for administrative, AirStar engineering and product development, AirStar prototype manufacturing and sales and marketing purposes. The lease for this facility expires in September 2006. We lease an approximately 175,000 square foot facility in Redmond, Washington, which we use for Angel related engineering, product development and prototype manufacturing purposes. The lease for this facility expires in February 2006. We also maintain leases for executive office space in China, France and Mexico, which do not represent material financial obligations.

 
Item 3.      Legal Proceedings

      Coates Litigation. On or around October 5, 2001, C. Robert Coates, a holder of shares of our common stock, commenced an action in the Delaware Chancery Court against the Company, the former Netro Corporation, which was incorporated in California (“Netro California”), and the members of our board of directors, styled Coates v. Netro Corp., et al., C.A. No. 19154 (“Coates I”). The complaint in Coates I made a number of allegations relating to the approval by the shareholders of Netro California of the merger transaction by which our state of incorporation was changed from California to Delaware and also claimed that the adoption by our board of directors of a stockholder rights plan sometime after that merger transaction was in violation of Delaware law. On November 30, 2001, defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint in Coates I for failure to state a claim. In a decision issued on September 11, 2002, the Delaware Court of Chancery granted defendants’ motion to dismiss. Mr. Coates did not appeal from that decision.

      Separately, on or about December 10, 2001, Mr. Coates filed a complaint in a second action that names as defendants us and certain members of our board of directors, styled Coates v. Netro Corp., et al., C.A. No. 19309 (“Coates II”). Mr. Coates filed an amended complaint in that action in October 2002. In the amended complaint, Mr. Coates challenges a stock option cancellation and regrant program for employees that was adopted by our board of directors in 2001. He also challenges an award of options to our outside directors in July 2001. The complaint seeks an order declaring the options at issue to be invalid and void, rescinding those options, preliminarily and permanently enjoining the exercise of those options, imposing a constructive trust on any such options that were granted to defendants, and awarding monetary damages in an unspecified amount as well as plaintiffs’ attorneys fees and expenses. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the amended complaint on October 18, 2002. During the period for briefing of that motion, the parties reached an agreement in principle to settle the action. Under the proposed settlement: (i) Each of our outside directors (other than Ms. Young, who is not named as a defendant) would agree to forego any award of our options in calendar year 2003; (ii) our governing documents will be amended to reflect that any future option awards to directors must be made by the Compensation Committee of our board of directors; and (iii) the Company and our directors will agree that any future grant of options made to our directors will be publicly disclosed within 30 days after such a grant. The proposed settlement is subject to approval by the Delaware Court of Chancery. In connection with such court approval, plaintiff’s counsel intends to make an application for an award of fees and expenses, which the Company and other defendants have agreed not to oppose up to $40,000.

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      IPO Allocation Litigation. On or around August 23, 2001, Ramiro Soto-Gonzalez, who alleges that he is a former shareholder of our common stock, commenced a purported class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the Company, Richard Moley, Gideon Ben-Efraim and Michael T. Everett (“Individual Defendants”), as well as against Dain Rauscher, Inc., FleetBoston Robertson Stephens, Inc., and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith, Inc. (“Underwriter Defendants”). The action is styled Soto-Gonzalez v. Netro Corporation, Inc., et al., No. 01 Civ. 7993 (S.D.N.Y.). On or around December 6, 2001, Zion Badichi, who alleges that he is a former shareholder of our common stock, commenced a purported class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against us, the Individual Defendants (except Mr. Moley) and the Underwriter Defendants. The action is styled Badichi v. Netro Corporation, Inc., et al., No. 01 Civ. 8348 (S.D.N.Y.).

      The Soto-Gonzalez and Badichi actions are two of more than 1,000 lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against more than 300 different issuers, certain officers and directors of these issuers and more than 45 different underwriters arising out of initial public offerings occurring between December 1997 and December 2000 (collectively “IPO Allocation Litigation”). By Order dated August 9, 2001, Chief Judge Michael B. Mukasey assigned the IPO Allocation Litigation, including the Soto-Gonzalez and Badichi actions, to the Honorable Shira A. Scheindlin for all pre-trial purposes. On September 7, 2001, Judge Scheindlin adjourned the time for all defendants in the IPO Allocation Litigation, including us and the Individual Defendants, to answer, move or otherwise respond to current and future complaints indefinitely pending further instruction from the court. On or about March 2002, the Soto-Gonzalez and Badichi actions were consolidated into a single action styled In re Netro Corp. Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation, No. 01 Civ. 7035, 21 MC 92 (SAS) (“Netro Litigation”). Other lawsuits alleging similar claims arising out of our August 1999 initial public offering against the Underwriter Defendants — but not against us or the Individual Defendants — were also consolidated into the Netro Litigation. Those actions are styled Gutner v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated et al., No. 01 Civ. 7035 (S.D.N.Y.) and Bryant v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated et al., No. 01 Civ. 9184 (S.D.N.Y.).

      On April 19, 2002, plaintiffs filed a consolidated amended class action complaint in the Netro Litigation (“Complaint”). The Complaint alleges claims against the Company arising under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 (“33 Act”) and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, and against the Individual Defendants under Section 10(b), Rule 10b-5 and Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act, and Section 15 of the “33 Act. The claims allege various misconduct arising from our August 1999 initial public offering and March 2000 follow-on offering of our common stock, including, among other things, that the disclosures made in connection with the offerings were incomplete or misleading in various respects. The allegations include, among other things, that we and the Individual Defendants failed to disclose that the Underwriter Defendants: (1) charged us excessive commissions and inflated transaction fees in violation of the securities laws and regulations; and (2) allowed certain investors to take part in our initial public offering in exchange for promises that these investors would purchase additional shares in the after-market for the purpose of inflating and maintaining the market price of our common stock. The Complaint seeks to certify a class of shareholders who purchased our common stock between August 18, 1999 and December 6, 2000, and to recover monetary damages from defendants in an unspecified amount, as well as plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees and expenses in bringing the action.

      On October 9, 2002, the claims against the Individual Defendants were dismissed without prejudice on consent of the parties. In addition, counsel for the plaintiffs, liaison counsel for the issuer defendants and counsel for insurers of the issuer defendants have taken part in continuing discussions mediated by a former federal district court judge to explore a possible settlement of the claims against all of the issuer defendants in the IPO Allocation Litigation, including us.

      The IPO Allocation Litigation in general, and the Netro Litigation in particular, are in an early phase, and no date has yet been set by the court for completion of pre-trial discovery or trial. We believe the claims asserted against us in the Netro Litigation are without merit, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against those claims.

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      FCC Kuwait Litigation. This matter involves a dispute regarding the alleged improper draw down by the Company of a letter of credit opened by Future Communications Company (“FCC”) with the Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East in Kuwait, and the alleged refusal by the Company to accept return by FCC of certain equipment provided to FCC by the Company. At the January 15, 2003, hearing, the Court ruled that Netro Corporation had not yet been properly served. The case has been adjourned until May 2, 2003, at which time FCC will be required to prove completed service of process or risk dismissal. The amount in dispute is approximately $1,013,000 plus interest from December 31, 1999.

      Solectron Arbitration. On or around December 19, 2002, Solectron California Corporation (“Solectron”) demanded arbitration to resolve disputes arising under its May 31, 1998 “Manufacturing Agreement” with Netro. Solectron’s principal claim is that during the third quarter of 2000, it purchased materials on the basis of Netro’s forecasts which were not followed by corresponding orders. Solectron claims that as a result it now has an excess inventory of materials which it cannot sell. Netro vigorously disputes the claims on the ground that the acquisition of material had not been approved by Netro as required by the agreement. The total claim, including the cost of materials and asserted carrying charges, is approximately $14.5 million. The matter is set for mediation which is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2003. Unless the matter is resolved, arbitration will proceed thereafter before the American Arbitration Association.

      From time to time, we are involved in various legal proceedings in the ordinary course of business. We are not currently involved in any additional litigation that, in management’s opinion, would have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition; however, there can be no assurance that any such proceeding will not escalate or otherwise become material to our business in the future.

 
Item 4.      Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

      None.

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PART II

 
Item 5.      Market for the Registrant’s Common Stock and Related Stockholder Matters

Price Range of Common Stock

      Our common stock trades on The Nasdaq National Market under the symbol “NTRO”. As of March 1, 2003, the Company had approximately 368 stockholders of record and the closing price of our common stock was $2.60 per share as reported by The Nasdaq National Market. The following table shows the high and low bid prices of our Common Stock for the periods presented as reported on The Nasdaq National Market:

                 
High Low


2001
               
First Quarter (ended 3/31/01)
  $ 11.63     $ 4.88  
Second Quarter (ended 6/30/01)
    6.25       3.31  
Third Quarter (ended 9/30/01)
    4.00       2.21  
Fourth Quarter (ended 12/31/01)
    4.10       2.36  
2002
               
First Quarter (ended 3/31/02)
  $ 3.94     $ 2.60  
Second Quarter (ended 6/30/02)
    3.01       2.06  
Third Quarter (ended 9/30/02)
    3.70       2.03  
Fourth Quarter (ended 12/31/02)
    3.22       1.56  

      We have not paid dividends on our Common Stock at any time and have no present plans to do so in the future.

      Future stock prices may be subject to volatility, particularly on a quarterly basis. Any shortfall in revenues or operating results from amounts expected by securities analysts or investors could have an immediate and significant adverse effect on the trading price of our stock.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

      None

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Item 6.      Selected Consolidated Financial Data

      You should read the following selected consolidated financial data in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. The consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2002, 2001 and 2000, and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2002 and 2001, are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. The consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 1999 and 1998 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2000, 1999 and 1998 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this Form 10-K. The unaudited selected quarterly data for the years ended December 31, 2002 and 2001 are derived from our unaudited consolidated quarterly financial statements not included in this Form 10-K. The historical results presented below are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for any future fiscal year. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:

                                             
Year Ended December 31,

2002(1) 2001(2) 2000 1999 1998





(In thousands, except per share amounts)
Revenues
  $ 17,107     $ 23,659     $ 68,527     $ 18,185     $ 5,438  
Cost of revenues
    17,167       62,512       52,096       14,874       9,640