AILING FIRM TO GET AID ACCELERATED HIRING FINANCIAL CONSULTANT.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer

MOORPARK - Financially troubled Accelerated Networks Inc., a communications products maker whose stock price plunged 99 percent in the past year, said Tuesday it has hired a financial adviser to help sort out its problems.

Palo Alto-based Alliant Partners, which specializes in technology sectors mergers and acquisitions, will review a variety of options for the company. They could include divestiture of one or more product lines, joint product development in the U.S. and Europe and a corporate partner, Accelerated Networks said in a statement.

``The reason the company has hired Alliant is to pursue what options we have to maximize shareholder value,'' said H. Michael Hogan, the company's chief financial officer.

Alliant Partners specializes in working with middle-market technology companies.

And it is clear from company financial statements and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that there is a lot of work to do.

This has been a tough ride for Moorpark-based Accelerated Networks, which designs and sells telecommunications products that enable the bundling of voice and data services along a single broadband network.

Not only has the stock price been in a free fall - in the last 18 months shares have plunged from a high of $67.50 to as low of 31 cents - the company had been hit with a series of lawsuits related to restating of sales for the second quarter of 2000 and activities by underwriters during the company's initial public offering.

The company denies any wrongdoing.

Those suits are in the process of being consolidated, Hogan said.

In the first quarter, the most current available, the company reported a net loss of $13.9 million, or 28 cents a share, on sales of $1.6 million. This compared with a net loss of $8.8 million, or $2.44, on sales of $7.2 million in the like period a year ago.

The company attributes the losses to the deterioration of the telecommunications equipment market.

``The trends have not been good in this sector at all,'' Hogan noted.

And a filing with the SEC does not suggest things will improve anytime soon.

The first quarter report filed with the SEC notes that Accelerated Networks has a limited operating history and that it has lost $105 million since its inception.

``We have incurred significant losses ... and expect that our net losses and negative cash flow will continue for the foreseeable future,'' the document indicated.

According to the document, company sales for the year ending Dec. 31, 2000, totaled $34.2 million.

``We expect our net revenue to significantly decrease in the near future, and we cannot assure you that we will ever generate sufficient net revenue to achieve or sustain profitability,'' the company said.

Hogan said that this kind of language is often used when risk sections are being written.

``When you create the risk sections in (the SEC reports) you are trying to advise the investment community what the potential issue are. And we are being conservative, which is normal,'' Hogan said.

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ACCELERATED NETWORKS (ACCL)

SOURCE: Daily News research