Here today, gone tomorrow?

As seems to often be the case with nimble start-ups, who presumably spend more time on getting things done than on managing their PR flow, there's no sign of it on xG Technologies' own site, but Reuters' wire service is reporting this morning that the company has appointed CSFB as advisors. I presume this relates to a trade sale rather than an IPO, which the story states is not on the cards. I think this may be another case in point of what Tom Evslin was writing about a few days back: "The VC industry has been disrupted by compression of the time between when a company first needs money and the time it is an acquisition candidate."

This company pretty much operated in complete stealth mode for three years, up until a few months back, when it began making some select xMax demonstrations for the tech press (and presumably the industry), and claims to have raised only $19m to date, from a group of not terribly well-known investors, including Mooers Branton, Swiss brokerage AHC, Ehf (which I guess might be the German semiconductor research center, as opposed to the European Handball Federation, but that's unclear), and Thorvaldsenstraeti (which as far as I know is a street in Reykjavik). Now it appears to me that it may be on the way to an early trade sale, minus the rash of Flarion-esque partner trials, carrier evaluations, and press releases (the Reuters story quotes the company as saying xMax products will be available in mid-'06). My own picks for interested parties would be Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, Cisco, Alcatel, roughly in that order. Any other ideas out there? Send them my way.

UPDATE: A Palladium Club mega-uber value reader writes in to remind me rightly that this company has been surrounded by more than a bit of mystery and skepticism. However, he also adds that, assuming everything is validated to the market's satisfaction, we would almost certainly have to count Samsung among those with more than a passing interest.