Hytera America and Hytera America (West) are seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing ongoing lawsuits brought by Motorola Solutions and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In a statement, the company said that it plans to use the Chapter 11 restructuring process to address the issues caused by those two events.
“Nearly 20 years ago, Hytera began partnering with American dealers and bringing the most innovative and valuable LMR solutions to the market, while constantly seeking to improve support and service to our dealers and customers,” Hytera America President Alla Huang said in a statement. “We remain committed to our tradition of excellence and are confident in our sustainable growth for the future. We look forward to introducing our new product lines such as Hytera HALO nationwide group communications, a total solution of PoC (push-to-talk over cellular) hardware, software and cloud services, as well as facial recognition and temperature-measuring integrated access control solution and next-generation Digital Mobile Radio (DMR).”
Additionally, Hytera said that it is working with it dealers to help first responders and medical organizations combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. During the past few months, Hytera has donated two-way radios to multiple hospitals in cities such as New York.
In its voluntary petition for bankruptcy, Hytera America estimated that it has 1,000 – 5,000 creditors, and estimated that it had $10 million – $50 million in assets against $500 million – $1 billion in liabilities. A large portion of the liabilities includes legal damages owed to Motorola Solutions.
In February, a jury for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois awarded Motorola $764.6 million in damages. The damages to Motorola are the single largest claim on the petition. The next largest claim is for $620,231 to SAF Tehnika, which is listed as a trade debt. Most of the other outstanding claims are trade debts to various companies ranging from $3,000 – $120,000.
Hytera filed a motion for a new trial contending that the jury erred in awarding the damages to Motorola and that the court was prejudiced against it during the trial. If the court chooses not to grant a new trial, Hytera asked it to reduce the damages awarded by the jury.
Meanwhile, Motorola has filed motions for both a temporary and permanent restraining order that would prevent Hytera from selling or distributing any product found to use Motorola’s trade secrets. Motorola has asked the court to move on the temporary restraining order as quickly as possible to prevent any continued damages to its business while the court considers the other post-trial motions. Motorola has also filed a motion seeking attorneys’ fees and other costs related to the litigation.
A mediation session to discuss the various post trial issues in the case is set for May 28. The court will likely not make a decision on many of the post-trial motions until sometime in late August or September.
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