Shares of battered Israeli WiMax company Ceragon Networks (NASDAQ: CRNT) are surging today on the heels of a strong earnings report. As reported by Briefing.com: "earnings of $0.13 per share, in-line with the First Call consensus of $0.13; revenues rose 48.0% year/year to $55.2 mln vs the $49.5 mln consensus."

Ira Palti, President and CEO of Ceragon, spoke about strong rising global demand for the company's products. Demand was also strong in the Asia-Pacific region. Shares in Ceragon, along with fellow Israeli WiMax company Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR), have been hit very hard during this bear market, on concerns that WiMax is more hype than a business. Today's earnings from Ceragon reinforce the fact that these companies continue to grow very rapidly and continue to sign deals.

Long term technology investors should keep an eye on this space.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer's fund has a position in both CRNT and ALVR. He has no positions in any other stock mentioned, as of 7/21/08.

While the stock has taken a beating over the last six months, Israeli WiMAX player Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR) continues to sign deal after deal. On Tuesady, the company announced a deal with AccessKenya Group for, "Alvarion to supply WiMAX equipment for what will be the country's largest WiMAX network. AccessKenya will invest $3.5 million to build the network, which will initially include 35 base stations in Nairobi and the port of Mombasa."

Today the company announced another deal. This one is with Balticum TV. Alvarion is "supplying its BreezeMAX network to Balticum TV for deployment in the three Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Alvarion is very strong in the developing world. It has been growing revenues by over 30% a year, and sports more than 225 WiMAX commercial deployments.

If WiMAX never takes hold in North America, that may present some downward pressure on the stock. On the other hand, it is very strong in the developing world. For long-term investors looking for a beaten up company in the WiMAX space, you may want to spend some time researching Alvarion.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer's fund has a position in ALVR and is long the stock. He has no position in any other stock mentioned, as of 5/27/08

Some investors shy away from low priced stocks., but Rick Aristotle Munarriz thinks some stocks under $10 have nice growth potential. Here's his list of five such stocks to consider.

• Alvarion Ltd. (NASDAQ: ALVR) is currently at $8.98; its development trajectory looks impressive if we take into account the fact that it has gained 53% over the past two months. In addition, its quarterly earnings results and its cash-rich balance sheet point to further growth.
• Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI), currently at $2.72, is showing a lot of potential as its subscriber base continues to increase, while reducing its quarterly losses. Munarriz also cites the company's advantages tied to its pending merger with competitor XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR).
• Builders FirstSource Inc. (NASDAQ: BLDR) is currently at $7.48, down from $23 two years ago. Despite the fact that the company's quarterly earnings numbers weren't so good, BLRD was able to gain market share and is nicely positioned for a recovery in the next couple of years.
• Internet Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: INET), currently at $6.48, is seen as a good investment in the current dot-com world. Last week's $1.8 billion decision by CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) to acquire CNET Networks (NASDAQ: CNET) could be a sign that we should consider Internet Brands and its high traffic volume. Internet Brands has several pages that have high advertising potential, and should see this pay off in the future, or lead to a possible buyout by one of the major players.
• Natuzzi (NYSE: NTZ) is currently trading at $3.77. The company is facing some trouble related to its declining revenue and profit, but it is has the advantage of a lot of cash on its balance sheet.

I've focused some of my writing and research on these pages on the hype surrounding WiMAX, an emerging telecommunications technology that could make broadband wireless access a reality. Some of the best WiMAX technology in being developed in Israel by firms like Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR) and Ceragon (NASDAQ: CRNT). In spite of on-again, off-again news coming out of big players like Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S), my thesis has always been that we can debate all we want as to whether WiMAX will hit in the U.S. The truth is that WiMAX is already happening in the rest of the world.

MarketWatch is out with a story this morning about some of the action happening in the telecommunications space surrounding WiMAX. In Big investments rumored for wireless technology, MarketWatch reporter, Therese Poletti takes the usual tack by pointing out both sides of the argument that WiMAX "is full of potential to drive cheaper, high-speed wireless data, voice and video communications, or a dismal failure, depending on who you talk to."

The same article cites a spokesperson for chip-giant, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), as saying that Intel "remains bullish on WiMAX, saying the technology is definitely 'ready for prime time.'"
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Those who think Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is happy being the world's most dominant search engine haven't been reading their tea leaves on the wall (or some mixed metaphor like that).

Google recently exited the FCC's 700 Mhz spectrum auction without winning anything but gaining much. The tech giant persuaded the FCC to open up the wireless networks and won big without having to spend almost $5 billion on licenses. I never thought Google wanted to build out a wireless network, and chooses instead to deliver ads and applications to other operators.

I was interested to read yesterday about Google's further lean on the FCC to open up soon-to-be-unused broadcast spectrum as the U.S. converts to digital TV. Google wants access to these "white spaces" to begin using them to manage a nationwide WiFi network -- free, unlicensed and able to reach much farther than WiFi can today.

Globes is reporting that Israel's Ministry of Communications has approved roll-out of a WiMAX network for Sderot and the Western Negev region.

"The ultimate goal of the project is to enable local citizens to enjoy wireless broadband surfing and to supply internet links to public institutions, among them kindergartens and schools, with state-of-the-art technology," reports Globes.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR), and 012 Smile.Communications (NASDAQ: SMLC) are all involved in the roll-out. Intel, it seems, has donated numerous laptops for the initiative.

This news all follows on the heels of Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S)'s announcement yesterday about its ongoing WiMAX plans.

I've written before about how Alvarion, a small-cap stock winning lots of WiMAX deals, continues to prove that WiMAX is happening internationally, in spite of U.S. delays in rolling out. I also recently interviewed Zach Scheidt, a hedge fund manager, who has been doing the work on 012 Smile.Communications.

WiMAX seems to be happening, providing investors with opportunities to pick their horses.

Zack Miller the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Author's fund owns ALVR as of 1/9/2008.

As I reported last week, Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR) was rumored to have landed a contract with a French mobile carrier for WiMAX deployment. Well, the rumors were true as a deal was announced today. Alvarion signed a deal with French mobile player, Altitude, to supply the nation-wide carrier with Alvarion's Mobile WiMAX™ 4Motion™ solution using the 3.5 GHz frequency band. Research group Broadpoint Capital said in a research note that it estimated the size of the deal to be worth about $4-5 million over two years. Not too shabby.

Alvarion continues to prove that WiMAX is not dead. While Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) and Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) decided to call-off a large U.S. deployment, Alvarion continues to win and secure new client relationships around the world, including Europe and emerging markets. BloggingStocks' Aaron Katsman continues to believe that Sprint's announcement was not a death knell for WiMAX, rather a company-specific problem facing Sprint.

It's also interesting to see that Alvarion beat out home-grown favorite, Alcatel Lucent (NYSE: ALU), to win this contract. This contract, while not large in size, has the potential to grow with time, while carriers like Altitude continue to test WiMAX deployments. Alvarion has over 220 ongoing WiMAX deployments around the world, including some 40 mobile WiMAX tests.

Basic Internet connectivity is still a major focus of countries outside the U.S., and WiMAX looks to be the solution of choice for many foreign telecommunication carriers in terms of cost and speed and ease of deployment. Alvarion is a compelling play for investors betting on the viability of global WiMAX deployment.

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Disclaimer: Author's fund has a position in ALVR as of 12/11/2007.

Many analysts and investors tried to bury WiMAX technology a few weeks ago after Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) decided to walk away from its WiMAX business. News today says Israeli WiMAX pioneer Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR) and European fixed-line giant France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) may be teaming up in a deal estimated to be worth $20 million for Alvarion.

My buddy Zack Miller had a great piece a couple of weeks back on why Israeli WiMAX companies may have a big advantage. Alvarion has created a thriving WiMAX business in emerging markets, and these markets tend to be first movers when it comes to technology like this. Let's not forget that widespread cellphone use and technological advances didn't start in the U.S. In the U.S. everyone had a fixed line that worked. In places like Israel, just to get a line from the phone company could have taken you months.

So what happened? As a way around this, cellphone technology surfaced, and now everyone has a cellphone. Same thing in other emerging markets. Who's not to say that the same thing won't happen with WiMAX? It'll catch on and get really big in emerging markets, and then will get picked up throughout the U.S.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer owns stock in ALVR and is long, he has no position in any other stock mentioned as of 12/05/07.

Sprint/Nextel (NYSE: S) and Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) announced that they're ending their agreement to create a nationwide, high-speed WiMAX network, citing the complexity it would have added to their businesses. Sprint said in a separate statement that it would review its WiMAX business plan and outlook in light of the announcement and plans to make further comments on the topic early next year.

Clearly, Sprint/Nextel has all kinds of internal problems, and trying to build out a project of such magnitude was beyond the realm. It came to its senses, and I would expect management to concentrate on shoring up their core businesses.

For Clearwire, this is clearly bad news. I would now expect all the WiMAX opponents to jump up and down and declare the end of the technology. Remember when Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs announced two years ago, that "WiMAX is dead." Was he right? Well, two big players are still investing heavily in the technology. Both Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) are spending heavily in their WiMAX development.

Lots more quarterly reports rolled out this past week, and here are some highlights of earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) reported more losses and more job cuts.
• Alvarion Ltd.'s (NASDAQ: ALVR) record quarter fuels speculation of a Cisco (NYSE: CSCO) buyout.
• Avon Products Inc.'s (NYSE: AVP) profit rose 61%, buoyed by strength in emerging markets.
• Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) fell short of expectations due to tighter margins.
• CIGNA Corp. (NYSE: CI) had a solid quarter but warned about 2008 earnings.
• Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) blamed profit loss on materals costs, and announced acquistion of Burt's Bees.
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) beat estimates by a penny and had strong sales overseas.
• Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) beat earnings estimates and revised its full-year forecast.
• Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) announced it would restate revenues, ahead of its November quarterly report.
• Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) missed expectations, also due to tighter margins.
• Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ: GIVN) cited FDA approval delays for disappointing results.
• Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) posted record revenues and appointed a new CFO.
• Humana Inc.'s (NYSE: HUM) positive surprise lifted the share price to a new all-time high.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Heelys, Citigroup, Alvarion, UBS AG and Alcatel-Lucent were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• CIBC downgraded Heelys (NASDAQ: HLYS) to Underperformer from Sector Performer. The analyst has little confidence sales will recover following the recent drop.
  
• CIBC also downgraded Citigroup (NYSE: C) to Sector Underperformer from Sector Performer, as they believe the company may have to cut its dividend, raise cash or sell assets in order to raise $30B over the near-term; the firm believes such a move would pressure shares significantly.
  
• Merriman downgraded shares of Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR) to Neutral from Buy after the in-line results as they now believe increased competition will pressure gross margins and minimize operating leverage in FY08.
  
• Merrill downgraded shares of UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) to Neutral from Buy to reflect the potential of further write downs.
  
• Banc of America lowered its rating on Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) to Neutral from Buy to reflect poor execution of the company's turnaround strategy.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Goldman removed Vimpelcom (NYSE: VIP) from its Pan European Buy List and downgraded shares to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Silicon Precision (NASDAQ: SPIL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at ABN Amro.
  
• Lehman downgraded Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AMLN) to Underweight from Equal Weight.
  
• Baird downgraded Dionex (NASDAQ: DNEX) to Underperform from Neutral.

Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR), the world's leading provider of WiMax solutions, today reported record revenue of $60.6 million, up 39% from $43.7 million for the corresponding quarter of 2006. The company posted GAAP-based net profit of $621,000 ($0.01 per share), compared with a net loss of $2.4 million ($0.04 per share for the corresponding quarter last year. Thanks to having positive cash flow of $3.6 million, the company now has $125 million in cash.

Alvarion president and CEO Tzvika Friedman said, "BreezeMAX revenue was more than double the level of a year ago. WiMax shipments remained at a high level, and we ended the quarter with over 200 commercial deployments, up from about 170 at the end of the second quarter. Many of these deployments are still in the early stages, and represent significant opportunities for future expansion."

This is clearly good news both for Alvarion and WiMax in general. They keep signing new deals, and with previously signed deals in early stages, they will have many up-sell opportunities. As the dominant WiMax player in emerging markets, maybe Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) will rethink its strategy and buy Alvarion after all.

Disclosure: Author holds a position in ALVR. He holds no position in any other stock mentioned as of 10/31/07.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com.

Speaking seven languages, Vivian Lewis travels the world to uncover ideas for her Global Investing newsletter. She also monitors research from leading investment firms around the globe to add to her analysis.

To support her own bullish outlook on Israel-based Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR), she cites analyst Ehud Eisenstein of Oscar Gruss, who speculates that the firm could be a takeover target for Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO).

Lewis explains, "Oscar Gruss did an update on WiMAX solutions company Alvarion, in which it reiterated its 'Buy' rating and raised its target price to $17 per share from $13. The analyst also seems to think it really can be a target for a Cisco Systems takeover bid.

"Eisenstein writes, 'Alvarion continues to lead emerging WiMAX. Our recent visit to the WiMAX World Conference in Chicago, and a comprehensive session with Alvarion management, lead us to believe that the WiMAX industry continues to make important strides, and Alvarion is well-positioned to maintain its leadership position in that space.'

"He continues, 'Management addressed their key technology differentiators, namely: greater cost-to-performance ratio, higher radio combinations, vendor agnostic approach, and the broad installation base.

"The Oscar Gruss analyst notes, 'We view Alvarion as a clear growth name. First, of the 200 WiMAX vendors who participated in WiMAX World last week, Alvarion is the only pure-play public company positioned to play the expected growth in WiMAX subscribers.'

MAJOR PAPERS:

• It was revealed yesterday that Terra Firma is among the potential bidders for Ford Motor Company's (NYSE: F) Jaguar and Land Rover brands, reported the Financial Times.
• There is a 40% to 45% risk that a recession will be triggered by the housing market downturn in the U.S., the CEO of Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) warned, the Financial Times reported.

OTHER PAPERS:

• From BusinessWeek's "Inside Wall Street" column:
  
• Investors looking for fast growth in the $110 billion business-enterprise telecom market are betting on Time Warner Telecom (NASDAQ: TWTC), which offers broadband connections for data, high-speed Web access, local voice, and long-distance service.
• Plum Creek Timber (NYSE: PCL) is flying high despite the housing slump and market decline driven by the subprime mortgage crisis.
• Universal Electronics Inc (NASDAQ: UEIC), which makes the remote controls for TVs and other appliances, has caught the Street's eye.

WEBSITES:

• Unstrung.com reported that Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) is close to buying a WiMax base station company, according to sources, and one possible target is Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR).
• Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is reportedly going to reduce the amount of money and effort it spends on premium services related to music, games, TV, and movies, reported TechCrunch.com.

Businesses requiring wireless broadband network solutions are generally comforted by the knowledge that their provider's equipment is used successfully around the world. There is an outfit in Tel Aviv that provides that level of comfort. Its units are deployed in some 150 countries.

Alvarion Ltd. (NASDAQ: ALVR) designs, develops and manufactures wireless broadband access systems. The firm's equipment uses multipoint and point-to-point packet switching technologies for high-speed, broadband Internet, and intranet connections. Products based on WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) standards are a specialty. Customers include cellular operators, competitive local exchange carriers, service providers and regional carriers. The firm has strategic relationships with Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and IBM (NYSE: IBM). Competitors include Cicso Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT).

Alvarion surprised the Street earlier in the month, when it announced Q2 EPS of 3 cents and revenues of $57.6 million. Analysts had been looking for 2 cents and $54.7 million. Management also guided Q3 EPS to 3-5 cents (2 cent consensus) and Q3 revenues to $58-62 million ($55.72 million consensus).