New IJNT.net Chief Has Big Plans

IJNT.net Inc., whose husband-and-wife team resigned last month as officers, said Wednesday that it has hired Michael A. Sternberg as the new chief executive of the Irvine high-speed communications provider.

Sternberg, former chief executive of KMC Telecom Holdings Inc., also will become a director of the company.

Jon H. Marple, who was chief executive, and Mary E. Blake, who was president, remain on the board as chairman and vice chairman, respectively.

The couple, both of whom had signed consent judgments over alleged securities violations six years ago, had resigned as officers shortly after the company’s stock was moved to Nasdaq’s main trading venue, its national market system.

Sternberg said he plans a major retooling of IJNT. By the end of the year, he wants to increase its Southern California sales staff to 40 from five and start offering services in Northern California and five Western states.

To help get the company on track, IJNT recently hired two former AirTouch Cellular executives to fill newly created positions of chief operating officer and chief technology officer, he said.

Sternberg said he looked forward to working with Marple and Blake, adding he was unconcerned about their pasts.

“Nobody got convicted,” he said.

In December 1994, Marple and Blake signed a consent judgment, without admitting liability, in a California Department of Corporations case accusing them of selling unregistered securities and making false statements in selling them. The securities involved another company, Micro-Lite Television Inc., formerly known as Marrco Communications Inc., that planned to build wireless cable television systems in four states.

The state agency alleged that the couple, among other things, told investors their money would go toward construction costs when, in fact, little was used for building.

No fines were levied, said Linda Stella, a lawyer for the state agency.

Marple also entered into similar consent decrees in Wisconsin in August 1993 and in Maine in March 1994 in connection with the same or related matters involving Micro-Lite and several related entities.

IJNT’S stock closed Wednesday at $5.03 a share, up 25 cents. The company’s shares have lost more than half their value since the beginning of the year.