SOS Wireless Files for Bankruptcy Protection

A small Fountain Valley company that sells cellular telephones with emergency services buttons has filed a bankruptcy petition to hold creditors at bay while it seeks temporary financing and, eventually, a buyer.

SOS Wireless Communications Inc., which marketed mainly to senior citizens, listed assets of about $500,000 and debts of $10 million in its Chapter 11 petition filed last month in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana.

The company, with 22 employees and 15,000 customers, is trying to arrange a short-term loan while it negotiates with “a number of parties” to sell the company’s assets, said its bankruptcy lawyer, Garrick Hollander of Winthrop Couchot in Newport Beach.

Founded in 1994, SOS Wireless designed cell phones exclusively for emergencies. The phones have three buttons that provide direct-dial connections to 911, road service and SOS’s call center, where operators can connect users to other numbers.

Two years ago, it had 26,000 customers spread through all 50 states and had teamed up with National Eldercare Services Co. in Bethesda, Md.