Brendan,
Just to make sure you get both sides...
Sid has been negative on Ballard for as long as I have been on SI,
probably longer. Despite his opinion, Ballard has been moving up
nicely the whole time, except for minor bumps along the way.
If you read the earlier parts of this thread, you will see that
Sid's opinion of when Ballard will be profitable is not shared
by everyone. A new company was set up by the Ballard/Benz
partnership to develop the fuel cell engines and, as Sid seems
to continually forget, the company will BUY the fuel cells from
Ballard. BLD will get 33% of the profits from the new co., but 100%
of the profits from sale of fuel cells. Sid still seems to be
confused by this.
Everyone talks about the potential size of a target market, but a
more important question is, who will win how much market share.
There are several contenders for the automotive power market, but
Ballard has been chosen by Daimler-Benz, GM, Volvo, Nissan, Ford,
Honda, etc. as the best technology. Still, you have to weigh their
wisdom and insight against that of Sid Turtleman.
These auto manufacturers will also buy fuel cells from Ballard,
so I expect BLD to be in the black sooner than Sid does. The other
thing to remember is that you can make good money on a stock long
before the company is profitable.
I do agree that the BIG profits for BLD will be realized when
they do start producing cars/buses for commercial markets.
Good luck,
Garth. |
