Del, Stan has had unbelievable success in luring some of the most powerful majors into his den, and the GE presence can not be denied nor the possibilities totally discounted, I agree. But if you go back to the 1980's and early 1990's, when ARCO (one of the big O&G majors, I think subsequently acquired by one of the current mega-majors), and another of the oil and gas majors--in ECD's photovoltaic ventures; then came electronics, with Sharp or one of the other Japanese manufacturers interested in Ovonics sensors (I have to admit being bowled over in 1989 or so at seeing an early Ovonics scanner) and flat panel displays and Manning and Napier (remember that litigation?); then came the NiMH battery era, and the field of Ovonic suitors has been impressive--Honda, Matshushita, is Chrysler in there now?, numerous consumer battery makers--Varta, etc., etc., and of course Texaco; what about the scooter batteries that were going to transform Japan and India. I'm sure I've left out half a dozen at least major multi-nationals which at one time or another were licensees or joint venture partners. And let's not forget Intel and STM (jury still out, we hope). And with ALL of that blue chip, bluest of blue blood lineage, ECD's much-hyped commercialization (Stan began to emphasize that notion about ten years ago when he senses shareholders beginning to get restless with lots of R&D and change to show for it) has yielded a pittance in revenues and no operating earnings.
The cat just don't change its stripes. |
