The Delphi deal went to the normal completion date, from what I remember (i.e. did not shut down early). Also, the IDB has not been cut off, it has never started because the required $4 million sales have not been accumulated.
Take a look at ULBI's price action (at 7 1/2, down from a high of $20 last September). The market is not convinced that plastic batteries are for real, and if they are that little companies can actually pull it off. It makes for the risk in investing in small start-ups, but a lot of us feel that the company has conveyed that they can do the job that they are chartered to do.
In another vein, it is possible that a large company, like Motorola, who I believe has indicated that they will be a supplier of Lith Poly batteries, may be causing the sell-off by a big shareholder by showing their capabilities to customers and analysts ahead of public press releases. If this were to be true, it wouldn't necessarily kill ULBI or VLNC's efforts. Batteries don't seem to get too much margin pressure seemingly because they are not purchased in of themselves, but enable the gee-whiz's of the toys, cameras, and high tech stuff they power, just as we don't think of turning off TV's, computers, and lights to save money. |
