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Technology Stocks : Superconductor Technologies : SCON -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: big run who wrote (480)	2/28/2000 10:56:00 PM
From: Street Hawk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 903

Some SCON Bloomberg News. Superconductor Technologies Shares Soar on Product (2/28 18:59) By Jonathan Berr Superconductor Technologies Shares Soar on Product (Update2) (Adds in fifth paragraph that company has lost money in every quarter since 1993.) Santa Barbara, California, Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Superconductor Technologies Inc. surged 46 percent, extending Friday's gain, after the company said its product can boost the performance of cellular-phone networks. Superconductor Technologies said it's developed a filtering system for reducing interference on wireless networks, increasing their range and preventing cell-phone calls from being disconnected. Shares of the company, which said Thursday it would demonstrate its technology at this weeks Cellular Telecommunications Industry Show in New Orleans, rose 31 3/8 to 98 7/8. Shares of Superconductor Technologies have risen more than 10-fold since the start of the month as the company touted its technology, and columnist Jon D. Markman of Microsoft Corp.'s Money Central web site added Superconductor Technologies to his list of stocks that could rise 10,000 percent in 10 years. ``Many observers believe that the sales at the (superconductor) industry's leaders are rumbling on the launch pad, ready for blast off,' Markman wrote. Investors are pushing up the Santa Barbara, California-based company's shares even though its claims for its ``superfilter' technology haven't been verified by researchers outside the company, and the company lost money in every quarter since it was created in 1993. Peter Thomas, Superconductor Technologies's president and chief executive, said the company's claims for its technology are valid and are attracting business. ``I don't think I need third-party verification,' Thomas said. ``I just have plenty of customers.' The company said it has installed 200 Superfilter systems in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. Superconductor technology allows electricity to flow through special materials with no resistance. In cell phones, that eliminates interference caused by resistance and frees up energy needed to expand range and keep connections from being broken. Superconducting materials, used since the 1960s, must be cooled to extremely low temperatures using expensive processes. That has confined their use to specialty applications. Companies say the benefits of using superconductors on cellular phone systems justify the cost. Conductus Inc., a rival of Superconductor Technologies, has a product for cell phone systems that it cools with helium. Liquid helium boils at about minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit. The company said tests show that its technology can increase the range of wireless networks by as much as 50 times. Conductus shares rose 14 3/4 to 81 5/8 today and have risen more than six- fold this year. Westborough, Massachusetts-based American Superconductor Corp. is testing a transformer surrounded by liquid nitrogen, which is not as cold as liquid helium. The company's shares have more than doubled this year, and rose 6 7/8 to 69 1/4 today.