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Technology Stocks : Ballard Power -world leader zero-emission PEM fuel cells -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pierre J. LeBel who wrote (2560)	5/10/1998 8:49:00 PM
From: Thomas Stewart	Respond to of 5827

Wouldn't be surprised at all, but it would sting anyway. Needless to say, media attention can do nutty things to a stock's price. You follow Entremed after NY Times article? (Seems NYT is going to have an article about their article! siliconinvestor.com Of course, that is the flip side of what you have warned about, but the principle is the same. Thanks for the post, Pierre, maybe I was a tad irreverent?

To: Pierre J. LeBel who wrote (2560)	5/10/1998 9:27:00 PM
From: Hawkeye	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5827

She may well be respected, but let's deal with her inconsistencies. She claims at one point that fuel cells won't capture significant market share yet in the next breath discusses all those others who are putting money into fuel cell research. She dismisses BLD's technological lead yet fails to mention that nobody else has come close to BLD's power densities or Daimler's already long list of achievements including 4 different vehicles. Not to mention the Chicago or Vancouver bus programs. I agree with Sid that power density is not the determining factor but engineers agree an acceptable power density must be at least 900w/l. BLD is over 1000 w/l and Toyota was under 200 w/l last fall. She supports her theory with unattributed quotes yet no details. If others are so close at this point, where are their vehicles? Toyota is the only other besides Mazda (which just joined with BLD). Where exactly are these fuel cell vehicles from Ford, GM and Chrysler? Daimler's eating their lunch so far. If the other US fuel cell companies are so advanced, why did Ford, which had been working with 2 of the others for years already, decide to drop all that and go with BLD? I know it may be a stretch, but maybe, just maybe, BLD has better technology and that Ford realized it could not get around their patents. If BLD's patent protection is not strong, why are Daimler and Ford spending so much to invest in them and developing their technology? Ms. Welling begins her article deriding the relatively small amount of savings that will come from the merger yet seems to feel BLD will lose disproportionately by losing their contract to supply fuel cells to Chrysler. Why does she say this? The only link BLD has had to Chrysler is that it was subcontracted by Delphi, the GM subsidiary, which was itself contracted by Chrysler to develop the fuel cell engine to go with Chrysler's (actually AD Little's) gasoline reformer. BLD's deal was with Delphi to produce a fuel cell, which contract likely did not exceed $4 million. Now Daimler is going to come in and deal unfairly with a fuel cell supplier they've spent millions on to acquire a 20% piece of? Not only that, but if the Chrysler fuel cell group is incorporated with Daimler's, will they not still need that fuel cell? If not, BLD could use it to supply the ongoing orders for GM and Daimler, hardly the disaster the author makes it out to be. Delphi's the biggest loser here because Chrysler no longer needs them to build a fuel cell engine, since Daimler has one and as a result Delphi can't amortize their costs over a greater revenue base as they might have before. If one looks at the big picture here, Daimler has been far and away the leader in developing fuel cell vehicles, after partnering with Ballard because BLD had technology they couldn't match. Then Daimler produces several vehicles in a very short timeframe and declares fuel cell vehicles to be the next logical successor to the ICE, which their own company founder invented, and says it will be first to market. Daimler spends millions on fuel cell development, partners first with BLD, then with Ford, talks of bringing in a Japanese partner in a year, then looks to acquire Chrysler, which lacks new technology for advanced vehicles. Are we to believe that the first area they will achieve their relatively small cost savings on will be their fuel cell programs with BLD, through one minor contract to Chrysler? Sorry none of it adds up to me. If there is better technology out there I wish the author would show me, cause I just don't see it, haven't found it after extensive searching. I believe the outcome of this merger will be positive, not negative, for BLD. BLD's management, regardless how the author dismisses their enthusiasm, has NEVER let me down, and that speaks volumes. I'm hanging in and I recommend to those who want a good deal on the stock, to buy in tomorrow. Regards