Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Hawkeye who wrote (2563)	5/11/1998 4:52:00 AM
From: Sid Turtlman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5827

Hawkeye: That was an extremely articulate response to the Barron's article. Your writing style has risen to the occasion. But, while dealing effectively with the small points in the Barron's comments (which, being in the Up and Down Wall St. column, wasn't intended as an in depth industry study), you missed the big point. I think all Barron's was saying is that the probabilities of there ever being a fuel cell powered car in the lifetime of many of their readers is a lot lower than the US$3 billion market cap implies. The technological and economic hurdles are vast. There are other, more advanced technologies, which might keep fuel cell cars on the back burner. If there eventually is one, it may not be a Ballard exclusive, or Ballard's at all, given the money and effort that United Technologies and others with engineering talent and cash are putting into it. Barron's has always had a focus on value, and that is the issue with Ballard, more so than whether or not it may have a lead at present. Take a look at Entremed, the biotech stock that went from 12 to 85 on Monday last week. At its peak, when half the people in the country wanted to buy it because Dr. Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA, was quoted in the NY Times saying that it had cured cancer, its market cap was under $1 billion. (I know this company well, and mentioned it on this thread about a year ago as an example of a development stage company with at least as good a chance of success as Ballard, but at a fraction of its market cap.) So if maybe curing cancer someday is not, at its most extreme, worth even $1 billion, then why is maybe being a glorified auto parts supplier someday worth $3 billion? No, I don't think the probability is high that Entremed's drugs will really cure cancer, but it has an honest shot at it. I think Ballard has an honest shot at its ambitions as well. But that is all there is at present for both of them. Based on the long history of development stage companies with grand ambitions, the odds are against both of them. If Ballard's market cap were now well under $500 million, as is Entremed's, then Barron's would have nothing to write about.