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Technology Stocks : ULBI..Ultralife Batteries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: webpilot who wrote (301)	11/26/1998 9:21:00 PM
From: gvander	Respond to of 522

Another observation which will increase the demand for portable power sources exponentially: Communication costs per person will approach near zero. As this occurs many more communication devices and services will be created. While this is occurring an entire generation will be tied into the information revolution as tightly as previous ones were to the industrial revolution. The base component and enabling technology common to all these devices will be the power supply. However, now that so many companies have realized this is the case (80 globally actively researching advanced batteries)the risk that the industry will become commoditized grows increasingly likely (rational for Duracell's divestiture of its LI-ion operations). The problem today is that too many companies threw too much of their resources at an interim technology (e.g. Valence). This is why evaluating the management is so crucial. Have they been first to recognize a technology? Have they been successful in similar energy ventures? I believe Ultralife was the first to license and to make commercial shipments of solid LI-Ion batteries. They recognized the shift in the industry when they owned PCI. I think because they have been so successful at anticipating new technologies they will again bring something new to the industry as they did in 1994 with the announcement of the Bellcore license. It took Valence 1.5 years after that announcement to realize that they had bet on the wrong technology. Eventually they did end up licensing the bellcore battery in July 1995. Unfortunately they had already wasted 100 million dollars. Their failure to understand the nature of demand in this industry was clear even in 1992 (they had the same "dream team" then too). I think developing several advanced rechargeable chemistries is a better strategy in the long run to maximize shareholder wealth. Ultralife's management has and continues to correctly anticipate the future shape of the industry. I think this ability is much more important to value creation than any other factor. They will maximize the value from the SSS and will leverage that success into future technologies more readily than any other public lithium polymer company. Duracell Info: techweb.com techweb.com Mixed Nature of Demand techweb.com techweb.com Some of the technologies forcing per capita costs to near zero techweb.com techweb.com for this link also see: It sums it up much more eloquently: 21-Nov-98 Economist -- Science and Technology Section See New-age Crystals Article Headline: Controlling the behaviour of individual light waves on a microscopic scale offers a chance to make optical communication as versatile as electronics