"Can battery maker A123 avoid Solyndra’s fate?; As market conditions changed, A123 found new ways to succeed. The Waltham battery maker is hoping CEO David Vieau will once again find his magic touch" by Erin Ailworth | Globe Staff, July 08, 2012
David Vieau, chief executive of A123 Systems Inc., has always managed to find new markets and new money just when the advanced battery maker really needed them.
When the Waltham company was a small start-up searching for a customer, Vieau convinced power tool maker Black & Decker to buy his firm’s lithium ion batteries — even though A123 had no commercially available product. After General Motors chose a competitor to make batteries for the Chevy Volt, Vieau landed contracts with Chrysler and SAIC Motor Corp., China’s largest car maker.
Looking pretty good, huh?
Related: Chinese $un Shines on Massachusetts Clean Energy Companies
What do you mean A123 is moving manufacturing and jobs to China?
Oh, right, they must have stole 'em.
And as alternative energy companies struggled to raise capital during the last recession, Vieau took A123 public with a roughly $380 million initial stock offering.
A123 now needs Vieau’s magic touch more than ever if it is to avoid becoming the next Solyndra, the bankrupt California solar company that defaulted on more than $500 million in federal loan guarantees.
See: Obama's Ro$e-Colored $ungla$$e$
Solar Stimuloot Went to Goldman Sachs
Ever notice all the money some how ends up down there?
A123, which also received hundreds of millions of dollars in government support, said in a recent regulatory filing that it could run out of cash in four to five months unless it can raise more money.
Vieau, 62, says he expects the company to “power through” and survive, noting a recent deal that landed a new customer in a new market, aviation, and a technological breakthrough that will allow A123 to slice production costs and the price of its batteries.
But A123 remains far from profitability. Theodore O’Neill, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities in New York, estimates the company must raise about $400 million in the next 18 months to stay afloat, and then raise a similar amount after that. But if anyone can pull it off, O’Neill added, it just might be Vieau....
Oh, my battery is running low.
Perhaps his biggest success occurred in 2009, when A123 received a $249.1 million stimulus grant from the US Department of Energy to build a plant in Michigan to manufacture car batteries. Several months later, Massachusetts awarded the company a $5 million loan to expand another part of its battery business here and create 250 jobs.
Massachusetts officials were disappointed by A123’s plans to build a car battery plant in another state. But Vieau’s negotiating skills not only won the state loan, but also convinced the Patrick administration to support his company’s bid in Michigan, recalled Ian Bowles, former state secretary of energy and environmental affairs. Vieau argued that growing in Michigan would help the company add jobs in Massachusetts....
Related: Game Report: Mass. Loses to Michigan
Ouch, that burns.
Ultimately, A123 may have bet more heavily on electric cars that it should have....
Betting with taxpayer, pension fund, and college endowment money!
A123 discovered its plant near Detroit had produced defective batteries, forcing a recall that cost the company nearly $67 million....
Are you f***ing s***ting me?
Vieau conceded that A123 probably ramped up too quickly in Michigan, taking on big costs even as the market for auto batteries slowed. Still, he noted, the company has flirted with the edge before but always managed to pull itself back.
People's lives are at stake, too.
His key for turning things around: diversification. During a recent tour of an A123 factory in Westborough, Vieau walked the plant floor, pointing out the breadth of the company’s product line as workers quietly assembled power packs of various sizes.
“This is used in a data center,” Vieau said, gesturing to a clear rectangle casing that housed cylindrical lime-green batteries. In another area, a bookshelf-sized rack held larger battery packs, that would be used as part of a system to store power for the electric grid....
As for his strategy to get A123 back on track, Vieau breaks it down to the basics: The company, he said, must continue to innovate, attract more customers wanting to buy A123’s grid and telecommunications batteries....
On Friday, A123 stock closed at $1.16 a share. The stock peaked above $25 a share in 2009....
O’Neill, the analyst from Wunderlich, isn’t as optimistic about the company’s future. He said A123 may have to shut down its Michigan plant and return to making smaller batteries. Still, he said, Vieau has built a reputation for pulling through hairy situations by finding new markets
“First it’s electric cars, and then when it isn’t, it’s electric utilities. And when that’s not happening, [A123] comes out with a new material to replace lead acid batteries,” O’Neill said. “When that doesn’t come through [they’ll] come up with something new like powering submarines. I mean, who knows what’s next?”
Yeah, who know$?
--more--"
Related: A123 Systems hopes to raise $9M in share offering
A123 slumps on expected losses
Breakthrough buoys battery firm A123 Systems
Also see: Not As Easy as One-Two-Three
Nothing is when you read the agenda-pushing AmeriKan newspaper.
