Big announcements of huge corporations getting into solar cell business. What does this mean?
It means that our industry is coming of age and that the same thing will happen in our area as happens everywhere else when a segment of business becomes more mature and shows its longevity…the sharks come in droves to take it up!
There could have been two kinds of sharks entering this business…the oil sharks or the electronics sharks. Well with Sanyo and Sharp already into it, now Taiwan Semicon and LG are jumping in. So where does this leave us? Well it simply improves the chances that we have cheaper and cheaper solar cells to choose from for our innovative products!
My father once told me, either you become a shark, or be happy to eat their crumbs, never taking their main meal away! So the crumbs will simply become more and more plentiful and ICP Solar’s Sunsei(R) and Coleman(R) brands will simply benefit from those price drops which make our solutions more accessible through greater affordability as a power option that consumers may consider.
Will they buy or build? Well that depends on what they prefer and their own corporate culture. There are indeed some cheap buys out there at the competitive level we are seeing with margin erosion, yet I wonder if they want to inherit the baggage that comes with the smaller buys, or simply build from scratch? My guess is they build their own, with their own IP, yet I can and are happily proven wrong if they choose to buy medium to large solar companies which are not quite well enough capitalized or have a position now which may become indefensible if they wait a couple more years.
Your guess is as good as mine. Care to comment? Please do!
Sass
3 Comments
Good question. I feel big corporations are, for the most part, inherently not creative or risk-taking enough to build from scratch and is usually more efficient for them to add extra sales growth through mergers and acquisition activities. But I guess it also depends on which companies are willing to sell to the big ones.
I can’t wait until alternative energy becomes the new norm.
Hello Mr.Peress,
The more I learn about the evolution regarding the harvesting of solar energy / technology, the more intrigued I become and wish to further explore the options that exists.
Are there any opportunities [Sales Rep/Sub-Contractor] that currently exists within your Company to which I may partake in the progressive evolution of this field.
I would be thrilled in helping your company grow within the Canadian marketplace to which there is a great void of knowledge concerning the solar cell business.
Keep up the good work!
Hi back at you,
Please send your CV and an intro letter to Isabel DosSantos at idossantos@icpsolar.com and if something comes up, she will be sure to give you a call.
Regards and thanks so much for your comment,
Sass
Dear Sass,
may you identify the asian as large competitors, but as you now Taiwan is a rebel province of China and sure one day China will march in, especially if the US is too busy in other wars, eg the one that North Corea frequently adressed to Japan, where you identify other sharks.
Main competitors are german industries, as you may know like Schott Solar, Schüco and many others. Well and canadian companies like Arise already have production facitilities in Germany, because they understood the innovative german nature and high quality.
Definetely nothing that can compete with cheap prices.
But the sharks as you describe are mainly Germans.
There exists a large community at wallstreet-online.de discussing much about icp solar for many years.
We just think. that if you do not lead icp bancrupt, the green energy act will stimulate the company and so turn around and profit could be realised and so boost the stock market price. What will it be worth then ? 50 Dollar per share ?
And even if it needs some years, if you have good products, that can compete as you say, then success is in sight.
Main problem at Nasdaq is manipulating of prices by brokers who offer only packes of 50 shares and so they make it inefficient to buy there because of fees and with small volumes the stock price can be pushed down by them.
In Germany we have more liquidity at the stock exchanges and so people buy icp shares in Germany so that north american investors cannot see it. As long the dollar is weak, the shares are very cheap.
Negatively was interpreted, that you and some of your directors sold a lot of shares for about 20 cent and less some month ago.
One who believes in his company wouldn´t do it. And i do not think that you have private money problems, you get as Ceo over 200 k per year, so why did you sell ?
Sharks bite.
SASS COMMENT REPLY:
You are definitely right about sharks biting us back. We deserved it. Now we are rebuilding the company and the first results of Q1 showed the reduced overhead, increased margins. I cannot tell you what Q2 will be however we are introducing new items and gaining market share, so you can infer from that.
About my selling shares, I own or control over 18million shares. Do you really believe that if I thought the company was dead I would not sell as many as possible? I sold to pay some personal debts/taxes, and now you have not seen me sell for a long time.
As mentioned in the Q1 conf call, we are reworking the warrant situation with investors which is far too dilutive, we are continuing to improve margins and lower overheads, and our sales are steady (remarkable in a market like this).
Keep believing…
Sass