Yep. It's a pattern alright.

[jimpeel]

Here we go again. At least they didn't suck up taxpayer funded grants from Obama's stash and then go tits up.

SOURCE

Energy Conversion Devices files for bankruptcy as solar energy lags
12:45 PM, February 14, 2012

In the latest setback for the solar energy industry, Auburn Hills-based Energy Conversion Devices said today that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and intends to sell its assets, including its main subsidiary United Solar Ovonic.

“We firmly believe there is a strong and sustainable commercial market for Uni-Solar products,” Julian Hawkins, ECD’s CEO and president, said in a statement. “However our current capital structure and legacy costs are preventing USO from making the investments necessary for the future of the business without restructuring through the bankruptcy process.”

The maker of solar roofing materials, which will continue to operate, employs 750 workers, 60% of them in Michigan. They will remain active employees during the sales process though some have been furloughed, said company spokesman Michael Schostak.

ECD also said it has sold its Ovonic Battery Co. to BASF Corp. for $58 million in cash before transaction fees and other factors. The battery subsidiary’s 35 employees have been hired by BASF.

ECD has retained the investment banking firm Quarton Partners to manage the sale of its assets, which is expected to be completed in 90 days. It has $145 million in cash and short-term investments to enable it to operate through the bankruptcy proceedings and will not need debtor-in-possession financing.

The bankruptcy follows an unsuccessful effort by ECD to find additional capital. In November, the money-losing company suspended manufacturing to cope with high inventory levels and announced the layoffs of 500 employees. Its sales have suffered from cutbacks in solar energy incentives in Europe and a worldwide glut of solar panels. Analysts also said the company’s technology was no longer competitive.

The solar panel industry is currently going through a consolidation that has already claimed several weaker players, such as Solyndra.

The bankruptcy filing means ECD shareholders will take a hit. The company said it “does not expect to generate proceeds sufficient to satisfy all of the company’s pre-existing obligations to its creditors.” It expects that no distributions will be made to holders of its common stock unless it realizes a greater-than-expected value from the sale of its assets. Its common stock will be extinguished once its bankruptcy plan has received court approval.

Long before it turned its focus to solar energy, ECD had pioneered nickel-metal-hydride batteries. The company was founded in Detroit by Stanford Ovshinsky, a famous local scientist and inventor, 51 years ago. In 1990, ECD established United Solar Ovonic, which eventually became a leading producer of thin-film solar laminates for industrial and commercial buildings around the world.

Uni-Solar, as the subsidiary was called, became so successful that it opened four Michigan plants, two in Auburn Hills and two in Greenville. But since 2009, the company has struggled amid increasing competition. It built a plant in Battle Creek but ultimately never utilized it. ECD has lost more than $765 million during the last two years.

 

[2minkey]

i fail to see why you are reveling in the fact that undercapitalized firms are failing. it says something about the broader economy that is not good.

 

[Winky]

Yes you fail

 

[2minkey]

while you snooze through understanding what real competitive industries are like when faced with vile, parasitic chinese statism. economy is war.

 

[Winky]

blaming the Japanese worked
now we've got the Chinese

The song remains the same...

 

[2minkey]

you lack resourcefulness.

 

[jimpeel]

It is the business model that is failing.

 

[2minkey]

which business model, jim?

how's yer employer doing these days, by the way?

 

[Winky]

The crony capitalism business model

 

[2minkey]

there's no indication ECD used any government funds.

not like in china.

 

[Winky]

here we go with the ChiComs again

solar energy is bunkum regardless of which continent we are talkin' aboot

Government subsidies in Germany, Spain and France had supported large,
energy-efficient construction projects and the sale of large volumes
of ECD's flexible solar photovoltaic roofing materials. But those subsidies
have ended. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2011, the company
lost $306.4 million, compared with a $457.1 million loss in 2010.

undercapitalized?

That's right solar is a loser.

 

[Gonz]

All alternative energy choices are losers. Not becasue they necessarily suck but because we have an amazing source of energy right under our feet. Oil has changed the world & improved every life it touches.

Until some entrepreneur finds a better way, we'll have to run out of oil or have government destroy life as we know it.

 

[catocom]

I must say, I really really wanted to setup to produce my own electricity.
I Really Really wanted it to be solar, but...

after getting prices and crunching the numbers it was just going to cost more.
I mean even stretching it out beyond the life of my house mortgage.

The only real alternative was/is hydro, and it's a pretty good startup, and
the numbers fluctuated on how much I could get from my little stream.
I'm not real big on another nuke plant here, but it's the best alternative amt,
and it's going to happen anyway.
I guess I'll be pushing 60 by the time it comes on-line, but better getting it
then than even farther out.
I hope construction will begin this year or early next.

 

[Winky]

gimme me sumthin' fer nuthin' or give me Obama dollars

Yup Gonz the fossil fuels are going to always kick
alternative energy sources asses
alternative lifestyles are not something you'd want either

 

[2minkey]

shit if you and gonz were running the show we'd still be sleeping in mud huts.

 

[Winky]

We can move in with George Hussein Onyango Obama

 

[Gonz]

Tell us oh wise guru of Detroit....what energy source has the government perfected for mass consumption?

 

[2minkey]

Tell us oh wise guru of Detroit....what energy source has the government perfected for mass consumption?

nuclear. the gov made nuclear energy possible. it's in sad shape now, but, that ain't the kind of thing that a bunch of piss-cranky truckers are gonna come up with.
supporting oil through trillions spent on wars.
building infrastructure to support larger industries including energy. was the interstate system a mistake? how about the internet?

 

[Winky]

Well now that Obambo is going to reduce our ready stockpile
of deployable nuclear weapons to 300 we will be out gunned by
both the Russians and the Chicoms

Guess we'd better learn to live in those mud huts you mentioned

 

[2minkey]

Well now that Obambo is going to reduce our ready stockpile
of deployable nuclear weapons to 300 we will be out gunned by
both the Russians and the Chicoms

Guess we'd better learn to live in those mud huts you mentioned

300 is one of several options that have "not yet been presented" to obama.

only the US and russia currently have more than 300 each.

you're a sensationalist. like perez hilton in jack boots and an armband. though somehow that seems even gayer.