Solar panel maker goes tango uniform. jobs lost.

[gremlin]

$500 million can't buy many jobs thees days. with all the cash the doe piled on them and the government contracts they still going under.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/ ... &hpt=hp_t2

Solar panel maker Solyndra today said that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after failing to successfully compete against lower-cost Chinese manufacturers. It is one of largest failures ever suffered by venture capitalists, and a major black eye for a U.S. Department of Energy that loaned the company more than $500 million.

The company has not yet filed its bankruptcy papers, but did say in a press release that it plans to evaluate options that could include a sale of its business and licensing of its technology. It also said that 1,100 full-time and part-time employees will be laid off, effective immediately.

Since being founded in 2005 to build solar panels for commercial rooftops, Solyndra had raised nearly $1 billion in private equity financing. The biggest backer was the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which was listed as holding more than a 35% equity stake when Solyndra filed for a $300 million IPO in late 2009 (it would later cancel the offering, due to "adverse market conditions). Other significant shareholders included Madrone Partners, a VC firm affiliated with Wal-Mart's Walton family, with an 11% stake, U.S. Venture Partners (10.19%), RockPort Capital Partners (7.5%), CMEA Ventures (6.81%) and Redpoint Ventures (5.94%).

Some of those positions were subsequently diluted, when a new debt financing this past spring reportedly converted certain existing shares from preferred into common.

Solyndra's $535 million loan guarantee was made in 2009 by the Department of Energy, and has since come under scrutiny by House Republicans who have suggested that not enough due diligence was conducted. DoE already is pushing back against the meme today, with a blog post that argues the company was felled, in part, by slashed European subsidies for solar cells (an argument Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison also makes in the company's press release).

[Gramps43]

I think it's a good bet that a lot of that money was filtered out of country, ie. a money laundring schem. Like that outfit up Seattle way that was supposed to weatherize houses, they GOT 20 mil, did 3 houses and then went TU. I think these are big time hucksters and connected types that are sucking at the federal teat and bleeding the taxpayers dry.

Gramps

[Hoser John]

Absolute gross ineptatude in management. We sold Cirtel Nevada to British motors( couple a mill a year profits) for mega millions and in less than 2 years bankrupt. Sold Cirtel Irvine to Buckby Mears Corp,again money maker HUGELY, for mega millions and they too also killed it withinn 3 years. NOT the company but the jackarses who run the facilities and change process and procedures that made the company a success in the first place. People make a company sucessful and NOT the company make the people sucessful-BUMMER BIGTIME John

[gremlin]

obamer is doing the same in Indiana. got china investing in green cars in Indy. got a few ex motor Co's in northern part of the state making solar panels.

if a guy wants panels its OK. but the government running the show and it becomes nuts/

[Reno badboy]

Rich get richer, po' folk do the work and s---wed! Situation normal!

[Gold Seeker]

Well it says that the DOE "Solyndra's $535 million loan guarantee was made in 2009 by the Department of Energy" which translate that WE the tax payers guaranteed that loan, it pisses me off to no end when the idiots in charge of OUR money tosses OUR money around like it's confetti, I don't know about ya'll but I WANT MY PART OF THAT $535 MILLION BACK!!!!

Skip

[dickb]

Skip, the end of the line is thataway, bring water and something to eat with you.

Dickb

[gremlin]

more on the cheep solar. and us going out.
U.S. solar firms' woes boost China

http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/09/02/252 ... china.html

HONG KONG – Bankruptcy filings by three U.S. solar power companies in August, including Solyndra of Fremont, have left China's industry in a dominant sales position – almost three-fifths of the world's production capacity – and with rapidly declining costs.

Some American, Japanese and European solar companies still have a technological edge over Chinese rivals, but seldom a cost advantage, according to industry analysts.

Loans at very low rates from state-owned banks in Beijing, cheap or free land from local and provincial governments across China, huge economies of scale and other cost advantages have transformed China from a minor player in the solar power industry a few years ago into the main producer of an increasingly competitive electricity source.

"The top-tier Chinese firms are kind of the benchmark now," said Shayle Kann, a managing director of solar power studies at GTM Research, a Boston-based renewable energy market analysis firm. Solar equipment pricing is determined by the Chinese, he said, "and everyone else prices at a premium or discount to them."



Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/09/02/252 ... z1Wv4PsLNt

[Matt Mattson]

I think it's a good bet that a lot of that money was filtered out of country, ie. a money laundring schem. Like that outfit up Seattle way that was supposed to weatherize houses, they GOT 20 mil, did 3 houses and then went TU. I think these are big time hucksters and connected types that are sucking at the federal teat and bleeding the taxpayers dry.

Gramps

I think you've got it right. These are nothing more than money laundering schemes by the Chicago mob, now in control of the government. The unbelievable thing is I'm already seeing Obama 2012 on cars down here - and they'll in all likelihood re-elect the thugs.

[gremlin]

give some bums obama 2012 stickers i want change lol.