Regarding a buyout of FCEL by ExxonMobil....in late 2011 Exxon approached FCEL to begin carbon capture research in the laboratory at FCEL with each side providing 20 scientists.
The fruits of this collaboration was significant enough for Exxon/FCEL to formally announce their partnership in 2014. They hold patents together, along with the DOE, and FCEL owns 90% of the global patents for MCFC's (molten carbonate fuel cells), which are the fuel cell of choice for carbon capture.
With FCEL having a market cap of approximately $132 million, and the technology proven through numerous applications with the DOE on many fronts, and in the lab with ExxonMobil regarding carbon capture significant enough to announce the partnership (along with joint engineering on Southern's coal plant), if a buyout was contemplated by Exxon, why haven't they?
FCEL just raised $15M in an offering and $33M in convertible A shares...thats $48M, representing 50% of FCEL's market cap at the time!
Why didn't ExxonMobil buy them out then....or at least take a huge equity stake and finance FCEL instead of the offerings?
I honestly regret not saving the article, and I have searched and searched for it numerous times....I read Vijay Swarup, who is I believe the lead scientist for carbon capture at Exxon, state early on, "We (ExxonMobil corporate culture) are not interested in buyouts, but rather partnerships with innovative energy companies around the world."
We'll see.
