Fuel Systems Solutions, Inc. (FSYS)

[stemcell]

do you have any thoughts as to what WPRT plans to do with the approximately $275M it raised from last week’s share offering

actually no. My gut tells me, due to the timing of it right after earnings and CC, that they were tired of traditional financing and wanted to test the waters and see what kind of clout they had...I mean, why go out for financing when investors are more than happy to oblige. PPS still holding above the offering price so it's safe to say it was a roaring success. They obviously know there are going to be severe scalability issues once the tsunami of orders starts coming in, they probably just waanted to shore up their cash knowing they will need it soon.

WPRT might acquire FSYS;

FSYS just came up on my radar a week or two ago. If they have value to westport then the answer is yes, if they are just competition westport may be content to just eventually squash them like a bug, as it appears to be a david and goliath scenario. I'm still trying to evaluate westport's patent stronghold, but there's so many of them it will take me a while. FSYS only mentions patents in passing.

WPRT’s stock has strongly outperformed that of FSYS during the past two years resulting in a large discrepancy in the valuations

no surprise there westport has made all the right moves and has formed alliances with the OEM giants of the world, and some smaller ones too. Valuations in these cases are based largely on what's ahead, and westport rightly should have the huge advantage.

Kevin Douglas (as trustee of the James Douglas and Jean Douglas Irrevocable Descendants’ Trust) is a >5% shareholder of both WPRT and FSYS...Notably, he has been dramatically increasing his positions in FSYS recently

FSYS has almost doubled in last 60 days. Now is that why KD has been increasing his stake, or is it partially the result of him adding more? Did he see good things coming with FSYS and decide to stoke the fire?

3) Douglas King has been recently appointed to the WPRT BoD. He had been on the FSYS BoD from Apr 2006 to July 2010.

That may have no significance at all other than Doug wanting to work for McDonalds instead of Der Wienerschitzel.
If you look at Westports alliances and acquisitions, they are all well thought out, and they made sure it was a good fitbefore doing it.....many compoanies acquire, and then try to make the new addition fit in. Where is the value for westport in acquiring fsys and what does fsys have to offer? How would they fit in? If they are just another player it will not be enough for westport to go after them, i am sure westport right now is up to their eyeballs in things to do...if IMPCO and any other part can help westport then sure they will pull the trigger. But given the size of westport i seriously doubt they need to give even a second look at any other players unless there is something they have that westport wants. Maybe there is a group looking to support and help grow an american "westport" to keep some of the massive profits here in usa and not up in canada, once you mix politics in the waters get very muddy.
Please note up until a week or two ago i didn't even know fsys existed, which was a kind of shock to me given that i've closely followed the sector since last summer.
I'm much more concerned of some kind of battle for westport...i want them to stand on their own until the wheels fall off, I love their style and would hate to see some behemoth come in and screw everything up...what are your thoughts on someone making a play for westport?