Asteroid, a different perspective...
One of the best investments I made in 2007 is with a visionary company called Metabolix (MBLX) that has developed leading edge 'green' technology, specifically to produce bio-degradable natural (non-oil based) plastics. Metabolix went public in November 2006 but actually started in 1992. It still has not reached breakeven but is clearly on its way. During the interim 14 year period the company's private investors or venture capitalists had to keep funding the company to keep the dream of this technology alive. The company had compelling technology with great environmental benefits as well as earnings potential. When Metabolix went public they had just signed a major joint venture with ADM and are now building their first manufacturing facility, so someday we'll all be able to throw away plastic wastes and not feel guilty.
I'm sure you see the parallel here to Wave, a company that has in effect been a 'public' venture capital company supported by Wavoids for approximately the same period of time that Metabolix was supported by its private investors. It's not the norm for a company to take this long to develop, but it does happen when the greater benefit of that company's success is too important to allow failure. Both Wave and Metabolix fall into this category, but the irony is that the latter currently has a much higher stock price. For 14 years Metabolix was quietly nurtured by investors who were privy to every one of the risks and potential rewards while Wave's public investors (with a good understanding of the technology) had to basically resort to these DD boards to keep the dream alive. One mistake Wave made was to have gone public way too soon before their market was developed.
New Wave
Founded in 1992, Metabolix, Inc. is developing and commercializing environmentally sustainable and totally biodegradable Natural Plastic as a clean alternative to petroleum-based plastics. The Company is taking a systems approach, from gene to end product, to integrate sophisticated biotechnology with current industrial practice to produce plastics, fuels and chemicals from renewable resources. In addition to its microbial fermentation platform for production of Natural Plastic, Metabolix is also developing a proprietary platform technology for co-producing, in non-food plant crops such as switchgrass, Natural Plastic and biomass for biofuels such as ethanol and for chemical products. For more information, please visit www.metabolix.com
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