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Bill Kaszeta / Photovoltaic Resources
GE to keep AstroPower in Delaware
First day of takeover brings relief to workers, promise to stay
By STEVEN CHURCH
Staff reporter
04/02/2004
General Electric Co. took possession of nearly all of AstroPower's
assets Thursday and pledged to keep the solar cell maker's
headquarters in Delaware.
Company spokesman Dennis Murphy said about 350 of AstroPower's
workers - nearly its entire current work force - began their shifts as GE
employees.
Workers said they were relieved by the GE purchase. During a short
smoke break Thursday afternoon, a handful of employees said that
the mood of the work force had improved.
"I think most of them are thrilled," said Mike Terrell, who works for
the company's research and development section. "It's a great thing."
The new head of AstroPower, Ali Iz, could not be reached for comment.
GE officials are negotiating with the owner of AstroPower's main
manufacturing building about remaining at the company's Pencader
Corporate Center in Glasgow and with state economic development
officials, Murphy said.
State officials said they hope to convince GE to move some of the
company's famed researchers to Delaware to complement AstroPower's
solar experts and scientists at the University of Delaware in Newark
and Delaware State University in Dover.
GE has not asked for any money, but the state may be willing to use
some to persuade the company to expand research and development
in Delaware, said Judy McKinney-Cherry, director of the Delaware
Economic Development Office.
Murphy said that although final plans for the company's location have
not yet been made, GE is not looking at any other sites.
AstroPower filed for bankruptcy in February as part of an offer by GE to
buy most of the company's assets. A bankruptcy judge gave GE
permission to buy the company last month for $15 million plus a pledge
to assume $3.5 million of AstroPower's debt.
The bankruptcy filing and sale followed a year of bad news, as the
company fell from its place as one of the most admired technology
companies in the solar industry. After it failed to file several financial
reports required by the federal government last year, AstroPower's
stock price plummeted to less than $1 from a high of more than $40
a share in 2000.
The company was removed from the Nasdaq Stock Market in July.
In September, the board of directors hired an investment banking firm
from Philadelphia to help it find a new group of investors or sell the company.
Employment has fallen from about 600 Delaware workers last year to 350.
AstroPower's founder and former chief executive Allen M. Barnett said
GE would be good for the solar industry and the remnants of his former
company.
"GE is very smart," Barnett said. "They know what they are doing here."
Barnett stepped down as head of the company in May, 20 years after
starting AstroPower in a converted middle school with a handful of
employees. He was replaced three months later by a New York crisis
management firm that specializes in managing businesses on the brink
of collapse.
Under interim Chief Executive Officer Carl H. Young III, the company laid
off employees, moved out of its executive office building and put together
the bankruptcy plan that led to GE's takeover.
GE did not buy AstroPower's stock, which is currently worth about 10 cents
a share. Instead, GE bought the company's assets: its machines,
intellectual property, contracts and work site. The only significant asset
left to AstroPower is a small solar manufacturing company in Spain named
Atersa.
Barnett said that the fate of that company is now in the hands of the federal
bankruptcy court in Wilmington.
Reach Steven Church at 324-2786 or [email protected].
from:
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/business/2004/04/02getokeepastropo.html
Bill Kaszeta
Photovoltaic Resources Int'l
Tempe Arizona USA
[email protected]
First day of takeover brings relief to workers, promise to stay
By STEVEN CHURCH
Staff reporter
04/02/2004
General Electric Co. took possession of nearly all of AstroPower's
assets Thursday and pledged to keep the solar cell maker's
headquarters in Delaware.
Company spokesman Dennis Murphy said about 350 of AstroPower's
workers - nearly its entire current work force - began their shifts as GE
employees.
Workers said they were relieved by the GE purchase. During a short
smoke break Thursday afternoon, a handful of employees said that
the mood of the work force had improved.
"I think most of them are thrilled," said Mike Terrell, who works for
the company's research and development section. "It's a great thing."
The new head of AstroPower, Ali Iz, could not be reached for comment.
GE officials are negotiating with the owner of AstroPower's main
manufacturing building about remaining at the company's Pencader
Corporate Center in Glasgow and with state economic development
officials, Murphy said.
State officials said they hope to convince GE to move some of the
company's famed researchers to Delaware to complement AstroPower's
solar experts and scientists at the University of Delaware in Newark
and Delaware State University in Dover.
GE has not asked for any money, but the state may be willing to use
some to persuade the company to expand research and development
in Delaware, said Judy McKinney-Cherry, director of the Delaware
Economic Development Office.
Murphy said that although final plans for the company's location have
not yet been made, GE is not looking at any other sites.
AstroPower filed for bankruptcy in February as part of an offer by GE to
buy most of the company's assets. A bankruptcy judge gave GE
permission to buy the company last month for $15 million plus a pledge
to assume $3.5 million of AstroPower's debt.
The bankruptcy filing and sale followed a year of bad news, as the
company fell from its place as one of the most admired technology
companies in the solar industry. After it failed to file several financial
reports required by the federal government last year, AstroPower's
stock price plummeted to less than $1 from a high of more than $40
a share in 2000.
The company was removed from the Nasdaq Stock Market in July.
In September, the board of directors hired an investment banking firm
from Philadelphia to help it find a new group of investors or sell the company.
Employment has fallen from about 600 Delaware workers last year to 350.
AstroPower's founder and former chief executive Allen M. Barnett said
GE would be good for the solar industry and the remnants of his former
company.
"GE is very smart," Barnett said. "They know what they are doing here."
Barnett stepped down as head of the company in May, 20 years after
starting AstroPower in a converted middle school with a handful of
employees. He was replaced three months later by a New York crisis
management firm that specializes in managing businesses on the brink
of collapse.
Under interim Chief Executive Officer Carl H. Young III, the company laid
off employees, moved out of its executive office building and put together
the bankruptcy plan that led to GE's takeover.
GE did not buy AstroPower's stock, which is currently worth about 10 cents
a share. Instead, GE bought the company's assets: its machines,
intellectual property, contracts and work site. The only significant asset
left to AstroPower is a small solar manufacturing company in Spain named
Atersa.
Barnett said that the fate of that company is now in the hands of the federal
bankruptcy court in Wilmington.
Reach Steven Church at 324-2786 or [email protected].
from:
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/business/2004/04/02getokeepastropo.html
Bill Kaszeta
Photovoltaic Resources Int'l
Tempe Arizona USA
[email protected]
