From IPO’s to Fire Sales

What a number of investors didn’t want me to mention is that nanotech companies are falling like ninepins at the moment. As an example, this announcement from API Nanotronics fails to mention that NanoOpto closed the doors some time ago, pretty much  around the time that they were mentioned as  a possible  IPO candidate in the ForbesWolfe report.  Rumour is that the assets went for a million or two which is hardly a great return on the $60 million invested.

Rather than a bunch of IPO’s we may see another raft of closures this year as investors lose patience, companies fail to make that big sales or technical breakthough, and the assets are stripped out. I have seen a number of ‘nanotech’ companies that simply shouldn’t exist as a corporate entity, fear and greed meant that they were spun out of the lab way too fast, and after a few years spent generating and protecting intellectual property, many are finding IP no substitute for a product that generates revenues.