kabalah70 said:
plugitin, that is a fairly bold statement considering Fisker Automotive would not exist without them. Care to share the reasons for your opinion?
QTWW has or had a financial stake in Fisker. The fact that they are out means less profit for them. I bought a &%*%load of QTWW stock on the hopes of Fisker taking off (to the tune of paying for almost 1.5 Karmas in capital losses, all unrealized at this point). Eventhough I would imagine QTWW still has an ownership stake in Fisker Automotive, its profits would have been more with motor production.
Kab, Quantum owns hardly any of the JV stake (ie Fisker Auto) - I remember them saying that in one of their filings (or one of Fisker's PP filings, can't remember which).
UPDATE: Found the item. It's from Quantum's latest quarterly:
"We also hold ownership interests in certain unconsolidated active businesses that are accounted for either under the equity or cost methods of accounting. These interests include: (i) a 24.9% interest in Asola Solarpower GmbH (Asola, formerly named Asola Advanced and Automotive Solar Systems GmbH), a solar module manufacturer located in Erfurt, Germany (ii) a 24.9% interest in Asola Quantum Solarpower AG (AQS), a holding company for certain divisions of Asola’s business, (iii) a 25% interest in Shigan Quantum Technologies PVT LTD (Shigan Quantum), a start-up manufacturer of fuel injectors based in New Delhi, India, (iv) a 22% interest in Power Control and Design, Inc. (PCD), a power control electronics software developer based in Newbury Park, California, and (v) less than a 1% interest in Fisker Automotive, Inc., a plug-in electric hybrid vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Anaheim, California. See Note 4 for further discussion of these businesses."
From Note 4:
"4. Strategic Investments
Investment in Fisker Automotive
On August 7, 2007, we and Fisker Coachbuild, LLC, launched a new venture, Fisker Automotive, Inc. (Fisker Automotive), to produce premium plug-in hybrid automobiles.
We initially owned 62.0% of Fisker Automotive; however, Fisker Automotive has since raised a level of capital that has resulted in the dilution of our direct ownership interest to less than 1%.
In July 2011, Fisker Automotive had initial deliveries to customers of its first production vehicle, the Fisker Karma, a four door hybrid-electric premium sports sedan that incorporates our plug-in hybrid electric vehicle architecture known as Q-Drive.
On April 29, 2010, we executed a long-term production supply agreement with Fisker Automotive which, as later amended on November 8, 2010, sets forth the definitive terms pursuant to which we are the exclusive supplier of certain key sub-systems and control systems included in the Q-Drive powertrain system for the Fisker Karma production vehicle and we also receive a royalty for each Fisker Karma vehicle that incorporates our Q-Drive technology (the “Fisker Production Agreement”). The Fisker Production Agreement covers the program life of the vehicle platform and outlines minimum volumes of 45,000 vehicles over this period.
We accounted for our investment in Fisker Automotive under the equity method of accounting from the date of our initial ownership interest through the first quarter of fiscal 2011. During the second quarter of fiscal 2011, we changed the method of accounting to the cost method as a result of changes in the composition of the Fisker Automotive board of directors and the dilution of our equity interest since the initial formation of the venture such that we no longer were considered to have significant influence over Fisker Automotive; however, under both of these methodologies, our investment in Fisker Automotive has been carried at zero for all periods presented.
During the first half of fiscal 2012, we shipped production level component parts and continued to provide engineering services to support the launch of the Karma production vehicle."
Full Q can be found here:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1166380/000119312511336695/d240088d10q.htm
