Bloom Energy to be Profiled on "60 Minutes" Tomorrow

2/19/10 The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough? 60 Minutes: First Customers Says Energy Machine Works And Saves Money ""60 Minutes" cameras get the first look inside the secretive California company, just days before the Bloom Energy official launch, scheduled for next Wednesday (Feb. 24). Stahl's report will be broadcast this Sunday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. . . Bloom says each large box - which can power about 100 homes [so the output capacity of the "box" is probably 100 kW] - currently sells for $700-800,000. [That works out to a price of $7000 - $8000 per kW installed capacity -- way to expensive to be competitive without huge subsidies.] They hope within five to 10 years to roll out a smaller home version for about $3,000 a unit. . . the company has received over $400 million, making it one of the most expensive startups in history . . ." CBS News
2/19/10 Bloom Energy Revealed on 60 Minutes! Rumor and reality rundown for the soon-to-be unstealthed fuel cell miracle worker greentechmedia
2/19/10 Fuel-cell maker Bloom Energy finally sheds cloak of mystery this Sunday venturebeat.com "Bloom has done an impressive job of keeping its technology under wraps until now — even through several fund raises, a public estimation of its valuation at $1.45 billion, and the launch of indirect competitor ClearEdge Power (a company that may find itself in hot water if Bloom dazzles viewers as expected on Sunday). . ."
2/19/10 Is K.R. Sridhar’s 'magic box' ready for prime time? CNNMoney.com "until now Sridhar has revealed almost nothing about what his company has actually produced since it launched eight years ago. “In our eight-year history, this is the first time I’m sitting down with anybody who’s not wearing a Bloom badge,” he says with a laugh. “So it’s a big deal.” Thus begins the opening salvo of a full-bore media assault by this soft-spoken mechanical engineer that will soon be followed by a 60 Minutes segment on CBS on Sunday and a big press event on Wednesday in Silicon Valley. On the dais at Bloom’s coming-out party will be board member Colin Powell, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers, the blue-chip venture capital firm that jump-started the Bloom bandwagon back in 2002 (New Enterprise Associates and Morgan Stanley were also early believers). The event will be held at eBay (EBAY) headquarters . . ."
12/2009 Who Needs the Grid? The Atlantic "Nearly eight years and a reported $250 million in venture-capital investment later, [Bloom Energy] has a working product that’s been in field trials for the past two years and is about to go on the global market . . ." [But see this 12/7/09 BusinessWeek article in which Bloom's CEO says "it will take three to five years before Bloom boxes reach "grid parity" for home use, or price competitiveness with traditional residential-scale electric supplies". Hardly "about to go on the global market".]

Looks like Bloom's coming out party will be the biggest blast of non-transportation fuel cell hype in years. Bloom and its financial backers -- "old" Silicon Valley venture capital -- is playing this for all it's worth, starting with "60 Minutes" and following up a few days later with a very high profile press event.

Bloom can be expected to file for an initial public offering any day now. The primary purpose of all of this hype can only be getting as high a valuation as possible for a Bloom IPO, the expected payoff of which, after all, is the reason that the VC sharks invested in Bloom in the first place.

Fuel cell stocks in general could get a pretty substantial boost from the "60 Minutes" hype starting Monday morning and another boost on Wednesday following the press event. There is no good reason for PLUG, BLDP, FCEL or any other H2FC stock to move on the Bloom media circus, but lack of good reason has never stopped these stocks from moving before. Odds though are that any gains will be pretty short lived (days or weeks). So there may be a relatively short term trading opportunity in the offing here for those who are so inclined. (Your editor is not.)