Nano Boom–Or Bust?
High-flying IPOs from companies with no profits and no products characterized the dot-com boom of the 90s. Are we on the verge of revisiting those days thanks to, of all things, nanotechnology?
That’s the question asked in today’s New York Times. At least five nanotechnology companies are considering going public this year. Nanosys, based in Palo Alto, CA, is the first of the these, and its SEC filings reveal the company has no profits and no plans to market any product until 2006. To be fair, the story does point out that nanotech startups bear a greater resemblance to biotech companies, with much larger up-front investment requirements to pay for the research and expert personnel needed to develop those products. (Technology Review recently profiled Nanosys.)
But with biotech stocks in a slump as promised products fail to materialize, should investors be as eager to jump on this newest tech bandwagon?
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