RE: PCBBoy...JMPaul is back and so is BTIAnswer to your questions. A few questions of my own.
There are a few people who post regularly on this sight who seem awfully keen to save the rest of us from there own intelligence and seem truly offended if the stock upticks. What motivates you?
Think of a million other stocks that are overvalued and undervalued, what is a fair price?
There is no real answer, only theory.
Now your questions.
BTI has done little to market the product because in there early life they were positioned as a licensor and the licencees were expected to market. Rayovac under there previous owners committed millions to it and hired Michael Jordan to lead the parade, but the owner of Rayovac who was no marketer planned the campaign and did a crappy job.
The new owners of Rayovac have positioned themselves as the inexpensive alkaline company and have de-emphasized RAM.
The other licensees have been fairly poor and their marketing efforts have been week.
BTI has never had enough money to market anything. They took a stab at infomercials, but never quite found the right approach.
This current financing is an important one for BTI to put them in a position to market.
Bruce Pope has put much effort into attaining an OEM deal, which willl give the company a backbone to build on, but getting rid of their banker is a necessary prerequisite.
Acquiring Accucel is a very important move for BTI and their current and potential business with Krupp could prove to be crucial.
This next year I expect to see BTI complete at least one and maybe two financings, I expect to see them land an OEM deal with Krupp, and at least one other be it Ericson,RIM or Sony.
Where is Duracell, and Eveready? They are not far away. So far they haven't missed a thing. Once RAM makes its mark they will be happy to pay hundreds of millions or even billions to buy it but they will not move in early and jpiss billions down the drain on a product that either isn't ready or the market isn't ready yet.
Large company's would rather pay up for successfol products.
As an early investor you just have to decide will BTI make it? and how much will it be worth if it does? In the mean time the stock will fluctuate wildly as the climate for emerging company's comes and goes or as they get closer to the breakthrough.
Most of us who hang around for what seems forever, do so because we think the product will displace regular batteries, and as time passes it becomes apparant that technology improvments enhances their chance of success.
I hope this helps....