Capstone Squeezing Blood from a Turbine (CPST, AMAT)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Microturbine maker Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ:CPST) has announced that it will eliminate an additional 22 professional positions as it continues to reduce expenses. Capstone fired 19 employees in February and canceled 16 open positions. The company said it will now employ 212 people, compared with 216 one year ago. Capstone’s microturbines are used in the construction of combined heat and power generation plants and hybrid electric vehicles.

The company also said that preliminary results for its 2009 fourth quarter show a reduction in cash used to $4.9 million, compared with $21.6 million of cash used in the third quarter. Capstone noted that it had recently opened a $10 million line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank, and that its cash balance at the end of March was about $19.5 million and that $3.7 million was outstanding on the line of credit.

This hasn’t been a good week for alternative energy companies. Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) has announced that an order for its thin-film solar production equipment originally worth $1.9 billion had been reduced by the buyer to $250 million. Applied also said that has not yet “recognized any orders” in connection with either the original or the amended deal.

Capstone shares are actually up a nickel in pre-open trading this morning after closing at $0.75 yesterday. The 52-week range is $0.39-$4.42. Applied is down $0.10 in pre-market trading, to $10.45. Its 52-week range is $7.80-$20.90.

Paul Ausick
April 8, 2009

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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