I know jack squat about Malcom Berko. According to this little write up, he's been working in the investments field for 50 years. He currently writes a column where he answer's investor's questions, and he recently took on Altairnano.

I also know very little about investing, so I'm not really the best person to try and figure out Berko's hidden reasons (if there are any) for throwing such a wet blanket on the idea of investing in Altiarnano. We've seen financial reporters being skeptical of Altair before, but they've come around.

Anyway, Berko doesn't like some of Altair's non-battery work, and has been hearing CEO Alan Gotcher talk the talk about the nano-batteries for too long to be enamored with them. The person writing in to Berko says they've heard good things about Altair from WR Hambrecht. That might be true, Berko says, but Hambrecht is Altair's underwriter, so tread carefully.

All that said, there's at least one error in the column. The person who asked Berko about making the investment said, "I would like to buy 20,000 shares of Altair at $3.90" and, later, "I would like your thoughts on this stock, which would also give me an added level of comfort before I invest $39,000." That's probably just a typo (20,000 shares at $3.90 would cost $78,000), but when we're looking for people to trust with piles of money, I'd say the fewer mistakes they make the better.

Related:

• Forbes on Altairnano: "pretender no more"
• Altair Nanotechnologies, American Electric Power join EDTA
• Phoenix makes $2.2 million order for Altair's NanoSafe battery packs
• AutoblogGreen Q&A: AltairNano CEO Alan Gotcher

[Source: NewsOK]

Altair Nanotechnologies has been anointed by Josh Wolfe, of the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, as a "pretender no more." Wolfe says that Altair "seems to be making progress in getting real nanomaterials-based products to market, with its NanoSafe batteries in particular," and that its stock jumped 18 percent recently thanks to President Bush checking out the Phoenix SUT (Altair owns 16 percent of Phoenix). Altair's new battery technologies are helping it make "some impressive partnerships and supplying agreements of late," Wolfe writes, "including deals with aluminum giant Alcoa and Pacific Gas & Electric, both of which are buying Phoenix's vehicles for use as delivery vans. Altair also partnered with pharmaceutical major Eli Lilly, which is licensing Altair's phosphate build-up prevention drug, branded Renalan, for its animal health care division."

These deals, along with Altair's American and international patents, mean that Wolfe is happy to remove the "Nano Pretender" label he assigned in May 2002, but he's not buying any stock quite yet. The full article is worth reading.

Related:

• AFVI Show: All about electric cars with Dynasty, GEM, Zap!, ZENN and Phoenix
• AVFI Show: ABG Video of the Phoenix SUT

[Source: Forbes]