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Mechanical Technology auditor concerned about company's future

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

The Business Review ( Albany )

Mechanical Technology Inc.'s annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission included an auditor's concern about the company's ability to continue operating.

Mechanical Technology said the company's public accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, "expressed substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as an ongoing concern."

Mechanical Technology (Nasdaq: MKTY), based in Albany , N.Y. , announced the "going concern" opinion to comply with Nasdaq requirements.

According to the auditor's opinion, "The company has incurred significant losses as it continues to fund MTI Micro's direct methanol fuel cell product development programs, and has an accumulated deficit of $105.066 million and working capital of $11.347 million at Dec. 31, 2007."

MTI Micro refers to MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc., the company that is developing small fuel cell power packs to run portable devices such as cell phones and cameras.

Mechanical Technology has sold 1.45 million shares of Latham-based Plug Power Inc. (Nasdaq: PLUG) stock and said it has enough resources to fund operations for the next 12 months. However, it is considering selling more Plug stock, reducing its current expenditure run-rate, seeking additional government or private funding, or selling a division of the company. Mechanical Technology has two subsidiaries, MTI Micro and MTI Instruments Inc., also in Albany , which makes precision measurement instruments.