North American Windpower: American Superconductor Acquires Windtec

American Superconductor Acquires Windtec

by Shelley Paventy Thursday November 30 2006

American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC), a Westborough, Mass.-headquartered provider of power electronic systems, has acquired Windtec, a Klagenfurt, Austria-based wind turbine system designer.

This agreement is the result of a relationship that began between the two companies in 2005 when Windtec requested to use AMSC's PowerModule electronic devices to control power flows for turbines in China and Japan. Because the devices were a success, the orders dramatically increased within the past 18 months. AMSC and Windtec have combined their resources in this agreement to expand their operations in order to meet the need of this growth.

"[Windtec] needed to expand their sales force to get more orders - they need to increase their field service team now that they have product going out to so many wind farms, and we already have that," says Greg Yurek, AMSC's chief executive officer and founder. "It just made sense to combine our two companies, take advantage of the synergies and continue to grow rapidly."

Under the terms of the agreement, AMSC will acquire Windtec's wind turbine design patents and pending patents. AMSC plans to retain Windtec's operations in Austria, which has customers in Canada, China, Germany and other countries. The purchase price is 1.3 million shares of AMSC common stock, valued at approximately $12.4 million. The transaction’s closing is expected in January 2007.

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