There’s an upside to A123’s bankruptcy

There’s an upside to A123’s bankruptcy: via @eetimes

WASHINGTON – The numbers didn’t add up for bankrupted battery maker A123 Systems Inc., nor apparently did the lithium ions. The MIT spinoff based in Waltham, Mass., had been struggling financially for some time. On Tuesday (Oct. 16), company executives pulled the plug on America’s best hope for competing in the advanced battery market. But the sale of A123 assets to Johnson Controls for $125 million may eventually turn out to be the best way to recharge lithium-ion battery development in the U.S. and achieve the scale needed to compete in global markets. [Get a 10% discount on ARM TechCon 2012 conference passes by using promo code EDIT. Click here to learn about the show and register.] The “picking winners and losers” crowd will undoubtedly pile on again about the demise of A123 Systems because it received nearly $250 million in federal funding. The fact is battery technol...

Full article: http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4398700/There-s-a...