Bloom Energy IPO?

So Bloom Energy was featured on 60 Minutes last night. Now what?

Well, apparently the piece has incited fuel cell and IPO fever - neither of which may be justified.

A spot on 60 Minutes is great, and draws plenty of national attention. After the airing, Bloom Energy related keywords were occupying five of the ten hottest Google searches in the country.

And the results, quite frankly, were disturbing. I even found one article claiming Bloom could be publicly listed by this Wednesday.

Of course, that would be comparable to a virgin birth, since Bloom hasn't even filed the necessary paperwork yet.

If you really want to stay on top of new and exciting cleantech companies like this one, perhaps you should read these pages a bit more frequently.

I squashed the Bloom Energy IPO rumors back in November. And I got the info directly from the horse's mouth, John Doerr... the billionaire venture capitalist who's backing the venture.

Here's what I had to say then:

According to Doerr, the main hurdle facing cleantech is its capital intensity.

He said it took $25 million and 3 years to bring Google to an initial public offering (IPO).

Compare that to Bloom Energy, a Doerr-backed fuel cell company. Bloom has already gobbled up $250 million and seven years. Doerr said it'll be nine years before they think about an IPO, even though it has "substantial revenues and orders."

According to Doerr, there is simply more "capital required to grow a great green company." And that's what has delayed major investment - both public and private - thus far.

So no, there's no Bloom Energy stock symbol just yet. But we'll be sure to pass news along should they file for an initial public offering (IPO). If you want to learn more about the company, here's a link to their site.

Call it like you see it,

Nick