MicroVision (MVIS) – Get Report is a “$1.2 billion market cap corporate husk,” according to short-seller Hindenburg Research, whose series of comments helped pare the scanning technology company’s earlier gains Tuesday.
Shares of the Redmond, Wash.-based company, which had been up by about 40%, were rising about 20% to $6.93 at last check.
MicroVision didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hindenburg Research, which has posted critical comments about Nikola (NKLA) – Get Report and Kandi Technologies (KNDI) – Get Report, took to Twitter to lambaste MicroVision.
“We are short $MVIS,” Hindenburg Research tweeted. “In a market gone mad, this $1.2 billion market cap corporate husk with almost no revenue or intellectual property value is a standout.”
The stock has risen 5,000% from lows this year on misguided retail euphoria over its light detection and ranging (LiDAR) IP portfolio amid a broad electric vehicle bubble, the research firm said.
“Retail investors have latched onto the company’s portfolio of 250+ active patents, but an IP attorney we engaged found that only ~10 $MVIS issued patents even mention LiDAR,” Hindenburg said. “Of those, many are oriented toward consumer/non-automotive use.”
The patents haven’t faced inter partes review (IPR) challenges yet, Hindenburg alleged, significantly reducing their value. The attorney told the firm that “no one buys patents these days for any real money unless the patents have been put through the test of at least an IPR.”
“The recent excitement all belies the fact that $MVIS is essentially a science project that has gone nowhere after 25 years,” the short-seller tweeted. “It was trading around $0.20 in April of this year and contemplating sale or liquidation. But EV mania presented an opportunity.”
In November, MicroVision put financing documents in place then announced the very next day that it hopes to have a LiDAR demo product by April 2021,” Hindenburg said.
Adding to this, the firm continued, “a chorus of second-tier blogs have pushed the narrative that the company could be acquired by Microsoft (MSFT) – Get Report or other ‘tech giants’ – an extremely unlikely proposition given the company’s astronomical valuation.”
Some investors defended MicroVision on Twitter, with one saying, “I feel like y’all make short reports on certain stocks cause your mad that you didn’t get the entry price you wanted.”