Litigation

And so Timminco is suing, seeking C$6 million in damages in their lawsuit filed in Ontario Superiod Court. They say that Sood is trying to drive down the price of the company’s shares with his statement.

The company’s stock traded Tuesday at C$30.60, with a 52-week low of C$3.43. Media reports say industry insiders are skeptical of its claimed proprietary technology and its claimed ability to make its products at a lower cost than competitors. Timminco makes solar-grade silicon, which has had shortages and cost increases. No other company has been able to do what Timminco claims it can do, and Timminco has been very secretive, which apparently fuels the skepticism.

Ethan Zindler of New Energy Finance said the following about the lawsuit:

My feeling is that if you?re a highly speculative company with a speculative technology, it would seem to me that you don?t have a whole lot to complain about if some people think what do you won?t work. If people are betting that you and your technology will work, you would seem to open yourself up to people that might have the other opinion.

So basically, Timminco needs to put up or shut up. Don’t be such babies about someone criticizing your claimed technology and claimed capabilities when none of it has been proven. Was Sood incorrect when he said the technology hasn’t been proven? I think not. It seems he was right on point with that.

But this isn’t the first or last company that is trying to shut up critics. Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK), CEO Patrick Byrne, and in-house cyberstalker Judd Bagley are notorious for harassing and intimidating critics of the company’s business methods and financial reporting.

This is also no different than the Biovail lawsuit against Gradient Analytics for a negative (and completely accurate) report Gradient put out about the company. Oh, and Overstock sued Gradient too for saying that their crappy company is, indeed crappy.

Companies are trying to intimidate those who criticize their businesses and their financial reporting. I just want to know when companies are going to start suing people who say false positive things about them. Fair is fair.