Medis Technologies Suffering From Premature Deal Hype

The moral of the Medis (MDTL) story is: This is what happens when you prematurely hype a deal that hasn’t yet closed.

In November, along with reporting earnings, Medis said that it was “well along” in the process of striking deals with big customers for its Power Pack fuel-cell recharger. “One of these customers, which is a top-tier OEM , has advised us that they plan to introduce the Power Pack as a product bearing their brand at the CES show in January.”

Medis, no stranger to this column, has a history of promising more than it can deliver and has proven itself to be horrible at timing.

Fast forward to Friday: Medis reported that “contractual negotiations are continuing” with that big, unnamed OEM and the deal won’t be completed by CES. “However,” the company said, “these negotiations are well advance and Medis is hopeful that it will be able to arrive at a definitive agreement in the near future…”

Little good “hopeful” does for investors who bought the stock after it had already rallied 40% on the news that a deal was imminent. The stock has since tumbled by 21%, with 14% of the decline occurring today.

The beat goes on…