Shares of VIASPACE Inc. (OTCBB: VSPC) jumped up today after news of its subsidiary signing a manufacturing agreement with Tyco surfaced. In early trading today, VSPC was up 4 cents (19 percent) to 25 cents per share on volume of just over 529,000 shares.
VSPC announced that its subsidiary, Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation (DMFCC), has signed a design and certified manufacturer agreement with Tyco Electronics Corporation (NYSE: TEL), a global manufacturer of electronic components and systems.
“Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation has been establishing a global network of suppliers to manufacture and distribute fuel cartridges and other fuel cell products,” reports Dr. Carl Kukkonen, CEO of both VSPC and DMFCC, in a statement.
Fuel cells are expected to gain a substantial market share in mobile electronics application where long operating times for electronic equipment may be required.
It has been announced that direct methanol fuel cells are being developed for portable electronic applications by companies such as Samsung and LG in Korea, and by Toshiba, NEC, Hitachi and Sanyo in Japan.
“Tyco Electronics is always looking to innovative technologies and is looking forward to working with DMFCC on direct methanol fuel cells and liquid fuel cartridge products,” added Boris Golubovic, Director of Business Development for Transpower products at Tyco Electronics, in a statement.
VSPC was originally founded in 1998 with the objective of transforming proven space and defense technologies from NASA and the Department of Defense into hardware and software solutions that solve today’s complex problems, VSPC benefits from important patent and software licenses from Caltech, which manages NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.