Nanosys - Sharp Deal is no Cure-All

The Motley Fool reports on the collaborative agreement between Sharp Corporation and Nanosys to develop fuel cells for use in electronic devices such as laptop computers, cell phones and cameras. The Fools comment on the failed Nanosys IPO:

Its last attempt at going public didn't meet with an enthusiastic crowd of investors, but will the next attempt encounter the same skepticism? What story could you put forward for a company that has publicly announced it wouldn't have a commercial product of its own on the market until 2006?

We're expecting the second time to be the charm for Nanosys and are looking forward to a powerful initial public offering.

My thought is that another joint development agreement does not a successful company make. My experience is that about half of all of this type of collaborative agreements end as disappointments. Until Nanosys gets closer to a commercialized product only the V.C.’s should have their wallet out. There is lots of money to made in the nanotech sector, there is also lots of money to be lost. As I have said before there are lots of folks smarter than me trying to figure it out. Most of the smart ones also have much deeper pockets than I.