Customer LoginApril 3, 2010
To our Valued Customers and Suppliers:
Since December of 2009, we have been making preparations for a possible initial public offering of our stock. In connection with those preparations, we have filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that describe our business and financial position. As part of this process, we recently included our financial statements for the 2009 fiscal year, which were audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. PwC included the following statement in an explanatory paragraph of their audit opinion, "[Solyndra] has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." According to generally accepted auditing standards, a company's future financing plans are not considered when evaluating whether a "going concern" explanatory paragraph is necessary. The inclusion of such an explanatory paragraph in an auditor's opinion for a start-up company that is preparing for an IPO is not uncommon, since many of these companies, like us, are raising capital in order to fund the expansion required for profitability. PwC's audit opinion on our financial statements is unqualified and states that our financial statements present fairly the financial position and results of operations of the Company for the periods presented.
We operate in an extremely capital-intensive industry, and our ability to achieve positive gross margins and attain operating profitability is dependent upon our ability to rapidly increase our production capacity. The successful completion of our $535 million loan facility guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Energy has been an important first step in increasing our production capacity; however, the Company's current plans contemplate additional expansion which requires us to raise additional capital. An IPO is just one avenue for obtaining the capital required to support this expansion, and we continue to evaluate the various sources of capital that are available to us. Historically, the Company has been able to raise necessary expansion capital as needed, and we believe that the additional capital that we plan to raise will provide us with sufficient liquidity to continue to pursue our current expansion strategy. We believe that our next capital raise will address the issue underlying the explanatory paragraph regarding "going concern" included in PwC's audit opinion.
We continue to be confident in our ability to execute our expansion plans, and we appreciate your continued support as we grow our company.
Sincerely,
Chris Gronet
CEO