Exhibit 99
ECOtality, Inc. to Acquire
Minit-Charger
Acquisition solidifies ECOtality and
eTec’s position in the fast-charger transportation
market
SCOTTSDALE,
Ariz., December 6, 2007 — ECOtality, Inc. (OTC BB: ETLY), a
renewable energy company that acquires and commercially advances
clean electric technologies and applications, today announced the
execution of a definitive agreement to purchase all assets and
business of Minit-Charger, a subsidiary of Edison International, a
NYSE-listed company, for $3 million in cash and stock. The
acquisition of Minit-Charger, combined with the previous announced
acquisitions of Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation
(eTec), Innergy Power Corporation and Fuel Cell Store, will provide
ECOtality a revenue base of companies having combined trailing
twelve month revenues of $14.55 million for the period ending third
quarter of 2007. ECOtality expects to close the acquisition within
the next seven days.
Since its inception in
1998, Minit-Charger has generated over $40 million product sales
and earned $5.16 million in revenues for the trailing twelve month
period ending September 30, 2007. According to Frost &
Sullivan, the North American industrial fast battery charger market
revenues grew 16 percent from 2005 to 2006, and are expected to
grow 17 percent from 2006 to 2007. The compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of the fast charger market is expected to reach 18.9 percent
from 2006 to 2013. To continue to execute the company’s
strategic growth plan and to complete the Minit-Charger
acquisition, ECOtality successfully raised $1.5 million of capital
from institutional investors.
“The acquisition of Minit-Charger, as well as our previous
acquisition of eTec, exemplifies ECOtality’s strategy to
acquire and advance revenue-generating companies with accretive
technologies that reduce the environmental impacts of
transportation and energy production,” said Jonathan Read,
president and CEO, ECOtality. “With the increased attention
and growth in the electric vehicle market, we are committed to the
commercial development of fast charging and clean electric
propulsion systems and will explore additional transportation
applications for the Minit-Charger and eTec Supercharge
technologies.”
eTec, a subsidiary of
ECOtality, will manage all aspects of the Minit-Charger business
after the acquisition. By combining the Minit-Charger line of
battery fast chargers for lift trucks and material handling systems
with the eTec
SuperCharge™ line of battery fast chargers
for airport ground support equipment, eTec will expand the
company’s fast charging product line and market share in the
area of clean electric transportation and infrastructure solutions.
Currently, the eTec
SuperCharge technology provides battery fast
charging systems used in airport ground support equipment,
neighborhood electric vehicle operations, and marine and transit
applications.
“By leveraging
the synergies between the Minit-Charger and eTec SuperCharge technologies, we
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