BREAKING NEWS: Less than Three Years After Being Acquired by SunPower for $165 Million, Utah-based Blue Raven Solar is Now "On the Market" at Fire Sale Prices as SunPower Files for Bankruptcy.

What's interesting about this news is that the pending buyer is Complete Solaria, a California-based firm that announced in April it is moving its headquarters to Salt Lake City.

There are so many pieces flying around in this story, let me see if I can summarize all of them in a few paragraphs.

Once high-flying residential solar company, SunPower, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last evening, not typically something we at Utah Money Watch would report on.

However, as a result, the firm has put certain assets up for sale, including its wholly owned subsidiary, Orem, Utah-based Blue Raven Solar, which SunPower purchased in October 2021 for a total of $165 million.

Yesterday, Complete Solaria (NASDAQ:CLSR), a California-based residential solar power company with a Lehi, Utah-based office, was named as the firm behind a "Stalking Horse Bid" to acquire Blue Raven and other assets from SunPower for $45 million.

If this Stalking Horse Bid is accepted by the Bankruptcy Court, it would mean that the value of Blue Raven has fallen dramatically in the past 2.5+ years, most likely by over 75%.

As I reported for Silicon Slopes in early Q3 2021 in "Blue Raven Solar Acquired for $145 Million in Cash by SunPower, with an Earn-out of up to $20 Million on the Back-End" — Blue Raven was growing at the time at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 100% per year, something Blue Raven had been doing since 2016.

{NOTE: According to SunPower's 2024 Annual Report, Blue Raven did achieve the Earn-Out covenants included its purchase agreement, earning "Blue Raven executives, employees, and service providers" the additional $20 million in SunPower's fiscal 2022.}

Now, at the risk of being accused of "burying the lede," here's where this story gets interesting.

• Complete Solaria announced back in April that it was moving its headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, something (to be honest) I missed while on a brief hiatus.
• Complete Solaria has had an office in Lehi for close to two years now through its subsidiary, Complete Solar, an office located on the west side of I-15 just north of of Thanksgiving Point.
• Additionally, a few weeks ago (15 July 2024 to be exact), Complete Solar announced it had acquired Logan, Utah-based Core Energy, a residential solar company that generated 2022 revenue of $143 million, revenue that had dropped precipitously to annualized revenue of $22 million. Core Energy's revenue drop was caused, Complete Solar wrote, "... due to the solar downturn triggered by rate changes to California’s Net Energy Metering (NEM 3.0), which lowered the payment for home solar power delivered to the grid by 75%."

{NOTE: Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed by either party.}

Finally, if you were not aware, Complete Solaria is now led by 76-year-old CEO T.J. Rodgers, a semiconductor industry maven (he founded and led Cypress Semiconductor for from 1982 to 2016), a long-time investor, and (interestingly enough), former CEO and Chairman of SunPower, and the man behind the turnaround of EnPhase.

Oh, and how did he become the CEO/Chairman of SunPower?

By acquiring the company in 2002.

In my opinion, Rodgers is a leader who knows how to win.

But Wait ... There's More.

At 6:15am this morning, Mountain Time, Complete Solaria distributed a news release titled "Complete Solaria Discusses SunPower Acquisition Opportunity."

In part, the news release says:

"As the stalking horse bidder, Complete Solaria enjoys some benefits in the Chapter 11 legal process, including setting the first bid, and, more importantly, the right to negotiate the Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) with the SunPower team. The third-generation plan of our jointly created APA describes a new company created with the top employees from three solar companies from Salt Lake’s “Solar Valley,” the home to over 20 solar companies.

"The three companies are Blue Raven (from Orem), Complete Solaria (from Lehi), and Core Energies (from Logan). These three companies would then combine with SunPower’s expensive but very competent organization to become a cost-competitive solar power-house. The plan lowers our current headcount from 2587 to 1273, while still retaining our key Silicon Valley brain trust."

And then, Rodgers dropped this bombshell quote in the release, something (personally) I love:

“I became CEO of Complete Solaria for arguably humanitarian reasons, I’m 76 years old and the world left a crying CEO-less baby on my doorstep. Now, I’m hooked on Complete Solaria. While my silicon world was more complex and technical, my solar world has technological components – intriguingly combined with bare-knuckle, cash-flow, live-or-die economics. I’m in.”

In my opinion, this Complete Solaria, Complete Solar, Blue Raven Solar, and Core Energy mash-up is just getting started.

Look out, residential solar industry!

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