Should Amyris Split Into 2 Companies?
Industrial biotechnology companies are often concerned with scaling up their manufacturing processes, but there's an argument that the field should focus more on scaling down in certain areas.
Take Amyris (NASDAQ: AMRS) as an example. The company deserves credit for surviving multiple pivots -- from malaria drugs to biofuels to performance materials and more -- since its founding in 2003, but it ended June 2020 with an accumulated deficit of nearly $2 billion and relatively little to show for it. Essentially, this industrial biotech has attempted to throw its technology platform at everything, but has accomplished next to nothing from a business standpoint.
While it demonstrated promise with a fast-growing consumer portfolio, that progress is being overwhelmed by its costly arrangements in bulk ingredients, which appear likely to continue weighing on operating metrics for the foreseeable future. To fully unlock the value of its consumer brands business, should Amyris consider splitting itself into two?
Source Fool.com
