SunPower and Maxeon Solar Technologies have completed the strategic transaction separating into two independent public companies.
Both will now concentrate on their crucial factors of success within their respective business models.
“Now is the right time for this strategic spin-off, allowing both SunPower and Maxeon to invest in key programs to drive their future profitable growth. Solar power is poised for significant growth and now each company is well-positioned to succeed based on specific areas of specialization, technology innovation and economies of scale.”
Tom Werner, SunPower CEO and chairman of the board.
Tom Werner remains as CEO and Chairman of SunPower’s Board, based in Silicon Valley , California, with an employee and an economic activity presence throughout the United States and Canada.
“The new SunPower will further develop as the leading North American distributed generation (DG), storage and energy services company with an end-to-end software platform, differentiated products and solutions and an asset-light approach. And I also want to thank our majority shareholder Total, strongly engaged in low carbon electricity, for its continued support since 2011.”
Tom Werner, SunPower CEO and chairman of the board.
“We are prepared to start our first day as Maxeon, with industry-leading technology, a strong brand, a unique global sales channel and strong investment partners. TZS has been a proven, long-time strategic partner of SunPower’s, cooperating on seven joint ventures and joint development projects since 2012. We are excited to have TZS’s backing at this important juncture in the emergence of solar power as a mainstream energy source.”
Jeff Waters, CEO of Maxeon.
Maxeon is a global leader in solar innovation with a broad distribution reach that includes a regional network of more than 1,100 authorized sales and installation partners, and a plan to expand beyond the roof to adjacent DG products outside the United States and Canada.
Jeff Waters is CEO of Maxeon, headquartered in Singapore with facilities for panel and cell development located in France, Malaysia, Mexico and the Philippines.
In conjunction with this deal, long-time partner Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor (TZS), a leading global supplier of silicon wafers, invests $298 million in Maxeon.
The TZS investment enables Maxeon’s newest generation production potential of its Maxeon product family to scale-up.
“We are prepared to start our first day as Maxeon, with industry-leading technology, a strong brand, a unique global sales channel and strong investment partners. TZS has been a proven, long-time strategic partner of SunPower’s, cooperating on seven joint ventures and joint development projects since 2012. We are excited to have TZS’s backing at this important juncture in the emergence of solar power as a mainstream energy source.”
Jeff Waters, CEO of Maxeon.
Maxeon and SunPower are working together to develop and launch next-generation solar panel technologies, with early-stage research being carried out by SunPower’s Silicon Valley R&D group, and Maxeon’s deployment-focused innovation and scale-up.
“The creation of two separate public companies, that Total has fully supported as the majority shareholder, is a strategic milestone in SunPower’s development and in our decade-long partnership. I want to offer my congratulations on the successful transaction and express my support to the teams whose remarkable efforts allowed us to make this operation a success. This will enable both companies to fully leverage their strengths on focused businesses: distributed generation marketing on the U.S. market on one side and solar panels manufacturing on the other side.
“We invested in SunPower nearly ten years ago next Spring and our partnership has come far. Today is a significant step in our evolution. We believe the time is right for each company to start off on their own, leveraging their own strengths, with focused business plans and defined markets.”
Patrick Pouyanne, chairman of the board and CEO of Total.
SunPower has allocated one Maxeon share for every eight SunPower shares kept at the close of business on 17 Aug. 2020, the spin-off record date, to owners of its stock. Common shares of Maxeon start trading on NASDAQ under MAXN.
