What happened
Lightwave Logic (LWLG 6.75%) stock didn't glow very brightly over the past five trading days. The company, which is developing a platform based on electro-optic polymers that will allow for higher data transmission speeds, announced a new acquisition.
Investors hardly seemed cheered by this, as according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, the stock's price took a more than 16% hit over the course of the week.
So what
Lightwave's light started to dim Tuesday morning, just after it announced that it is reaching across the Atlantic to buy a set of assets in the U.K. Specifically, these comprise the polymer technology and intellectual property of privately held Chromosol.
According to the acquirer, the assets being bought will bolster its design and production capabilities. Additionally, wrote Lightwave in a press release, the deal "advances Lightwave Logic's patent portfolio of electro-optic polymer technology with an innovative polymer chemistry device patent that has potential to increase the performance of integrated modulators."
The company did not disclose the financial particulars of the Chromosol deal.
Now what
And that might be the rub for investors.
Lightwave is a pre-revenue company with goods and services still in development; while the assets being acquired from Chromosol may indeed be complementary, they are hardly free.
They also filter down into an already red ink-stained bottom line, which in the company's most recently reported quarter showed a loss of over $4.8 million. Given that, the market is right to be concerned about how much Lightwave is spending for its new set of assets.