SunPower to Acquire PowerLight

SunPower, a manufacturer of solar cells and solar panels, is positioning itself as a solar power plant designer, developer, and operator with the acquisition of PowerLight, a privately owned solar systems provider.

The total price for the acquisition is $265 million upfront plus a retention carve-out of $67.5 million vesting over 2 to 4 years, according to the announcement. The aggregate consideration consists of approximately $130 million in cash and $202.5 million in stock.

In North America, PowerLight installs large, multi-hundred-kilowatt commercial rooftop and ground-mounted solar power plants in California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Hawaii. The company recently began providing residential solar systems to more than a dozen leading production homebuilders in California. In Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Korea, PowerLight designs, develops, operates and maintains solar electric power plants.

“Together, SunPower and PowerLight aim to accelerate the reduction of solar power costs to compete with retail electric rates without incentives,” said Tom Werner, SunPower CEO. “PowerLight is one of the premier system integrators worldwide and presents us with a downstream investment opportunity that will accelerate SunPower’s revenue growth while meeting our long-term financial model.”