The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition Ballard has signed an $80-million (U.S.) deal with Volkswagen Group. The Globe's Iain Marlow writes the agreement extends an existing engineering services contract by two years and transfers hydrogen fuel cell technology to Volkswagen AG and Audi AG. This deal follows the loss of an important contract in China. Ballard chief executive officer Randy MacEwen said the deal resulted from intellectual property his company purchased about a year ago from United Technologies and was hugely significant for the Burnaby firm. "We haven't had anything this sizable in the recent past," Mr. MacEwen said from Germany. "I view the deal as changing the landscape for Ballard." Mr. MacEwen said the deal "materially strengthens" Ballard's balance sheet in the short term while still giving the company flexibility over the long term to use the patents in buses, non-automotive and precommercialized applications. Ballard's shares have declined steadily over the past year, continuing a long slide from early 2000, when the company rode a wave of optimism about alternative fuel sources and its shares reached nearly $190. Ballard closed Wednesday at $3.50, up $1.37.