Format of the initialization string does not conform to specification starting at index 0

I have a Web MVC app talking to a MySQL server. The application uses the Identity Model that is auto-generated by Visual Studio (2013 express). And it also uses my dbContext connection string.    My dbContext is working fine when exchanging data with MySQL.   However, while using the identity model, when I try to register a user.   I get the error: "Format of the initialization string does not conform to specification starting at index 0."  It fails at the following code:
var result = await UserManager.CreateAsync(user, model.Password);
Would like to know if anyone knows what the solution is for this.