“GT Advanced Technologies Inc. lost a bid to keep an executive’s description of the circumstances surrounding its bankruptcy under seal, putting a settlement with Apple Inc. in danger,” Dawn McCarty reports for Bloomberg.
“The company and Apple, with which it had an agreement to supply the synthetic sapphire used in screens of mobile devices, had asked to keep the executive’s statement under wraps. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff today said he intended to unseal it while letting some pricing information remain confidential,” McCarty reports. “Boroff said he will go through the statement by Chief Operating Officer Daniel Squiller and probably issue an unsealing order next week. ‘At the moment, I believe I will completely unseal the so-called Squiller declaration,’ Boroff said. ‘From there, those parties disappointed with that ruling are free to take what best suits their needs.'”
McCarty reports, “Luc Despins, an attorney for GT Advanced, told the judge at the hearing today in Manchester, New Hampshire, that Apple might terminate the agreement if the declaration is unsealed… ‘The public has access to all substantive information,’ Bruce Meyer, an attorney for Apple, told the judge. He said portions of Squiller’s declaration are ‘untrue in Apple’s view and probably included to pressure Apple.'”
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“At a court hearing Thursday, Judge Boroff said bankruptcy-code protections against defamatory information don’t apply to Mr. Squiller’s characterizations of Apple’s behavior,” Peg Brickley reports for The Wall Street Journal. “‘I simply do not think that they are sufficiently egregious that they are unusually prejudicial to Apple,’ the judge said.”
“Apple will refute the negative picture painted of it in the GT Advanced documents, Mr. Meyer said,” Brickley reports. “Creditors asked that the debate over continued secrecy be pushed off to allow the settlement to go through. The judge rejected those arguments. ‘The integrity of the Bankruptcy Code is not for sale,’ Judge Boroff said.”
Read more in the full article here.
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