“GT Advanced Technologies Inc. has reached an accord with Apple that will get it out from under $439 million in debt it picked up in a failed effort to qualify as a supplier of smartphone-screen material,” Peg Brickley reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“The settlement provides for an auction by Nov. 23 of equipment that GT provided in the effort, the proceeds of which will be divided, GT said in papers filed on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Hampshire,” Brickley reports. “While GT intends to hang on to some of the equipment—as many as 600 sapphire-making furnaces—it is prepared to auction what it can and abandon what it can’t cart off, court papers say.”
“Anything not sold will be handed over to Apple, which has agreed to scrap the equipment and extinguish the loan it made to transform GT from an equipment manufacturer into a supplier of smartphone-screen material,” Brickley reports. “The new deal unveiled on Monday needs the signature of a bankruptcy judge; GT is seeking a hearing next week.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully this debacle will finally end soon.
SEE ALSO:
GT Advanced cuts 40% of workforce – August 31, 2015
GT Advanced to pursue $95 million bankruptcy loan – March 18, 2015
GT Advanced wants bankruptcy judge to approve millions in executive bonuses – December 31, 2014
Apple, GT Advanced and the ‘boule graveyard’ – November 20, 2014
Lack of experience, mismanagement doomed GT Advanced’s sapphire adventure – November 19, 2014
Court unseals GT Advanced documents: Apple says it ‘bent over backwards’ to help sapphire supplier – November 7, 2014
GT Advanced COO sold $2 million in stock after sapphire deal with Apple began to sour – October 14, 2014
GT Advanced blames ‘oppressive and burdensome’ Apple terms in quest to ax sapphire production – October 10, 2014
GT Advanced CEO sold 9,000 shares the day before Apple’s iPhone 6/Plus event – October 7, 2014
Ah, maybe this is why their stock doubled in the past week?
Why should they keep 600 of the furnaces?
Payback Apple all that they own or lose everything. Why would Apple settle for anything less?
Owe, not own.
Why doesn’t Apple just build its own factories? Wouldn’t it be less expensive in the long run?
Just thinking…AppleCar made of Liquid Metal and GT glass?