Items tagged with GT Advanced Technologies

by Paul Lilly - Wed, Nov 04, 2015

Apple Settles With Failed Sapphire Supplier GT Advanced For $439 Million

In an alternate reality, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s lines would both use a hardened sapphire crystal glass material produced by a company called GT Advanced Technologies. Things happened that soured the business relationship between Apple and GTAT, sending the latter into bankruptcy and, now a year later, a settlement agreement.The settlement provides relief from the $439 million in debt GTAT accumulated when it was gung-ho to build sapphire glass material for Apple. Come November 23, GTAT will auction off various assets and then divide the proceeds.A furnace used for making sapphire glass materialNot everything GTAT owns will be auctioned off. The company plans to hold onto several hundred furnaces... Read more...

by Paul Lilly - Tue, Feb 03, 2015

Apple's Troubled Sapphire Plant To Gain New Life As $2B Data Command Center

Turning lemons into lemonade (on a massive scale), Apple is planning to pour $2 billion into a facility in Mesa, Arizona that just a few months ago was occupied by GT Advanced Technologies, which was supposed to be churning out sapphire-crystal displays for iPhone 6 devices. The investment will transform the factory into a command center for the company's global networks, creating hundreds of jobs in the process. Stateside job creation was one of the big reasons Apple was interested in the facility in the first place. However, the business arrangement between Apple and GT Advanced Technologies turned sour, which eventually led to the latter filing for bankruptcy protection after it was unable... Read more...

by Joel Hruska - Sat, Oct 11, 2014

Apple Drives Sapphire Crystal Supplier Into Bankruptcy With 'Oppressive' Business Terms

Earlier this week, Apple's partner for sapphire display technology, GT Advanced Technologies, filed for bankruptcy claiming that it could not continue operating in its present state. Today, some of the documents originally filed were unsealed and we got a closer look -- including GT Advanced Technologies plan to shutter the plant in Arizona it was supposedly about to bring online. In early August, CEO Tom Gutierrez told investors that the company was on track to hit technical milestones and necessary targets to bring sapphire to the mass market and receive a further $139M payment from apple. Today, filings revealed that the company failed to meet the terms of its agreement, never received that... Read more...