Skip to footer

Apple reaches deal with GT Advanced Technologies to end sapphire production

Apple reached a deal with GT Advanced Technologies to end the production of its sapphire materials for the iPhone. Apple will recover $439 million in payments. 

|
Stephen Lam/Reuters/File
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an Apple event announcing the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, in this September 9. GT Advanced Technologies Inc, Apple Inc's partner in a sapphire glass plant in Arizona, filed for bankruptcy on Monday in a stunning turn of events for a company whose fortunes looked bright only a few months ago. The stock fell more than 90 percent to 75 cents, wiping out nearly all of its $1.5 billion market worth. GT was worth more than $2.8 billion in early July on hopes of its scratch-resistant sapphire glass being a part of the new iPhones.
  • By Reuters

GT Advanced Technologies Inc said it reached an agreement with Apple Inc under which it will stop making sapphire materials and focus on supplying equipment to make sapphire crystals.

GT said it would be released from all exclusivity obligations with Apple and a mechanism would be provided for the iPhone maker to recover its $439 million pre-payment to the company, without interest.

GT, a former supplier to Apple, filed for bankruptcy on Oct 6 in a stunning turn of events for a company whose fortunes looked bright only a few months ago.

Few details have emerged since the filing, which wiped out most of GT's market value and triggered speculation on what may have soured its relationship with Apple.

At a hearing this week at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, GT said the expected deal with Apple would save money and allow it to be more open about its mysterious Chapter 11 filing.

GT said on Thursday it would shut down its sapphire production factories in Mesa, Arizona and Salem, Massachusetts. It has laid off about 650 employees at the Mesa plant and expects additional job cuts in Salem.

GT will retain control of its intellectual property and will be able to sell its sapphire fabrication technology without restrictions, it said in a statement.

GT said it would continue its "technical exchange" with Apple but did not provide details about the nature of its future relationship with Apple.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Apple reaches deal with GT Advanced Technologies to end sapphire production
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Latest-News-Wires/2014/1023/Apple-reaches-deal-with-GT-Advanced-Technologies-to-end-sapphire-production
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe