The bankruptcy filing, however, was a blow to Apple, while GT’s stock rating collapsed following the news and decimated the company’s $1.4 billion market value.
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Apple and its failed sapphire glass supplier GT Advanced Technologies have finally reached an agreement to settle the bankrupt company’s $439 million outstanding debt. Had things gone differently, GTAT would be sitting pretty as a supplier of sapphire glass material to Apple, which is what both companies originally wanted to happen.
The equipment manufacturer intends to take 600 sapphire-making furnaces for its own usage.
The settlement provides for an auction by November 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.
But GTAT will sell what it can and what it can’t sell it will give to Apple. Remaining equipment that is not sold will be scrapped by Apple to help repay the loan, the story reported. Once GTAT abandons the Arizona facility meant for sapphire production, Apple plans to turn it into a data center.
All in all, it marks an end to a particularly messy episode in Apple’s bid to make its mobile products more resistant to shattering. GT Advanced filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy around this time a year ago, to the surprise of shareholders.
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We never did get sapphire glass-surfaced iPhones, although it is used on the stainless steel Apple Watch and Apple Watch Edition faces. The company blames Apple for oppressive and burdensome terms; whereas, Apple says GT failed to meet performance goals. After a year of trying, GT hasn’t been able to sell any of the more than 2,000 sapphire-making furnaces installed at Apple’s Mesa, Ariz., facility. GT is looking at a December 31 deadline to get the furnaces out of the plant and says its best option is to invite bidders to a fast auction.
