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GT Advanced reaches deal to part ways w/ Apple, will sell sapphire furnaces to pay debt

Following a report last week that Apple was seeking to keep its involvement in its sapphire supplier GT Advanced’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing secret, today Bloomberg reports that GT Advanced and Apple have reached an agreement that will allow the two companies to part ways. Lawyers for GT Advanced said the deal “will save millions of dollars and solve most issues” and be an “amicable parting of ways,” according to the report. 

GT Advanced Technologies (Nasdaq: GTAT) (OTCBB: GTATQ) attorney says consensual accord with Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) reached. The lawyer calls it an ‘amicable parting of ways.’ The accord will save millions of dollars and solve most issues… The agreement will be filed with minor redaction.

In addition, a lawyer for GT Advanced has said that Apple will be paid as part of the agreement after the company sells sapphire furnaces it originally purchased for its Arizona plant that Apple was invested in. According to Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt who is covering the case, GT will use cash from the sale of the furnaces to pay a $439 million owed to Apple.

The news follows a report earlier this month that GT Advanced had informed over 700 employees that it would wind down operations at its Mesa, Arizona plant in December.

The deal reached today with Apple will reportedly also allow GT Advanced to “wind down operations and pay incentives to certain employees,” Bloomberg said.

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Comments

  1. coolfactor - 9 years ago

    This is really surprising. I’m surprised it ended this way. It seems like GT just wanted out, with no option of recovering the investment and finishing the job that they started for Apple. Clearly money was not an issue (for Apple), but there definitely seemed to be some management-related issues at GT. Just sad that 700 workers will be losing their employment while the CEO runs off with millions of dollars.

  2. Chris Sanders - 9 years ago

    Yep the CEO and his cronies get off scott free. I hope the SEC goes after GT Advanced.

    • bwulfe - 9 years ago

      Actually, it was the COO (not CEO) who dumped $1.2 million of stock just before the iPhone 6 announcement. The SEC should definitely be looking at insider trading charges against him.

      • Executives have to file with the SEC ahead of stock sales, and this was no exception. Maybe something new will turn up, but it was already announced that the most recent stock sale had already been booked this past spring, well ahead of this bankruptcy and any iPhone announcements.

      • taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

        The and CEO and COO both sold stock prior to the iPhone 6 announcement.

      • Mike Beutler - 9 years ago

        The stock sales were registered with the SEC back in March of 2014. I am sure it was somewhat random chance that the sales ended the day before the iPhone 6 announcement.

  3. mpias3785 - 9 years ago

    Wasn’t it the company’s goal to sell both the sapphire products and the technology (the ovens) to make them?

  4. lordrootman - 9 years ago

    This is secret APPLE BOUGHT this GT company for sure

  5. myke2241 - 9 years ago

    sad. i wish apple just had purchased the company and ran it. i suppose that would of been a huge risk. CEO and COO will be underwater in legal bills soon.

  6. dacdewi - 9 years ago

    “wind down operations and pay incentives to certain employees,”. Incentives to the workers no doubt. I mean, the management did such a crappy job running the company that there is no way they would get bonuses…. right?

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.