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Investors will definitely see their stocks tumble, but it's not as though they lose their shares. Equity creditors are still creditors, and even though they get last priority, if the company emerges profitably from chapter 11, the investors still get what they paid for.

I could be wrong, but I believe equity holders aren't considered to be creditors. The company doesn't owe them anything, and the only way they get something out of bankruptcy is if the company emerges from Chapter 11 (profitably or not). This is the trick. Companies don't normally enter Chapter 11 if they have good prospects. A lot of things can happen in Chapter 11 to strip equity holders of value.

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Can you explain what you mean by "were made whole out of a Chapter 11"? Do you mean that stock survived the bankruptcy? There have certainly been bankruptcies where the stock survived the bankruptcy. If you take what you posted literally, I don't think that is even possible.

Just don't understand the question.

You're right, "made whole" wasn't the best way to phrase it. What I mean is, a significant portion of shareholder value was retained post bankruptcy. It isn't impossible, but it's also not very probable. That's the signal we can readily interpret from the markets whacking 90% off equity in a matter of minutes. The hangers-on are the gamblers who are prepared to take the very long odds.

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not sure if you are being sarcastic, but I'm thinking about buying as well. Never purchased penny stocks before and need some advice!

If you want to gamble, play the slots instead. The payoff odds are better.
 
not sure if you are being sarcastic, but I'm thinking about buying as well. Never purchased penny stocks before and need some advice!

Not being sarcastic, I actually did buy 1,000 shares.

I assume you have a trading account?

But honestly only buy if you have the money to burn.. It's just about the same as taking the money and lighting it on fire.
 
This is just bizarre. I didn't see this coming. What's so terrible is that tons of investors just lost their money without any viable notice that Chapter 11 was a real possibility. It's not like this thing was trading at $1 a share before the filing with a trail of horrible quarterly results. They seemed somewhat rocky; but we've all seen worse. Many companies just milk public investing in an idea that will never work just to line executive and director pockets.

It's really frustrating because an individual wanting to declare bankruptcy would certainly have to go through more issues and true liability than anything else. A person would lose their retirement savings, their house- you name it. Something smells in this.
 
I could be wrong, but I believe equity holders aren't considered to be creditors. The company doesn't owe them anything, and the only way they get something out of bankruptcy is if the company emerges from Chapter 11 (profitably or not). This is the trick. Companies don't normally enter Chapter 11 if they have good prospects. A lot of things can happen in Chapter 11 to strip equity holders of value.


No, by definition, equity holders aren't creditors.
 
Guys,

would you say that now its good time to buy their stock as its really low? I can only see them going up if they have agreement with apple and now that apple watch etc is around corner then they must turn this around, don't you think?
What am I missing here?

Apple Watch could flop.

iPhone Sapphire cover rumor could be bogus. Many experts believe Sapphire is too brittle to use in such a large application.

Corning could release Gorilla Glass 4 and it renders Sapphire covers undesirable.

Or...

Apple could be using Sapphire covers on every mobile device they make by 2018 - all from GT manufactured Sapphire. You buy a tiny Pacific island with your proceeds where you hold meth-fueled orgies with scads of Hollywood skanks. Ten years later you die of a heart attack, your beard dusted with coke and a big grin on your face.

It's your move, do you feel lucky?
 
Here is your original post:



That is what I responded to. It's not a matter of being a downer. I didn't make any comments about things being magical or people being happy.

The only thing that I was responding to was your statement in bold above. It's misleading.

Sure... you have a nice day!
 
It's typical for small cap investors. You get burned easily and sometimes if you are lucky you get a big reward. In this particular case, even the big guys (institution investors) had no clue on what's going on.

Apple is a demanding customer. One could easily speculate that they cornered GT (who got loans from Apple) on their production issues. Who knows? this could be a strategy for GT to fight back. The story is not ending, yet.

This is just bizarre. I didn't see this coming. What's so terrible is that tons of investors just lost their money without any viable notice that Chapter 11 was a real possibility. It's not like this thing was trading at $1 a share before the filing with a trail of horrible quarterly results. They seemed somewhat rocky; but we've all seen worse. Many companies just milk public investing in an idea that will never work just to line executive and director pockets.
 
GTAT's SEC filings outlined that something like this could happen:

"As a result of the agreements that we have entered into with Apple Inc. in October 2013, our sapphire business is undergoing a transition from being principally a provider of crystal growth equipment to being a provider of both crystal growth equipment and sapphire materials.

The success of our sapphire materials business will be driven, in large part, by the continued funding of Apple pursuant to the prepayment agreement (which may be halted under certain circumstances), our ability to timely commence operations at our Arizona facility and Apple purchasing sapphire materials from us in adequate quantities, among others.

Apple is under no obligation to purchase any sapphire materials from us. If Apple does not purchase a sufficient amount of sapphire materials, we may be required to repay all or a portion of the $578 million prepayment using our own cash resources, which repayment must be satisfied over the five year period ending January 2020. Apple is not subject to any minimum purchase commitments under the terms of the MDSA
."

--

Sometimes I wonder if Apple tied up GTAT as part of their "thermonuclear war" against Android.

Similar to the way they bought Authentec, whose fingerprint sensors had been used by other companies since the 1990s. Or buying up startups like the one that was doing interior locating and mapping for Android, just to keep them away from Google.

Or getting an exclusive on LiquidMetal in 2010, after Samsung had been using LM in their phones since 2002.

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Getting in bed with Apple is a two edged sword. In the past year, other companies in Japan etc have refused to have Apple purchase or pay for part of their factories. Others who did, now want to get out from the deal.

I think Apple's been burning a lot of bridges lately, and their rep for inter-company cooperation is poor. They're also incredibly lucky that Samsung is willing to sell them parts to meet iOS device demand. If the situation was reversed, I doubt Apple would be as willing.
 
I really don't see anything in that document that would worry me as far as long term viability. It's basically the COO attesting to wanting to continue operations as normal (utilities staying on, employees getting paid, freight charges getting paid, etc.), going into the bankruptcy, because of a current cash flow problem.

True, but it also lists unaudited consolidated assets and liabilities and that they have $84mm in unencumbered cash. It describes the 2017 Notes. the 2020 Notes and $145mm in trade debt. What does it say about secured debt? Last, what does it say about the events that lead to the filing? Who is the "key" customer referenced in paragraph 18? What does it say about its relationship with that "key" customer?

It seemed to be more information than he had. People can make up their own minds about whether or not it's enough to invest on. Certainly wouldn't be for me, but that's just me.
 
just glad i took the loss a week ago and moved all of those shares to TKMR (ebola vaccine maker)... would have sucked to lose it all in one day.
 
You're right, "made whole" wasn't the best way to phrase it. What I mean is, a significant portion of shareholder value was retained post bankruptcy. It isn't impossible, but it's also not very probable. That's the signal we can readily interpret from the markets whacking 90% off equity in a matter of minutes. The hangers-on are the gamblers who are prepared to take the very long odds.


Yup, I agree. I'll keep what little money I have where it is.
 
GTAT's SEC filings outlined that something like this could happen:



--

Sometimes I wonder if Apple tied up GTAT as part of their "thermonuclear war" against Android.

Similar to the way they bought Authentec, whose fingerprint sensors had been used by other companies since the 1990s. Or buying up startups like the one that was doing interior locating and mapping for Android, just to keep them away from Google.

Or getting an exclusive on LiquidMetal in 2010, after Samsung had been using LM in their phones since 2002.

--

Getting in bed with Apple is a two edged sword. In the past year, other companies in Japan etc have refused to have Apple purchase or pay for part of their factories. Others who did, now want to get out from the deal.

I think Apple's been burning a lot of bridges lately, and their rep for inter-company cooperation is poor. They're also incredibly lucky that Samsung is willing to sell them parts to meet iOS device demand. If the situation was reversed, I doubt Apple would be as willing.
I sometimes wonder if you are a bit paranoid about Apple, but that seems to be quite normal in the U.S. of A.
Apple is a very wealthy company, but they don't own the world just yet...
 
Holy cow folks... I love it how so many people here are quick to blame GT Advanced for this and defend Apple at all costs. Again, a great example of the rabid fanaticism that will bash anything / anyone / any company not called Apple.

Have you all forgotten this article?
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/11/sapphire-display-iphone-6-missed/

GT Advanced did not miss yields or production. Problems further down the supply chain caused issues for GTA. Could it be conceivable that GT Advanced is in trouble now because a) some downstream supplier can't take GTA's sapphire and produce the displays needed by Apple and b) GTA spent boatloads of cash to ramp-up sapphire production for Apple but now that Apple isn't/can't use it, GTA is going broke?!?!

Oh wait... this is Macrumors and I guess we
a) must have failed reading comprehension and/or forgotten what we read a month ago
b) must immediately go on the offensive and attack anything without an Apple logo


I was wrong. It was more of a guess I suppose. But thanks for belittling me.
 
I sometimes wonder if you are a bit paranoid about Apple, but that seems to be quite normal in the U.S. of A.
Apple is a very wealthy company, but they don't own the world just yet...

I was in Military Intelligence and one of the things you learn from experience, is that simple greed or stupidity can often explain individual actions, that a casual observer might think was some kind of deeply thought out conspiracy :)

That said, it's pretty obvious when Apple wants to withhold technology from other companies, and not just be another shared customer of that technology.

Cheers!
 
Id say thats pretty f***d up on apples part. They buy into GT, tell them to upgrade equipment and give some money towards it, but doesn't actually have to buy sapphire of GT, leaving the company in a poor position. I bet apple also had it written down that GT wasn't able to sell sapphire to anyone else either.
 
Id say thats pretty f***d up on apples part. They buy into GT, tell them to upgrade equipment and give some money towards it, but doesn't actually have to buy sapphire of GT, leaving the company in a poor position. I bet apple also had it written down that GT wasn't able to sell sapphire to anyone else either.

Wrong, it was a very bad business move for GTAT to make that gamble, that they could appease a hungry wolf like Apple and enter into such an agreement in the first place when the results were unknown.

There should be little doubt that this is directly related to GTAT not living up to expectations whether it being their yields, production problems in China or even subsequent fab issues (for strengthening the material) not working out.

The GTAT execs should have left themselves an out other than chapter 11, but they didn't. Unfortunately they will walk away with nice parachutes while the regular workers at the company will get shafted.
 
Id say thats pretty f***d up on apples part. They buy into GT, tell them to upgrade equipment and give some money towards it, but doesn't actually have to buy sapphire of GT, leaving the company in a poor position. I bet apple also had it written down that GT wasn't able to sell sapphire to anyone else either.

And yet it's because Apple showed SO much interest in Sapphire with rumors abound about using it in the iPhone 6 that got many of these other companies looking into Sapphire that weren't interested in it before. So either GT has more potential customers now and/or Apple backed out of it entirely for the iPhone leaving GT high and dry. Sapphire has potential if they can make it less brittle somehow either through some type of hybrid compound or molecule. Now if only they had transparent aluminum! That's the ticket laddie! ;)
 
And yet it's because Apple showed SO much interest in Sapphire with rumors abound about using it in the iPhone 6 that got many of these other companies looking into Sapphire that weren't interested in it before. So either GT has more potential customers now and/or Apple backed out of it entirely for the iPhone leaving GT high and dry. Sapphire has potential if they can make it less brittle somehow either through some type of hybrid compound or molecule. Now if only they had transparent aluminum! That's the ticket laddie! ;)

It is almost unbelievable that Apple & GTAT would have started working on this big of a deal if the brittleness of the material was such a problem... way too big of a gamble for both companies.

Sapphire has been used in watch crystals for decades and is very robust. I know a lot of people with watches with sapphire crystal and I don't know anyone who has shattered one.

Phone screen is larger yes, but it seems to me that there's no way Apple is so naive as to shove $500M at this with no idea if it could work for a phone display.
 
It never made sense to make sapphire here, ship it to China to add in phones/watches, then ship the finished product back here.
 
It never made sense to make sapphire here, ship it to China to add in phones/watches, then ship the finished product back here.

Yah! That would be as stupid as building microprocessors and digital signal processors here, shipping them to China, assembling a product with them and then shipping them back!

Oh wait! Derrrr.

Final assembly is done in China because it is a labor intensive process and labor in China is cheaper than anywhere else, and I'm sure their lax regulations around labor and pollution help too. A lot of the more sophisticated components used in those devices are NOT created there.
 
Samsung is buying them out for cheap, just to prevent Apple from sourcing sapphire.
 
Wrong, it was a very bad business move for GTAT to make that gamble, that they could appease a hungry wolf like Apple and enter into such an agreement in the first place when the results were unknown.

There should be little doubt that this is directly related to GTAT not living up to expectations whether it being their yields, production problems in China or even subsequent fab issues (for strengthening the material) not working out.

The GTAT execs should have left themselves an out other than chapter 11, but they didn't. Unfortunately they will walk away with nice parachutes while the regular workers at the company will get shafted.

They did not have much option, they have been losing money since 2011. Apple would have been their saving grace had everything gone as planned.
 
Getting in bed with Apple is a two edged sword.

Now that's a mixed metaphor!

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I was in Military Intelligence and one of the things you learn from experience, is that simple greed or stupidity can often explain individual actions, that a casual observer might think was some kind of deeply thought out conspiracy :)!

Interesting, considering how often we hear opinions about Apple's supposed bumbling of one thing or another. Seems they are either completely incompetent or cynical manipulators. I do wish people would decide.
 
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