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GT Advanced Asks Court for Permission to 'Wind Down' Operations at Sapphire Plant

azentropy said:
Guess my bet of buying a bunch of shares ~ $1 isn't going to pay off...
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Actually, if you bought a lot of shares at $1, you would be doing quite well. Could sell them today for a 29% gain (less capital gains taxes of course). That's quite excellent. And who knows, some day they could still be worth quite a lot more if they don't go out of business. I don't think that's a really bad bet.
 
ravenvii said:
Wonder if Corning is feeling vindicated by this?
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I don't know if vindicated is the right word. Relieved, no doubt. Other than certain wind bags in the internet media, nobody made any accusations against Corning that Corning needs to vindicated. Apple may / may not have considered alternatives for the iPhone 6, but the only fact is that Apple has used Corning in 100% of all phones they have ever sold.
 
If I read the phrase, "To the surprise of Apple and... GT Advanced filed for bankruptcy" one more time Macrumors, I think I'm going to PUKE!

If you really believe Apple didn't know this, then Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs, that's for sure. Either that or you're all complete morons! LOL

Obviously Apple knew they were in trouble and what might happen.

Once again, I'm popping popcorn for this one because this will be one of the stranger bankruptcies maybe ever. And I'm not buying the story of EITHER just yet.

This will all be speculation until the court makes public the confidential agreements, none of which we really know. We have no clue who owns what, whether sapphire glass has actually been produced, or who's required to buy it or more importantly, who might want to buy GT as much as Apple.

See, the confidential agreements give Apple the upper hand in bankruptcy court because they know everything we don't, but Samsung doesn't. So let's hope the bankruptcy court sides AGAINST APPLE on that part at least so we know the real deal and whether GT is REAL or smoke and mirrors.
 
tjleonard said:
I'm just trying to figure out how much I'm willing to lose or wait it out. On one hand, it's super shady...on the other, Apple obviously trusted them. I agree that something doesn't add up...part of me thinks the shares will go back up, assuming the CEO of GTAT doesn't get thrown in prison...

How much they will come up from $1 a share? That's what I keep asking myself.


And by "go back up", i am thinking ~1.75, not where they were.
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In and out on the same day or next day is safer. $1.75 is a stretch right now but how about 0.60 - 0.80 ?
 
700 jobs are on the line and the only thing people here are arguing is...

BUY, NO SELL, NO BUY, NO SELL @$1

Apple Fanboys meet Shallow Hell.

OH, don't forget to say hi to Warren Buffet when he gets there. LOL
 
HiRez said:
Is that actually true though? Investment does not necessarily equate to equity,
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The contract they had with apple stated that if for any reason they are unable to pay back apples loan, that all the equipment purchased with the money is collateral. Meaning it would become apples, the building is already apples I believe.
 
tjleonard said:
I'm just trying to figure out how much I'm willing to lose or wait it out. On one hand, it's super shady...on the other, Apple obviously trusted them. I agree that something doesn't add up...part of me thinks the shares will go back up, assuming the CEO of GTAT doesn't get thrown in prison...

How much they will come up from $1 a share? That's what I keep asking myself.


And by "go back up", i am thinking ~1.75, not where they were.
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HiRez said:
Actually, if you bought a lot of shares at $1, you would be doing quite well. Could sell them today for a 29% gain (less capital gains taxes of course). That's quite excellent. And who knows, some day they could still be worth quite a lot more if they don't go out of business. I don't think that's a really bad bet.
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Except it is getting killed in aftermarket trading. Will probably open tomorrow at .50...
 
bengay said:
Something smells fishy. GTAT CEO sold all stocks and filed bankruptcy. Selling stocks is fine if the company is doing well but this isn't the case.
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He didn't sell *all* stocks; he sold a very small percentage of the stock he owned in a sale that was planned 6 months ago.
 
Everybody agrees that this whole bankruptcy thing is so fishy at GT that the management must have done something terribly wrong. Right now it seems that they just wanted to get out of the AZ plant and dump the whole mess to Apple.

On the other hand, Apple is talking about preserving jobs in AZ. How could they do that if the facility produces low quality sapphire that Apple does not want?

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700 jobs is nothing compared to the tens of thousands of people laid off by some other tech companies like HP in recent years.

HyperZboy said:
700 jobs are on the line and the only thing people here are arguing is...

BUY, NO SELL, NO BUY, NO SELL @$1
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nfable said:
Begs for conspiracy theories at this point, so here's mine:

Apple injects GTAT with some cash for new facility & infrastructure and gets on the same page with them about production of Apple's items.

Apple wants to be the only girl on the dance floor, but GTAT has cards in his basket of others they're slated to dance with (contractual obligations with other -potentially Apple competing- companies they must carve of production schedule to).

Apple has them implode in order to not have to pay full market evaluation of GTAT, dissolves supplier contracts with other co's, and sweeps in buying a turn-key operation and GTAT CEO becomes Apple's Chief Crystollogist and rehires key members of GTAT's team under new thrall-ship. Afterall, .

Any takers?
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Sure, that's a plausible conspiracy theory. Unless you know the actual details behind the contract. The exclusivity agreement means, the sapphire that GT produced from APPLES factory would be exclusive to Apple. GT can't just use Apples factory to produce sapphire for competitors.

I don't think most people understand this deal or GTs business model. GTs original business model was to sell these FURNACES, not sapphire. They were just an equipment manufacturer making furnaces to produce sapphire. Apples exclusivity agreement didn't proclude GT from continuing to sell furnaces as usual. Apples deal was, we will loan you money to build a factory for US. We don't want the furnaces, we want the sapphire. We build you a facility, you install your furnaces, we finance the entire effort, you produce sapphire for us, and we pay you for the sapphire. This sapphire built in OUR facility can't be sold to competitors.

So a lot of you seem to have this whole deal confused. If another company wanted to come in and make their own factory and purchase GTs furnaces and operate their own facility, the contract wasn't preventing that. GT was not like Corning, manufacturing components for OEMs. They were a company that sold equipment, not components.
 
Wind down operations? So where is the Apple Watch saphire glass being made? Looks like me gonna get some ion-infused glass with my Apple Watch. Well, if I were actually buying one, which I'm not.

Not like Apple to be involved in such a public and embarrassing situation. Maybe Apple knew something, and pull the trigger on saphire for the 6...

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69Mustang said:
You might be right, but I doubt any of the alternate vendors will be willing to sign that extortionist contract that GTA signed. Signed voluntarily I might add. Stupid, stupid, stupid deal.
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GT, meet Samsung. Samsung, meet GT.

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alhedges said:
He didn't sell *all* stocks; he sold a very small percentage of the stock he owned in a sale that was planned 6 months ago.
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People, please get this right. He sold all his *socks*, but still has stocks remaining. He planned this 6 months ago. So it begs the question, what did he know 6 months ago? ;)

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ravenvii said:
Wonder if Corning is feeling vindicated by this?
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Corning could only feel vindicated if GT brought a product to market, Apple used it, and people started having their sapphire screens cracked at the slightest of applied force. Then Corning could feel vindicated (by the bad Apple/GT press). As it stands now, Corning could feel optimistic they will be selling more glass to Apple for future iPhones.

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Why doesn't GT just hire Ashton Kutcher as a sapphire engineer and be done with this message hiccup??? I herad Ashton has been hanging around Ive's Cupertino office... one more thing?

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Winding down? Gee, it seems just like yesterday that the plant was humming along, producing 50,000 sapphire screens per day. How time flies!
 
Ultimately this will end up being a good thing for Apple, who went into this venture in good faith and the desire to bring manufacturing back to the USofA. The lessons to be learned will be duly noted, this is not an embarrassment for Apple any way you look at it. They treated GT seriously but discovered that like it or not, any future venture involving a non established production company, is going to need training wheels, whether they like it or not.
 
nfable said:
Begs for conspiracy theories at this point, so here's mine:

Apple injects GTAT with some cash for new facility & infrastructure and gets on the same page with them about production of Apple's items.

Apple wants to be the only girl on the dance floor, but GTAT has cards in his basket of others they're slated to dance with (contractual obligations with other -potentially Apple competing- companies they must carve of production schedule to).

Apple has them implode in order to not have to pay full market evaluation of GTAT, dissolves supplier contracts with other co's, and sweeps in buying a turn-key operation and GTAT CEO becomes Apple's Chief Crystollogist and rehires key members of GTAT's team under new thrall-ship. Afterall, .

Any takers?
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My take on why that makes no sense. GT was in the business of making the furnaces...without the injection of capital by Apple, they wouldn't have gone into actually producing sapphire with said furnaces.

So before Apple, what possible contracts to build furnaces for other companies would Apple set out to deliberately implode?

Unless of course this is just bait
 
I distinctly remember reading somewhere(here?) that when the sapphire screens were finally assembled onto the 6, and it was subjected to drop testing, it failed miserably and Apple had to scramble to get Gglass ready in time for the launch. But I haven't seen that story mentioned a single time since the bankruptcy filing. What gives?
 
Hmmm, They couldn't meet Apples standards or requirements, CEO jumped ship, and the real winner may be Corning who got the contract for the iPhone 6 with it's gorilla glass.

Even Corning could be involved in some shimmy sham.
 
So I took a chance on a few shares of GTAT when they were $16.00. Do I bail out now or hold on and see what happens?
Thanks for your opinions
 
iolinux333 said:
I distinctly remember reading somewhere(here?) that when the sapphire screens were finally assembled onto the 6, and it was subjected to drop testing, it failed miserably and Apple had to scramble to get Gglass ready in time for the launch. But I haven't seen that story mentioned a single time since the bankruptcy filing. What gives?
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it is very unlikely that Apple would have discovered this so late into the product cycle that they would need to 'scramble' to find an alternative. This sort of testing would have been carried out before Apple gave them the loan, not a few weeks before the phones roll off the production line.

There is an assumption that Apple was going to use sapphire for the phone screens. Did Apple ever say that?
 
Very interesting situation...

I wonder if Apple is a secured creditor. My guess is that they would be, which means that Apple would have leant them money against some collateral, presumably the assets of the business. In Aus a secured creditor would get preferential treatment to get their money back first compared to others that are owed money.

I think Chapter 11 is like our voluntary administration where they can tear up all contracts and renegotiate new ones (leases, loans, etc etc) and then make an offer on how much % they are going to make on each dollar they are owed.

The creditors can then vote to wind them up to get their cash, or let them trade on to hopefully get further work (money) from the business if they keep trading.

I suspect if Apple really needs the Saphire, they will bail them out, and possibly take over.
 
kas23 said:
So it sounds like the bankruptcy is a ploy to get out of their Apple contract.
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"Apple, for its part, has again said that it plans to focus on "preserving jobs" in Arizona and that it will "work with state and local officials" as it considers its next steps."

So it sounds like Apple will purchase the company from bankruptcy court for pennies on the dollar.
 
GT is a ponzi scheme. GT may have been able to produce sapphire displays in low volume, but knew the yield rates were extremely low. GT misleads Apple, inks deal to produce raw sapphire boules, and sends samples from existing furnaces to China factory to mill into display glass. Apple discovers extremely low yeild rates producing display glass from boules. Meanwhile, GT never actually purchases the furnaces for the new factory and uses the Apple loan to make make small re-payments and embezzles the rest of the money. Meanwhile, Apple finds another source for boules overseas for the upcoming Apple Watch. GT finds out and has no choice to file Ch-11 to get out of it's obligations to Apple. GT CEO sells his remaining stake in the company just before filling Ch-11. GT tries to use NDA agreements with Apple to hide what it was really up to.

There is more than one company that produces sapphire boules and finished product.
http://www.rubicontechnology.com/research-development/200kg-sapphire-boules
 

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