In very general terms, it's pretty much an obvious outcome: You bet big and don't deliver (or just get unlucky), you're going to get ripped to shreds. The theoretical payoff of being the exclusive screen material supplier for the colossal iPhone 6 rollout was huge, but as with just about any deal like that, you're playing with fire if anything at all goes wrong.
There is a very pertinent fact in terms of GTA's leadership and decisions in 2013 when they signed on with Apple that very few of these news stories seem to be making note of, though: The company was in terrible shape. If you look at their financials over the preceding few years, their gross and net sales had completely cratered in large part due to the collapse of the PV solar market. Their share price, depending on when you look during the year, was down to somewhere between half and 1/5 of its peak (high $16.50 in July 2011, low well under $3 throughout March 2013).
So prior to, and exclusive of, signing on with Apple, they were not doing well. At all. They might have recovered if they'd stayed away from Apple, but just looking at their gross and profit figures, they might have been out of business within a couple of years anyway, so this could have been a desperate last-ditch attempt to salvage things, for all we can tell.
If someone knows more about the precise financial state of the company, and the likelihood of market recovery being fast enough to stave off disaster, in late 2013, I could be off base about that last bit, but it's simple numbers that they were not flying high at the time of the deal.
There is a very pertinent fact in terms of GTA's leadership and decisions in 2013 when they signed on with Apple that very few of these news stories seem to be making note of, though: The company was in terrible shape. If you look at their financials over the preceding few years, their gross and net sales had completely cratered in large part due to the collapse of the PV solar market. Their share price, depending on when you look during the year, was down to somewhere between half and 1/5 of its peak (high $16.50 in July 2011, low well under $3 throughout March 2013).
So prior to, and exclusive of, signing on with Apple, they were not doing well. At all. They might have recovered if they'd stayed away from Apple, but just looking at their gross and profit figures, they might have been out of business within a couple of years anyway, so this could have been a desperate last-ditch attempt to salvage things, for all we can tell.
If someone knows more about the precise financial state of the company, and the likelihood of market recovery being fast enough to stave off disaster, in late 2013, I could be off base about that last bit, but it's simple numbers that they were not flying high at the time of the deal.
