Apple and its former sapphire supplier GT Advanced have reached an agreement that will allow GT Advanced to absolve itself of the remaining $439 million that it owes Apple, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Under the settlement, GT Advanced will host an auction on November 23 to get rid of the equipment that it contributed to the sapphire making process, with the proceeds being split between the two companies. Equipment that does not sell during the auction will be given to Apple.

gt_advanced_logo

While GT intends to hang on to some of the equipment--as many as 600 sapphire-making furnaces--it is prepared to auction what it can and abandon what it can't cart off, court papers say.

Anything not sold will be handed over to Apple, which has agreed to scrap the equipment and extinguish the loan it made to transform GT from an equipment manufacturer into a supplier of smartphone-screen material.

Following the dissolution of the relationship between GT Advanced and Apple, GT Advanced agreed to sell off its sapphire furnaces to repay the loan Apple had provided to buy the equipment in the first place. Over the course of the past year, GT Advanced has been unable to find a buyer for the sapphire furnaces.

GT Advanced and Apple originally partnered up to produce sapphire displays for the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6s Plus, but the deal soured when GT Advanced was unable to meet deadlines and produce sapphire that met Apple's standards. GT Advanced filed for bankruptcy in October of 2014, laying off more than 700 employees and shuttering the Mesa, Arizona factory, which Apple is repurposing as a data center.

Apple and GT Advanced's new agreement is set to be finalized following the approval of a bankruptcy judge.

Top Rated Comments

Benjamin Frost Avatar
106 months ago
Remember when we were all hoping for sapphire iPhone screens and liquid metal frames?

All gone to dust. I guess it's all aluminium for the foreseeable future. I wonder if we might see a return to a glass back like the iPhone 4? It was such a fine design.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
keysofanxiety Avatar
106 months ago
I always thought GT's bankruptcy was a bit of a charade, so that Apple could eventually buy their company on the cheap and control their own sapphire plant/margins in the long term.

Well. How wrong I was. :oops:
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SteveBlobs Avatar
106 months ago
What about the CEO that sold all his stock right before the company went under? That guy got away with murder and the FTC should step up its enforcement.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Gasu E. Avatar
106 months ago
I always thought GT's bankruptcy was a bit of a charade, so that Apple could eventually buy their company on the cheap and control their own sapphire plant/margins in the long term.

Well. How wrong I was. :oops:
If I understand you correctly, that would be unethical. And if so, it would make other smaller companies wary of partnering with Apple in the future. Not worth it for Apple at all.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rdlink Avatar
106 months ago
Remember when we were all hoping for sapphire iPhone screens and liquid metal frames?

All gone to dust. I guess it's all aluminium for the foreseeable future. I wonder if we might see a return to a glass back like the iPhone 4? It was such a fine design.
It was at that. I owned the 4 and the 4S, and I thought it was a beautiful design. Still do. If they offered it with today's technology I would still have one.

Still seems like a shame to me! All those months of rumors and then, nothing. Maybe there's still part of this story that we aren't seeing. Isn't it possible apple is not the bad guy here? If I were GT and had a good thing going that apple wanted, I'd probably get into a contract with them too, regardless of whether I really knew if I could deliver. My speculation is that they got excited, hoped they could "pull it off" and they couldn't. This is capitalism. This is one of the tragic realities in free market. We're free to make money and free to lose it.
I'm not sure why you would imply that Apple was "the bad guy." They entered into a business agreement with a company to deliver a product. They even underwrote their expansion. The company never delivered the agreed product, so they terminated the deal. Pretty clear cut and reasonable approach to the situation.

The only tragedy here is the apparent issue with the GT board members getting rich while their company dissolved and 700 employees ended up unemployed.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Barry Bishop Avatar
106 months ago
Still lost a lot of money from this! I still have those nickel shares for some stupid reason
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 17

iOS 17.2 Will Add These 12 New Features to Your iPhone

Friday December 1, 2023 12:19 pm PST by
iOS 17.2 has been in beta testing for over a month, and it should be released to all users in a few more weeks. The software update includes many new features and changes for iPhones, including the dozen that we have highlighted below. iOS 17.2 is expected to be released to the public in mid-December. To learn about even more features coming in the update, check out our full list. Journal ...
iOS 17

28 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in December's iOS 17.2 Update

Friday December 1, 2023 2:57 am PST by
Apple made the first beta of iOS 17.2 available to developers in October. Since then we've seen three more betas, and with each iteration Apple continues to add more new features and changes, many of which users have been anticipating for quite a while. Below, we've listed 28 new things that are coming to your iPhone when the finalized version is publicly released this December. 1. Help...
anker new xmas

Anker's Cyber Week Sale Enters Final Days With Up to 60% Off Sitewide

Friday December 1, 2023 12:05 pm PST by
Anker's Black Friday/Cyber Week event is entering its final days this weekend, and it's still offering up to 60 percent off sitewide. There are also a few "mystery boxes" that can include hundreds of dollars in savings, if you're willing to risk not knowing what you're buying ahead of time. All of these sales will end on December 3. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Anker. When you...
iOS 17

Apple Releases iOS 17.1.2 With Security Fixes

Thursday November 30, 2023 10:12 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2, small updates to the iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 operating systems that Apple introduced in September. iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2 come a few weeks after the release of iOS 17.1.1, another bug fix update. iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2 can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update....
iPhone 16 Mock Header Updated 1

iPhone 16 to Include Action Button Across Entire Lineup

Thursday November 30, 2023 4:08 pm PST by
The release of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max saw the introduction of an entirely new user-configurable button known as the Action button, and now, MacRumors has seen extensive evidence confirming Apple is planning to include the Action button on the entire iPhone 16 range. Designs and plans for the Action button date back to at least 2021, as the button was intended for release alongside hapt...
paramount plus logo

Apple and Paramount Considering Discounted TV+ Streaming Bundle

Friday December 1, 2023 4:40 am PST by
Apple and Paramount have discussed bundling their TV streaming services at a discount, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. The companies have talked about offering a combination of Paramount+ and Apple TV+ that would cost less than subscribing to both services separately, according to people familiar with the discussions. The discussions are in their early stages, and it is ...
top stories 2dec2023

Top Stories: iOS 17.1.2 Released, NameDrop Misinformation, and More

Saturday December 2, 2023 6:00 am PST by
Apple employees are back to work following a Thanksgiving break, and that means this week saw a number of new operating system updates for both public release and beta testing. This week also saw some misinformation about Apple's new NameDrop feature making the rounds, while Apple and Goldman Sachs appear to be on the verge of a break-up in their Apple Card and savings account partnership,...
General Apps Messages

Green Bubbles on iPhone to Gain These 7 New Features Next Year

Thursday November 30, 2023 9:00 am PST by
Earlier this month, Apple announced that it will finally support RCS in the Messages app on the iPhone starting later next year. This change will result in several improvements to the messaging experience between iPhones and Android devices. RCS will become the new default standard for messaging between iPhones and Android devices, but these conversations will still have green bubbles like...