On Friday, several sources at once , reports the Nikkei Internet resource that Japan Display (JDI) is in talks with Apple and Sharp to sell an LCD panel plant in Ishikawa Prefecture. The plant is one of the largest JDI factories. Apple also took part in its construction and equipment, paying almost half the cost of building the plant - about 170 billion yen. It was supposed that the company would become the main supplier of LCD panels for Apple smartphones, but something went wrong.
In the newest and most promising smartphones, Apple has abandoned LCD screens and switched to using OLED screens. In the long term, the JDI plant planned to start producing OLED, but this could only happen in a year or two. Due to Apple's refusal of liquid crystal screens in July this year, the plant was stopped. But the problems with financing unprofitable production began much earlier.
In the winter and spring of this year, the company tried to negotiate significant investment from Chinese funds and manufacturers. In the summer, the Chinese decided all previously reached agreements and left Japan Display with nothing. In mid-December it became known that the company is in the final stages of negotiations with a potential buyer of equipment at the plant for about $200 million. It is assumed that this mystery buyer is Apple.
The latest news around a deal with either Apple or Sharp hints at a bigger deal that will give the buyer ownership of not only the manufacturing equipment, but also the workshops and the land on which they are built. Accordingly, the amount of the transaction promises to increase to $ 730-820 million. Apple and Sharp may jointly own this property, but the dispute, allegedly because of the size of the equity participation of each of them in this transaction, is still ongoing.
Source: 3dnews.ru