Prime View Intl. (PVI) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire E Ink, a supplier of electronic paper display materials and intellectual property, for approximately $215 million, reported Jennifer Colegrove, for the DisplaySearch blog.
With the merger, PVI gains substantial intellectual property and employee talent, while securing supply of a critical component during the rapid growth phase of the market, and adding alliances and relationships across the e-paper and flexible display industry, according to the company. E Ink will continue to supply its products across the display industry and will have access to increased operating funds to boost production and accelerate new technology and product developments.
"The world is searching for green technology that saves energy and cuts waste and still provides an outstanding experience," said Scott Liu, chairman and CEO of PVI. "E Ink's electronic paper meets those needs, especially in electronic publishing and mobile displays."
"Combining E Ink and PVI creates a single public company that is dedicated to electronic paper (e-paper)," said Russ Wilcox, co-founder, president and CEO of E Ink. "With a common ownership structure, we can get closer to customers around the world, streamline the supply chain, and speed up new product development."
Over the past four years, PVI has focused on e-paper displays. In 2005, PVI acquired the e-paper business of Philips Electronics and partnered with E Ink to provide displays for electronic books including the popular Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle 2 and Kindle DX. PVI also invested heavily in dedicated driver chips and touch screens for e-paper, as well as flexible displays, which will be marketed later in 2009. In 2008, PVI bought a 74% stake of Hydis Technologies of Korea, quadrupling capacity for the transistor backplanes used in e-paper.
E Ink and PVI currently support nearly 20 e-book manufacturers worldwide. In addition to electronic books, E Ink's Vizplex imaging film is used in handsets, signage, smartcards, memory devices, and battery indicators. E Ink sales were US$18 million in the first quarter of 2009, up 157% over the same quarter in 2008.
"The e-paper display module market will grow to over US$3 billion by 2013. This market will see further growth with the emergence of color displays and flexible displays, serving e-book/e-textbook, e-newspaper/e-magazine and e-document markets. Currently, electrophoretic display (EPD) technology has more than 90% market share in the overall e-paper displays, and E Ink is the number-one supplier of electrophoretic materials," according to Jennifer Colegrove, DisplaySearch's director of display technologies.