A little research and now I think I understand things. It looks like E Ink Corp's business was to supply their Vizplex™ imaging film to PVI who then produced the electronic displays, and PVI didn't buy E Ink Corp's electronic paper business in 2005, but bought Phillips electronic paper business in 2005 who had been E Ink Corp's original partner.
Here's a quote from the E Ink Press release regarding the sale.
Quote:
The deal is the capstone in a transformation at PVI over the past four years to focus on electronic paper displays. In 2005, PVI acquired the ePaper 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 ePaper, as well as flexible displays, which will be marketed later this year.
E Ink and PVI currently support nearly 20 eBook manufacturers worldwide. In addition to electronic books, E Ink’s Vizplex™ imaging film is used in cellphones, signage, smartcards, memory devices, and battery indicators. E Ink sales were $18M in the first quarter of 2009, up 157% over the same quarter in 2008.
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 ePaper and flexible display industry.
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