June 1st, 2009
Prime View International acquires E Ink for $215 million
E Ink, the company behind the e-paper displays on the Kindle and Sony e-book lineup, has been acquired by Prime View International, which makes e-paper displays. The deal was valued at $215 million.
E Ink and Prime View (PVI) were already partners. The goal is to combine forces and expand capacity and e-paper improvements.
In a statement, the companies said they hope to push color and flexible displays. According to iSuppli the e-book market is expected to grow from 1.1 million units in 2008 to 20 million units in 2013.
PVI acquired the e-paper business of Philips Electronics in 2005 and partnered with E Ink to provide displays for the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle. PVI also invested in flexible displays and acquired most of Hydis Technologies in Korea. Hydis supplies transistor backplanes used in e-paper.
With the moves, PVI becomes a vertically integrated e-paper technology company.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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