Kindle e-paper makers PVI buy E Ink for $215m
E Ink, the e-paper specialists behind the displays used in Amazon's Kindle ebook reader, Sony's Reader, the keyboard of the Samsung Alias 2 cellphone and various other devices, has been acquired by Prime View International (PVI). The deal, which valued E Ink at $215m, sees the e-paper IP and technology specialists now combined with the manufacturers of the panels themselves.
The combined company will continue to supply electrophoretic display technology, which accounts for more than 90-percent of e-paper displays; E Ink is the primary supplier of such technology. Meanwhile, PVI expects to release touchscreens and flexible e-paper, the latter said to reach the market later this year.
PVI has already acquired Philips Electronics' e-paper business, back in 2005, and last year bought a controlling stake in the company responsible for producing the transistor backplanes used in e-paper technology. Presuming no regulatory or shareholder complications, the E Ink deal will be finalized at some point in Q4 2009.
[via E-Ink-Info]