Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Here are a couple of interesting articles on the GTAT bankruptcy.
These are somewhat associated with the latest suit against Gutierrez and Squiller.
The latest suit looked to be initiated by the Bankruptcy court but it was started by the "litigation trustee" and not the "bankruptcy trustee"
I do not understand the implication.
The case number
1:2014cv00147 in the First District Court. The details are available thru Pacer.
Also there has been some concern about Eugene Davis and his position as the litigation trustee.
THe two articles are listed below.
http://www.nhbr.com/March-4-2016/GTATs-bankruptcy-plan-draws-fire-from-creditors/
http://www.nhbr.com/April-1-2016/GT-Advanced-Technologies-emerges-from-bankruptcy/
Traffic has been real light as most people have moved on.
Wonder what happened to LARRY ASHY and XENA LIVES ? They were real frequent posters.
How / why did you get bonds / equity in the "new' GTAT.
Where are you based? I am in NH and worked at GT for 10 + years.
Missed the final chapters as I left....voluntarilly!! in 2013.
They are still operational and adding staff slowly. Some ex employees are actually going back. They sold the building in Merrimack, NH and leased back some space.I believe the focus is Hi Cz ......not sure about DSS, Sapphire or Si Reactors or SiC.
They replaced Dave Keck's expertiese someone out of ASIMI .Havlor Kamrud
The link was not in the article. It is another Internet tool to find court docket info. I looked there to see if there was additional info and entered Guiterriez and voila!!!!
It will be at least that long.
This is hot off the press.
http://www.nhbr.com/April-28-2017/Bankruptcy-trustee-files-1-billion-suit-against-two-ex-GTAT-executives/
plus there are about 14 independent suits in federal court naming Gutierrez and others
https://dockets.justia.com/search?parties=thomas+gutierrez&cases=mostrecent&state=new_hampshire
GT has sold the building they were occupying in Merrimack NH and leased about 25% to 30% of it. Consolidated all operations to a 20,000 sq ft office area and another 10K +/- high bay area for furnace work. I believe that the now have 20 or so employees there and have rehired a few prior employees. Focus seems to be on continuous feed CZ Silicon furnaces.
DSS and Sapphire business in China is apparently dead and that was 99% of their business prior to BK. Would guess someone will buy them long before they even think about another IPO. There were several cos. mentioned here in earlier posts. There seems to be little activity in GT's original core competencies of semiconductor crystal growth.
They are apparently running the Salem NH plant growing Sapphire for some optical applications...not LED as I understand it.
Do not know about the Missoula operation but Dave Keck ..the prior CEO founded it and made it work and work well.
AS I understand it all the current BK activity is associated with the old GTAT estate and independent of the new operation. Any proceed from claw back activity will go to the creditors of the old GTAT and there is no benefits flowing to the new entity. Please correct this if that is not the case.
The new CEO was part of what was reffered to as the "turn key group"
At one time GT was selling the service to set up a client with a fully functioning solar cell / panel operation....including all equipment needed but not made by GT....wire saws, wash stations, silk screen stations etc.
They would source the equipment, set it up and train the client.
It never made much ...if any...money. The margins on the non GT equipment was meager and the first call was to gt and not the OEM if something went south. GT eventually realized that this was not one of their strengts and exited the activity and most of the team was layed off including the to be CEO.
financial version of musical chairs and there are not a lot notes left in the song and all the chairs left go away at the same time.
If you are looking to maximize your tax loss it was a good move. Especially if you are in pre BK. I sold at .08 a while back. Still have some at $1.66 pre BK. Had it when it hit $20.05 and did sell half of holdings there so I am above water!!Do not have any post BK.
Apple may have been calling the shots after TG signed the contract but he did not have to sign it. Without Apple GT was on a very slippery slope.......both DSS, poly silicon and Sapphire had run their course ...at least for the huge revenue they generated during the Chinese run up. They were going to be a $250 M company if they did nothing and that was tough on TG's ego....and maybe the BOD.
The primary point, to me , is that TG was not good for GT and made alot of poor decisions. Confluence cost about $120M after they shuttered the St. Louis facility after major expenditures for capital equipment and facility upgrades.....that would have been a nice number to have in the bank.
The lack of benefit from all the failed programs made Apple much more urgent ....it was "bet the farm". He could have walked away. He was a marginal Little League player playing in the Major League.
Confluence was for single crystal Silicon for PV and cost $120M ( Acquisition cost plus post acquisition investments)with no link to Apple.
Mono DSS no link to Apple
Silicon CArbide :no link to Apple
Merlin no link to Apple
Hyperion....maybe
Kyma......not sure
Acquisitions on TG's watch:
Confluence ROI Zero
Thermal Technology ROI Zero
Kyma agreement ROI Zero
Hyperion ROI Zero
Merlin ROI Zero
Silicon Carbide (IR&D) ROI Zero
Mono cast Silicon DSS ROI Zero
There may have bee a couple of others but nothing bore fruit.
Apple was the last of a long string of poor leadership and judgement.
Dumped 1200 at .08 with a cost basis of $4.01. $4700 tax loss for 2015..hurrah!!Pre BK !!
The least complicated way is to sell it while it is still trading.The attached article may be of interest. It really comes down to when you believe it is better for you to take the loss....this year or next....as GTATQ may trade into next year before it goes dark.
http://thelawdictionary.org/article/how-do-you-report-capital-loss-on-stocks-from-companies-that-went-bankrupt-and-went-away-like-enron/
Not sure how anyone could put a positive spin on PARA 1 page 9.
What is the procedure for getting rid of extinguished stocks from an IRS tax loss standpoint.
The agreement was that Apple wold split the proceeds of the scrapping exercise with GT. I wonder if GT has to split the costs if the net number is negative??
The sale to VAST BILLION probably set a high for the value of the remaining systems....$47000 for 567 +/- systems.
All the rest need disassembly and crating so these may go for $25K of they go at all. The scrap value of the stainless steel chambers is maybe $6K.The vacuum pumps may have some after market value but the gas panel and control console are pretty specilized. Individual parts may have some value but that is a long term recovery effort.Factory cost was about $190K ....what a tragic ending!!
Did the sale to VAST BILLION actually take place?
If so then the units left are still fully assembled systems that require disassembly and crating at some significant cost if I read the auction rules correctly.
200 yen? lira?
In all of the SH equity discussions I have never seen a best case number placed on the value of the post POR stock. Are there and wild guesses?
When it hit $20 the revenue numbers were in the $2 to $5 billion dollar range. My guess is that the post BK sales number is in the $250M range.
If the low end value is 0 what are the prognosticators saying that the best case might be. I would guess that most pre BK buyers would be better off with a long loss as getting back to even $5 on a $250 M sales number is a stretch.
I believe that the key to GTAT's survival is based on the market for Silicon reactors and converters as well as Silicon furnaces..
DSS mono and multi and HiCz. Merlin is a red herring. It is only about .5% of the factory cost of a solar panel...so gross revenue is negligible vs gross solar panel revenue revenue......Waree included.
MMK is still reducing its work force in MMK ...thru Jan.I heard .....and will probably close next year with HQ moved to MT where all Silicon R & D now resides. Some Sapphire activity could also move to MT for process development and field support but keeping MMK open does not make sense. Keck is from MT and would probably love to move back.
As of 11/6 there were about 60 people left in MMK and most of those were Mgmt, admin, acctg and legal.
Do you know where the asset value of these 2000 furnaces is recorded....inventory? The value would be the lesser of cost or market and the cost basis is $200K +/- I believe . A sale at $100K would result in a book loss of $ 100 K per ASF.
That would be a pretty big hit to equity.....$200,000.000 !!!
There was some question about Dan Squiller's departure from GT. Here is a statement from the Sept MOR.
http://www.kccllc.net/gtat/document/1411916151029000000000003
[3] Daniel Squiller's employment with GT Advanced Technologies Inc. was terminated, effective as of September 1, 2015.
MORQ-#6
Page 12 of 19
The founders of GT were Kedar Gupta and Jon Talbot.1994 or 1995 I believe.
I do not believe that JT is still active.
KG, subsequent to his departure from GT, started ARC Energy and is still in operation at some low level. Those were the only founders that I am aware of. There may have been some other investors in the background but KG and JT ran the operation.
As more time passes ....and most of the people in Engineering have left insight into GT has decreased and now with new management and direction even more so. The core business activity is now Silicon and that is in Missoula...DSS,HiCz, Polysilicon reactors. ASF is still in MMK as is SiC.....if that has not been shelved.
Your vested interest apparently is much greater than mine. My interest is my accumulated shares acquired while there and the chances of it getting back to my cost basis is pretty slim.
When GT issues new shares or disappears via merger or acquisition ....or other.....I will take the LT loss and close the book.
I hope that your optimism with GT is realized. Best of luck.
That thing had nothing to do with Hyperion...regardless of what you believe. It was used to load and unload an annealing furnace with regular wire saw cut screen blanks.
MMK was still responsible for ASF and the process so MMK Engineering supplied the support including this cassette.
Hyperion had its own staff out of Danvers MA
I have not been reading the postings to KCC on a regular basis so I missed that although I thought that it had been published back in mid Dec. 2014 KCC 0818 and 0811 looks to have the text of the agreement. Where is the reference to 20 year seal?
Generally, in a case of fraud, there is something to be gained by the perpetrator. Can you fill in the blanks for me with this "conspiracy"? What does GT gain by selling Hyperion at less than market value.? Do you think that there are "kick backs" to someone for letting the fraud play out?
I have heard that the buyer had an association with Apple but have not tried to validate or verify......have you?
I do not know how Rothschilds was paid but if it was commission based it would not make sense for them to sell for less that market price. What does Despins gain?
I see a questionable business decision......but not criminal fraud.
Given that the sale was done under court supervision you can debate the soundness of the business decision but fraud is doubtful.
GT maybe should have retained the rights for use in the PV arena where they appear to be refocusing.....DSS, Polysilicon reactors, HiCz, Merlin??
In any case it is water under the bridge and continual debating what might have been will not change reality.
If you search GOOGLE SCHOLAR for "ion implantation sapphire" you will find many highly technical articles on the subject.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00553270#page-1
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00559353#page-1
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168583X87801635
My point is that ion implantation in sapphire is not new.....some of these date back to the mid 1980's. HYPERION may make it easier but is not mandatory. There are other methods of achieving the goal besides Hyperion.
I think that semantics is getting in the way of what is important.
The part in the video looks to have been exfoliated from a sapphire "wafer" probably intended to be used as a substrate for an LED. The flat on the exfoliation is used to identify the crystal orientation. If the end item was going to be an iPhone screen.....rectangular in shape....I would call the starting item a "brick" if it was a circular single crystal silicon item for a PV cell it might be called a "puck". The critical item is that the starting item be "single crystal.
GT never exfoliated a part large enough to get an iPhone screen I do not believe. There may have been work going on to scale the technology but it had not reached proof of concept for that large an item.
GT bought Hyperion..ostensibly...to exfoliate single crystal Silicon for PV cells...and yes it achieved exfoliation by ion implantation to a very precise depth that sets the thickness of the exfoliation.
Ion implantation for strengthening glass (Sapphire) I believe was a side benefit of Hyperion. Ion implantation has been around in the semiconductor manufacturing world for a long time so that is not the issue.
Exfoliation requires the "GOD like control of ions" . Strengthening not so much.
Apple does not need Hyperion to implant ions into glass...sapphire or other...to strengthen it. It probably can be done with ion implanters used in the semi industry. Hyperion would have been a "twofer"
Compare these 2 org charts. One from 8/14/2015 and one from today's GTAT web site.
I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the former but have to assume that the GTAT site info is accurate.
DS was a TG associate so it should not be a big surprise that he is not in the new mix.
http://www.theofficialboard.com/org-chart/gt-advanced-technologies
http://investor.gtat.com/management.cfm
HK was set up as a tax haven and it was the topic of a lot of traffic here associated with the intercompany agreements...as they related to the sale of MESA units via the HK office.
I never understood the convoluted corporate structure in any case.
I mean both the tax structure and the intercompany agreements....they may have been related.
HK probably exists as a paper entity but no longer meets the China and / or US tax acid test so the US rate of 35% or so would take precedence over the China rate of 8% +/-.
Would be nice to know how these tax implications are factored into the P&L forecasts. 35% vs 8% is real $ !!!
The HK news came from an ex employee who worked in HK.
The Squieller news came from someone at GT in MMK.
I did not see any press releases on either.
This may be old news to most but apparently the GTHK operation was closed towards the end of September. I learned this from a GT associate who worked
in HK and obviously is no longer there. As most know the HK operation was set up to avail GT of the very favorable tax structure. Also Dan S. is no longer with GT according to another associate in MMK.
I have no idea as to what this means to the overall GT situation or the sale of ASF in China or elsewhere. Just FYI.
This process describes a process for strengthening sapphire substrate by implanting ions into a precut sapphire substrate. Hyperion was ostensibly intended to cleave a thin sapphire substrate from a brick of single crystal sapphire. There is a simularity between the two but they are different processes. The latter seems to be easier to accomplish than the former.
I guess it is all academic now that GT has sold the technology.
Debating what might have been or what was seems to be a futile exercise.
It is not obvious to me exactly what that device is and I was at GT at that time .......about 35 paces from the all the inventors offices and met with them an a regular basis.
The existence of a patent does not mean that a device works or even exists. I still maintain that Hyperion is not ready for prime time ...for Silicon, Sapphire or Medical.
You are correct in that Hyperion is not ready for prime time....for any application....well maybe watch crystals as long as it is flat which the Apple watch is not.
The largest exfoliation that I could find mentioned was of a 2" diameter coring typically used for LED substrates....nowhere large enough for an iPhone screen.