The GTAT Group has been a diversified technology company producing
advanced materials and equipment for the global consumer electronics, power electronics, solar
and light-emitting diode (“LED”) industries for many years. Among other things, the GTAT
Group has more than 40 years of experience developing technological innovations in connection
with the manufacturing of furnaces to grow sapphire for industrial use. After diamonds, sapphire
is the second hardest substance on Earth. Sapphire is scratch-resistant and has other properties
that make it an ideal material for display applications where those properties provide significant
advantages over strengthened glass or other materials used in the consumer electronics field.
Sapphire can be fabricated into a variety of shapes and sizes for use in consumer electronics, as
well as the military, LED industries, and other industries. In the consumer electronics field,
sapphire is currently used in watch crystals, camera lenses, and smartphone displays. GTAT’s
customers in Asia, which have purchased from GTAT and operate nearly 500 sapphire furnaces
installed by GTAT, are significant suppliers to the consumer electronics market, where the
sapphire materials they make are used in a variety of applications, including the lens cover,
finger print sensor and cover glass for smartphones.
Most sapphire manufacturers using non-GTAT furnaces produce boules of less than
100kg in size.
In light of the inability to negotiate changes to the Apple Agreements necessary
for GTAT to operate profitably, GTAT reluctantly commenced these chapter 11 cases to
preserve the value of its business by separating itself from the business relationship with Apple.
Once GTAT has separated itself from the business relationship with Apple, GTAT believes that
the completion of its restructuring efforts will allow it to focus its resources on the operation of
its core business of selling sapphire furnaces and other products. Reorganized with an
appropriate capital structure, GTAT would emerge from chapter 11 in a stronger position and
with a sustainable business model that will allow it to compete effectively in the marketplace.
