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Print Edition StoriesMonday, June 1, 2009
E Ink draws up $215M deal to be bought
By Mass High Tech Staff
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Article updated as of 10:00 a.m., June 1, 2009.
Taiwanese display provider Prime View International has agreed to put up $215 million to acquire E Ink Corp. of Cambridge, perhaps best known for supplying the display for Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle e-book reader.
According to the two companies, Prime View is the world’s highest-volume supplier of e-paper display modules. The company has a history with E Ink -- the two companies partnered on displays for the Kindle 2, and for Sony Corp.’s Reader after Prime View bought the e-paper business of Philips Electronics in 2005.
The sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Privately held E Ink’s sales were $18 million in the first quarter of 2009, up 157 percent over the same quarter in 2008, according to officials. The company will stay in Cambridge, and says it plans to expand its staff levels from 127 to 150 by the end of the year, primarily in the research and engineering fields, according to Sri Peruvemba, vice president of marketing for E Ink, interviewed during a conference call. The top officers in the company will stay “engaged in building this business,” Peruvemba said.
Since its founding in 1997, Cambridge-based E Ink has been a favorite of investors, raising more than $150 million in funding for the development of electronic reader displays. Investors include venture firms such as Eastward Capital, FA Technology Ventures and Solstice Capital as well as corporate investors such as Intel Capital Corp., Motorola Corp. and Toppan Printing Co. Ltd. of Japan.
E Ink announced its original deal with Amazon for the first generation Kindle in November of 2007.
In April of this year, after the Kindle 2 was released, E Ink faced some criticism from tech bloggers and product reviewers over what seemed to be a drop in clarity of the text in the displays of the new Kindle.
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