Kodak announced today that they have sold all their OLED related assets to a group of LG companies. Kodak will still have access to the technology to use in its own product.
Kodak is doing this to strengthen their financial situation. They also recognize that in order to realize the full value of the OLED business, it needs a significant investment.
This is a sad day for Kodak I think - they have invented OLEDs in 1970 and have been working on the technology for 40 years now (!). It'll be interesting to see what LG will do with Kodak's IP (which is mostly about Fluorescent OLEDs and manufacturing equipment). In any case, LG is showing that they are truly committed to OLEDs.
Comments
That's it!! It's all over folks!! Nothing to see here anymore...
I've been following OLED for 5 Years now- supported Samsung, went to see Sony's XEL-1, kept myself updated from this site since it first started... but now alas-
Lousy Goods LG, the epitome of the mediocrity will now be serving the next generation in visual beauty, scratch that:-
average money making bottom line, fat cat, old hat, crap.
I despair and openly weep in full poetic fashion, for here, lies the body of a prince.. corrupted by main stream crowd following lack of intelligence..
the death of future innovation .. is come .... and LG is it's name.
Disregarding your distaste for LG for a while Brophy, look at it this way, LG will now have the tools to compete with Samsung and Sony. By the way, if you are in the USA, you've got a bigger issue to lament than LG, and that is the fact all this wealth of intellectual property as well as hard assets are no longer under US ownership.
This is akin to the US auto industry being usurped by Toyota, in a different segment of the economy. Too bad too, is the psychological impact on a once mighty and proud US innovation ethos, in many places worldwide, viewed as a defining factor of US culture.
This I think is the real pity. First, the US built up Japan after the second world war, only to be superseded by that country in the automotive, video, and electronics industries. Then the US allowed tax exemptions to Korean manufacturers to help rebuild them after the Korean war, to now see those manufacturers trump their US counterparts.
We will all see our standard of living drop over the nest 30 years in relation to the increases in living standards of the new competitors. This is what we should lament and work to reverse.
Wow, that's a huge surprise.
Then again, I never felt that Kodak was going anywhere commercially with all the inventions and patents they held. And LG is a great display producer who is really commited so hopefully this deal will further improve the situation for the technology since there is some serious competition on the horizon.