Financial - Page 7

Three display makers in China (BOE, Tianma and Visionox) reported their preliminary financial results for the first half of 2023. It seems as if all companies are facing a sluggish economy and lower demand for displays - but the OLED business is actually seeing increased demand.

We'll start with BOE, that expects an operating profit of around 700-800 million Yuan ($97-110 million USD) in the first half of 2023, a decrease of around 90% from last year. BOE says that it is starting to see demand increasing as the year progresses.

French OLED microdisplay maker MicroOLED announced that it has raised €21 million, led by Jolt Capital and with support from the French sovereign wealth fund Bpifrance via its Innovation Defense vehicle, alongside both historical investors, Cipio Partners and Ventech.

MicroOLED updates that it has been granted over 170 patents to date, through a close collaboration with neighbor CEA/Leti research centers. The company offers a line-up of compact products ranging from 0.2" to 0.6" in size, with high resolution and power as low as 1mW. MicroOLED will use to funds to accelerate its R&D, expand its production capabilities in Grenoble and grow its international sales teams.

OLED microdisplay developer Seeya Information Technology has ordered OLED deposition (evaporation) equipment from Korea's Sunic System, in a deal worth $25.15 million.

Sunic Systems will provide Seeya with 12-inch (300 mm) OLED deposition tools. Sunic is developing direct-patterning deposition equipment, but it is not clear whether this order is for such tools or whether these will be the standard white OLED with color filter deposition.

A few months ago we reported that Japan-based inkjet printing OLED developer JOLED has filed for bankruptcy, and that Japan Display (JDI) will take over JOLED's technology and operations. JDI released an official statement regarding JOLED and its plans for the future.

So indeed on March 7 2023, JDI signed a basic agreement to support JOLED. Since then the two companies held 'extensive discussions', following which JDI decided to form a subsidiary company called 'JDI Design and Development' or JDIDD, that will acquire JOLED’s OLED technology development business and all related operations.

Samsung Display is acquiring US-based OLED microdisplay developer eMagin, for $218 million in cash. The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 10% to eMagin’s closing stock price n May 16, 2023.

In 2022, Samsung Display confirmed it is developing OLED microdisplays, and the company admitted it is still at an early stage of development. Samsung's plan is to start mass production by 2024 or 2025. In October 2022  we reported that SDC is interesting in eMagin's technology and indeed now this news confirms the fact. It seems as if SDC's first generation panels will use a color-filter design, but Samsung's main interest in eMagin is likely its direct-emission technology, or dPd, which will likely be adopted in later generation panels.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q1 2023, with revenues of $6.6 million (a decrease of 11% from last year). Net loss for the quarter was $2.6 million, down from an income of $0.1 million in Q1 2022. At the end of the quarter, eMagin had cash and equivalents of $3.8 million. 

eMagin says that the decrease in revenues is mostly attributed to late deliveries resulting from unexpected production downtime at one of the company's legacy tools and the timing of military orders. The company's total sales backlog remained at $16.0 million, comparable to the end of Q4 2022.

eMagin announced that it developed (and demonstrated) a 15,000 nits WUXGA (1920x1200) full-color OLED microdisplay, setting a new world record (surpassing eMagin's own 10,000 nits record from 2021).

This new microdisplay was deposited using the company's direct-patterning (dPd) technology, which means that there are no color filters. This is a single-stack device, and eMagin says that in the future it could use a tandem architecture to improve the performance further.

Universal Display reported its financial results for Q1 2023, with revenues of $130 million (down from $150 million last year) and net income of $40 million (down from $50 million in 2022).

UDC says that near-term demand for OLED displays is still soft, but the company remains confident on the long-term growth path for OLED displays. Looking ahead into 2023, the company expects yearly revenues to be in the range of $550 million to $600 million.

LG Display reported its financial results for Q1 2023, with revenues of 4,411 billion Won ($3.3 billion USD), down 40% from the previous quarter and 32% from 2022.

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The company says there is 'sluggish demand' for TV and IT products. The company plans to focus on automotive displays, smartphone OLEDs and IT OLEDs (mid-sized panels). LG also aims to increase its sales of OLED gaming monitor panels and transparent OLED displays.