Liquavista has confirmed that it has been acquired by Samsung, as was reported earlier this week, with the electrowetting display specialists now a fully-owned affiliate. According to Samsung’s press release, it will use the electrowetting tech to produce devices – presumably including ereaders and tablets – that can support color video playback with e-paper displays. Meanwhile, future applications include transparent, transmissive and transflective displays.
Samsung is particularly keen to point out that the electrowetting panels can be manufactured by modifying existing LCD production lines, which the South Korean company obviously has in abundance. It promises “significant synergies through the utilization of existing manufacturing equipment and capabilities” which will hopefully amount to cheaper displays and accelerated product cycles.
Press Release:
Liquavista gets acquired by Samsung
Becomes part of biggest display company in the world to realize the full potential of electrowetting display technology
January 20, 2011 – Eindhoven – Today, Liquavista BV., announced that it has been acquired by Samsung Electronics in a buyout of all shares from the past shareholders. Under the terms of this acquisition, Liquavista will be a fully owned affiliate of Samsung Electronics.
“We are thrilled by this event” said Johan Feenstra, Liquavista’s Founder and newly appointed CEO of Liquavista, “the outright acquisition of Liquavista by the largest electronics company in the world is the fulfilment of a strategy dating back to the original spin-out and, confirmation of the disruptive potential that our technology will have in the display market.”
The acquisition has also resulted in a number of changes in Liquavista’s management team. Johan Feenstra has succeeded Guy Demuynck as the company’s CEO .
“In the future, consumers will need products that not only support full color and video but offer readability in all lighting conditions and gives them ultimate freedom and portability.” Johan Feenstra added, “Being part of Samsung, we can all be sure that Electrowetting Display Technology will find its way to the market in the fastest possible time.”
Press Release:
Samsung Acquires Display Technology Provider Liquavista
Investment aims expand leadership in next generation displays for mobile devices
SEOUL, South Korea–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a global technology innovation and digital convergence leader, today announced it has acquired display technology firm Liquavista BV. Samsung completed the acquisition of Liquavista, based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in December 2010.
Liquavista, founded in 2006 as a spin-out from the Philips Research Labs, offers a new type of electronic display technology known as electrowetting for applications in e-readers, mobile phones, media players and other mobile devices.
The electrowetting technology, which operates in transmissive, reflective, transparent and transflective modes, enables the creation of displays with bright, colorful images with dramatically reduced power consumption. Offering more than twice the transmittance of LCD technology and able to operate at low frequencies, displays utilizing electrowetting consume just 10 percent of the battery power of existing display technologies.
With the acquisition of Liquavista, Samsung aims to expand its leadership in next generation display technologies by pioneering the application of electrowetting in e-Paper and transparent displays. As electrowetting can be manufactured by modifying existing LCD production lines, Samsung will be able to realize significant synergies through the utilization of existing manufacturing equipment and capabilities.
In e-paper applications, the response time of the electrowetting displays will be more than 70 times faster than that of existing reflective displays, allowing for color videos, which was previously thought impossible. In future, the application of the technology is expected to expand to transparent, transmissive and transflective displays.
