Ondrej Holzman Non-disclosure agreements for now did not allow to divulge more details about why GT Advanced filed for bankruptcy early last week, however, it has emerged that alongside the CEO, another high-ranking company official sold his shares as the situation began to take a turn for the worse.
Daniel Squiller is the Chief Operating Officer of GT Advanced Technologies and has also been appointed to head the sapphire plant in Mesa, Arizona. It was to this factory that the 578 million dollars on which GT Advanced agreed with Apple less than a year ago was supposed to go, and it was subsequently supposed to supply it with synthetic sapphire.
But the whole collaboration collapsed due to the fact that GT Advanced failed to meet the terms of the contract, did not qualify for the last installment and was forced to apply for protection from creditors in early October. However, based on the stock market activity, it seems that the company's bankruptcy did not come that way for everyone suddenly. Before the unfortunate end of GT Advanced, next to the executive director Gutierrez operations director Squiller also sold a large stock.
In May, Squiller sold $1,2 million worth of stock and set up a plan to sell another $750 worth of stock in the coming months -- before filing for bankruptcy. The sales came after early indications that an Arizona sapphire factory might be struggling, reports WSJ.
GT Advanced was supposed to receive the third installment of a total of $578 million in February, but Apple didn't send $103 million until two months later, according to GT documents. However, the last installment of 139 million should have arrived in April, which GT said in August that it expected during October. In the end, however, it did not meet Apple's requirements and did not receive the money.
Squiller managed to sell 116 shares of his company between $15,88 and $20,08, leaving him with nearly 233 shares. However, they now have practically zero value, currently trading for less than half a dollar.
Apple is asking to settle the case out of public view
Now at trial in New Hampshire is whether GT Advanced will be able to despite the non-disclosure agreements post some contracts with Apple that would reveal why the sapphire maker was forced to file for creditor protection. They still know practically nothing, and together with the company's shareholders, they have already filed a collective lawsuit against GT Advanced for concealment or obfuscation about their financial situation.
Apple asked the court to be able to submit its objections to GT Advanced's bankruptcy proceedings under judicial protection, as it wants to protect its trade secrets. "The grounds for objection include confidential research, development or business information about Apple's operations," said the California-based company, which wants to protect its sensitive information and adhere to non-disclosure agreements it has signed with GT Advanced.
However, the representatives of the state of New Hampshire do not like great secrecy. The closure of the sapphire factories would cause 890 people to lose their jobs in Mesa and Salem. The attorney general of the state of New Hampshire said that while the court should protect the company's trade secrets, the secrecy of all information regarding the cooperation between Apple and GT "goes too far." The state does not like the fact that it is still not clear how the company, which as recently as August assured that everything was fine, could collapse so quickly and declare bankruptcy.
"The public interest in finding out what happened when GT outwardly made such confident statements while a catastrophic storm was clearly just around the corner is very high," said Peter CL Roth, senior assistant attorney general.
Is it director Squiller or Squirrel? It's 2 times different there :-)