Apple asks court to seal objections against GT Advanced bankruptcy
Apple on Tuesday entered a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Hampshire requesting to seal objections made in regard to partner sapphire maker GT Advanced Technologies' Chapter 11 protection filing.
According to the motion, Apple is seeking to lodge arguments against GT's bankruptcy filing under seal in a bid to keep sensitive research and development details, as well as business dealings, out of the public eye, reports Re/code.
The court document builds on a previous report that revealed Apple's non-disclosure agreements include a $50 million penalty each time a supplier leaks information about unannounced products.
Today's filing is the latest news to come out of GT Advanced's unexpected downfall. The New Hampshire-based company struck a $578 million deal to provide Apple with raw sapphire material for a secret project. As part of the agreement, Apple purchased land in Mesa, Arizona and leased the property to GT, but the firm failed to meet production goals necessary for the full advance payout.
GT filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, a surprise to many after the company showed no public signs of trouble. The announcement supposedly came as a surprise to Apple, as well, though later reports showed the Cupertino tech giant tried to assist GT in meeting requirements for a final $139 million payout.
Countering Apple's stance is the U.S. Trustee, the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog, as well as the state of New Hampshire. Bloomberg reports the offices filed their own respective papers on Monday, each asking for a public account of what transpired behind GT's closed doors.
"Much of the business operations of the Debtors with assets valued by the debtors at $1.5 billion on October 6, 2014, are slated to be shuttered by what remains an unexplained business failure," the state wrote, adding, "The public interest in learning what transpired, where the debtors made such confident statements publicly very recently while clearly a catastrophic storm was on the horizon, is very high."
Of particular interest for government agencies are reports that two GT Advanced executives, CEO Tom Gutierrez and COO Daniel Squiller, sold off a combined $12 million in stock just before things went south.
Presiding U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff is scheduled to hear arguments regarding the matter on Wednesday.
According to the motion, Apple is seeking to lodge arguments against GT's bankruptcy filing under seal in a bid to keep sensitive research and development details, as well as business dealings, out of the public eye, reports Re/code.
The court document builds on a previous report that revealed Apple's non-disclosure agreements include a $50 million penalty each time a supplier leaks information about unannounced products.
Today's filing is the latest news to come out of GT Advanced's unexpected downfall. The New Hampshire-based company struck a $578 million deal to provide Apple with raw sapphire material for a secret project. As part of the agreement, Apple purchased land in Mesa, Arizona and leased the property to GT, but the firm failed to meet production goals necessary for the full advance payout.
GT filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, a surprise to many after the company showed no public signs of trouble. The announcement supposedly came as a surprise to Apple, as well, though later reports showed the Cupertino tech giant tried to assist GT in meeting requirements for a final $139 million payout.
Countering Apple's stance is the U.S. Trustee, the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog, as well as the state of New Hampshire. Bloomberg reports the offices filed their own respective papers on Monday, each asking for a public account of what transpired behind GT's closed doors.
"Much of the business operations of the Debtors with assets valued by the debtors at $1.5 billion on October 6, 2014, are slated to be shuttered by what remains an unexplained business failure," the state wrote, adding, "The public interest in learning what transpired, where the debtors made such confident statements publicly very recently while clearly a catastrophic storm was on the horizon, is very high."
Of particular interest for government agencies are reports that two GT Advanced executives, CEO Tom Gutierrez and COO Daniel Squiller, sold off a combined $12 million in stock just before things went south.
Presiding U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff is scheduled to hear arguments regarding the matter on Wednesday.
Comments
Apple has lots of enemies. Be aware.
It's like Apple's Solyndra.
In other words, trivial in fact and substance, and in the long run scheme of things. (Except in the world of whackos.)
Exactly. Good Business Rule #1 is to not throw good money after bad. Sometimes in business, as in life, you make poor judgments, but it's important to pull the plug and move on.
Exactly. Good Business Rule #1 is to not throw good money after bad. Sometimes in business, as in life, you make poor judgments, but it's important to pull the plug and move on.
Well, that's kind of true. The $400+ million Apple spent right now is a 'sunk cost.' The question Apple needs to determine objectively is whether the new investment (whatever it is) is a good idea based on the new probability of a viable product and the profitability from the product.
Chris
Anyways. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Nice try. Congress will Investigate and expose all of Apple's tricks because they evaded US taxes legally via Bono's Ireland.
Apple has lots of enemies. Be aware.
What "tricks"? Do you understand the concept of NDAs, and confidentiality agreements in contracts? Or do you believe every detail of every business contract should be public knowledge? I'm assuming you meant to say "Beware"? It's ok, it's clear english isn't your first language (even though it is.) "Bono's Ireland"? Christ, you're pathetic.
It's like Apple's Solyndra.
Keep repeating shit like that enough, maybe you'll eventually believe it. Odds are you don't know the first thing about that situation, besides the talking points you've heard and accept because of your nutcase ideologies. .
You know what happens when you pay your general contractor the entire amount up front? He won't show up on the first day of work. That's why you don't pay them in advance.
I learned that from watching Adam Carola's latest show, 'To Catch A Contractor.'
Somewhat ironically Apple tanked the company by withholding $139 million and it can now buy the entire company for that very amount -- A company worth $1.5 Billion 10 days ago.
Well, it seems it wasn't actually worth $1.5 billion 10 days ago. It was certainly priced that high, I'll concede that much.
"The announcement supposedly came as a surprise to Apple, as well, though later reports showed the Cupertino tech giant tried to assist GT in meeting requirements for a final $139 million payout."
There's nothing inconsistent in Apple being surprised by GTAT's announcement. It's reasonable to think that Apple did try to assist GTAT is meeting the requirements for the final payment, just as it's been reported that Apple didn't make an earlier payment on the originally agreed scheduled and assisted GTAT in getting to that milestone months later, making that payment in May rather than nearer the beginning of the year. It's also reasonable to think that Apple wasn't fully privy to all of the details of GTAT's financial status separate from the $139 million it was expecting but ultimately did not receive from Apple. So it's consistent that Apple knew on the day before the filing that it wasn't going to hand over the final #139 million and was also surprised that the company filed; i.e., that the company, without that final payment was insolvent.