GT Advanced has made an agreement with Apple over a proposed settlement for how the company will pay off its
$439 million debt. The settlement will potentially allow the sapphire glass producer to free itself from the massive debt, by holding an auction later this month and selling off its sapphire glass production equipment, among other items going up for sale.
If approved by a
bankruptcy judge, the
Wall Street Journal claims the proposed auction will take place by November 23. The bulk of items up for sale will consist of sapphire furnaces, with proceeds divided between the two companies, though GT is apparently aiming to keep hold of up to 600 of approximately 2,000 furnaces at the Arizona facility. Anything that fails to sell will be provided to Apple, which will scrap the equipment and end the loan.
So far, GT has struggled to raise the funds to pay off the loan by itself, apparently failing to sell any of its furnaces on its own over
the last year. GT also has the added deadline of December 31 to get the equipment out of the facility, prompting the creation of the auction.
Apple is currently planning to invest $2 billion in the failed sapphire plant over the next ten years, to turn it into
a datacenter. Expected to start construction late next year, and delayed by the furnaces still being kept at the facility, the project will become "one of the largest" investments Apple has ever made, bringing 150 permanent jobs to the area as well as over 600 shorter-term engineering and construction jobs.
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