The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
EMagin Corp. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Lucas said that Apple Inc. didn’t invest in the augmented-reality display component maker, contradicting a listing in a regulatory filing mentioning the technology giant.
An EMagin filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission listing Apple among “specified investors†was reported by TechCrunch, Bloomberg News and others. The document, from Jan. 23, proposed an EMagin share offering and also named LG Display Co., virtual-reality startup Immerex, gaming company Valve Corp., and Stillwater Holdings LLC as investors.
Lucas said EMagin listed those companies in the filing because it had discussions with them at industry events. If those firms had decided to invest, EMagin would have given them different pricing. However, that didn’t happen, at least in Apple’s case, he said in an interview. The filing was misinterpreted, the CFO added. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.
Shares of EMagin jumped as much as 41 percent. After Bloomberg reported Lucas’ comments, the stock gave up a lot of those gains and was temporarily halted. The company said in a statement that its share offering closed on Jan. 29. “As of today, to the Company’s knowledge, none of these consumer electronics companies have taken part in the offering,†it added in the statement. Trading resumed and the shares ended at $1.67 in New York, 18 percent below their intraday peak.
EMagin sells display components used to build augmented and virtual-reality headsets, according to its website. The small screens, based on organic light-emitting diode technology, are crisper than some AR and VR displays currently on the market.
Apple is working on an AR headset that could put content like games, text messages, video, and business conferencing in the wearer’s field of view. The iPhone maker hopes to have the technology ready for such a headset by the end of 2019 so that it can begin selling the product as early as 2020, Bloomberg News has reported. Apple manufacturing partner Quanta Computer Inc. invested in AR component maker Lumus late last year.