Kodak, a pioneer in OLED material technology, announced Friday that it will sell a majority of its assets in the OLED business to a group of LG companies. The sum for the acquisition was undisclosed but the significance of the sale is strategic at its core. Kodak believes this sale will allow the company to tighten its focus.
“As we said earlier this year, OLED is one of the businesses we wanted to reposition to maximize Kodak’s competitive advantage at the intersection of materials and imaging science,” said Laura G. Quatela, Kodak’s Chief Intellectual Property Officer and manager of the company’s OLED business. “This action is consistent with that strategy. Our OLED intellectual property portfolio is fundamental; however, realizing the full value of this business would have required significant investment.”
Kodak developed the world's first viable OLED material in the 1970s. It will still have access to its OLED technology but the transaction should be complete by the end of 2009.
