Samsung Electronics, a South Korea-based conglomerate, has acquired Liquavista, a Netherlands-based developer of electronic paper technology previously backed by Applied Materials’ corporate venturing unit, for an estimated £32m/€50m ($68m).
Liquavista became independent from Dutch conglomerate Philips in 2006, a year after spin-out specialist venture capital (VC) firm New Venture Partners had agreed to work with Philips to incubate and develop its technology.
VCs Amadeus Capital Partners and GIMV then led a €12m series A round for Liquavista in December 2006, which included New Venture Partners, while Philips retained a stake in its former business.
The same consortium provided €8m of equity and debt in March 2008’s series B round, while €5m was raised for the C round in May 2009.
Amadeus, GIMV and Prime Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm set up after a secondaries sale of Philips’ minority equity holdings in third parties, led the C round.
Rob Rosenberg, a partner at New Venture Partners, by email said: "We are pleased with the acquisition. I led the spinout and brought together the founding team. We seed funded the company and brought together the initial syndicate with Amadeus and GIMV. I had stepped off the board with the series C."
Applied Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Nasdaq-listed Applied Materials, then joined Liquavista’s consortium just ahead of the €7m series D round in April last year.
Johan Feenstra, Liquavista’s founder and new chief executive (CEO) of Liquavista, said: "The outright acquisition of Liquavista by the largest electronics company in the world is the fulfillment of a strategy dating back to the original spin-out and confirmation of the disruptive potential that our technology will have in the display market."
Feenstra has succeeded Guy Demuynck, formerly CEO of Philips Consumer Electronics Division, as the company’s CEO in the takeover.
Feenstra added: "In the future, consumers will need products that not only support full colour and video but offer readability in all lighting conditions and gives them ultimate freedom and portability.
"Being part of Samsung, we can all be sure that Electrowetting Display Technology will find its way to the market in the fastest possible time."
Last year, Liquavista announced the launch of a display platform for transflective displays, called LiquavistaVivid, and said it was working with Freescale Semiconductor, a supplier of microprocessors for e-readers.