Kindle E-Paper Makers PVI Buy E Ink For $215m

E Ink, the e-paper specialists behind the displays used in Amazon's Kindle ebook reader, Sony's Reader, the keyboard of the Samsung Alias 2 cellphone and various other devices, has been acquired by Prime View International (PVI).  The deal, which valued E Ink at $215m, sees the e-paper IP and technology specialists now combined with the manufacturers of the panels themselves.

The combined company will continue to supply electrophoretic display technology, which accounts for more than 90-percent of e-paper displays; E Ink is the primary supplier of such technology.  Meanwhile, PVI expects to release touchscreens and flexible e-paper, the latter said to reach the market later this year.

PVI has already acquired Philips Electronics' e-paper business, back in 2005, and last year bought a controlling stake in the company responsible for producing the transistor backplanes used in e-paper technology.  Presuming no regulatory or shareholder complications, the E Ink deal will be finalized at some point in Q4 2009.

[via E-Ink-Info]