Merck KGaA buys Avecia's polymer electronics business

Published: 6-Mar-2005


Merck KGaA has acquired the OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) materials and the polymer electronics businesses of Avecia, a privately-owned speciality chemical company based in Manchester, UK, for €50m in cash.

The transaction, subject to regulatory approval and approval by E. Merck OHG, is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2005. The acquisition includes Covion Organic Semiconductors, of Frankfurt, Germany, a leader in the design, development and manufacture of high quality OLED materials, and Avecia's polymer electronics research and development activities, also based in Manchester. The two companies, together with 100 employees, will be integrated into Merck's liquid crystals division. OLEDs are extremely thin semi-conducting organic polymers suitable for a wide variety of applications, including light sources and displays, made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors. "It is apparent that liquid crystal displays will be the dominant flat-panel technology for some years to come," said Merck chairman Bernhard Scheuble. "We see this acquisition as an opportunity to explore alternative technologies for the future." Polymer electronics will increasingly be used in applications such as solar cells, organic TFTs (thin film transistors) and RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags. Covion is mainly focused on developing future applications for OLEDs, and had sales of approximately €8m in 2004. Formed in 1999 by Avecia and Aventis Research & Technologies, it was fully acquired by Avecia in 2002.

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