Sumitomo Pledges to Buy Display Firm CDT

Sumitomo Chemical plans to acquire Cambridge Display Technology, a Cambridge, England-based developer of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), for $285 million. The deal must be approved by CDT shareholders when they meet this fall. But major shareholder Kelso & Co., CDT managers, and other shareholders-groups that collectively own 43% of the company-have pledged to vote in favor of the deal. CDT and Sumitomo already have a close relationship: They signed a technical assistance agreement in 2001 and Sumitomo took an equity stake in CDT in 2002. In 2005, the companies formed the Sumation joint venture for the development and manufacture of polymer-based OLEDs. That same year, Sumitomo purchased Dow Chemical's Lumation light-emitting polymers business.