Sumitomo Chemical Will Acquire Cambridge Display Technology

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 would become a subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical.

The two companies 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.

"Sumitomo Chemical positions display materials as one of its core business areas, and while it continues to expand its liquid-crystal display materials business, it is also concentrating its efforts on the development of next-generation display materials with a particular focus on OLEDs," the company says.