Display maker spends $215m on E Ink

Or $1.4m per electronic ink patent

E Ink has been bought by the company that makes most of the displays based on its technology.

Taiwan-based Prime View will buy E Ink for $215m.

E Ink will use the funding to further its R&D efforts. It'll be demo'ing a prototype colour display this week at the Society for Information Display conference in San Antonio, Texas, but it needs more cash to turn the screen into a product that can be used in real devices.

E Ink has 150 US electronic ink patents to its name, so Prime's paying round $1.4m per patent.

E Ink's technology - as realised by Prime View - is to be found in all of current e-book readers, including Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader.

News of the deal comes as screen technology company Pixel Qi has begun demo'ing colour e-paper that it's pitching at laptop makers who want to offer outdoor-readable displays on their machines. Pixel Qi reckons it'll have commercial product out by the end of the year. ®

Group Test: e-book readers