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This sounds like they accidentally walked into a joint venture when actually there needed to be an intermediary party (a sapphire manufacturer) or Apple to take

This sounds like they accidentally walked into a joint venture when actually there needed to be an intermediary party (a sapphire manufacturer) or Apple to take on more risk. If you haven't been involved in negotiations like this you probably underestimate what an easy trap this is to walk into, and very hard to remove yourself from once it occurs. It does reflect poorly on management, but it takes two to tango, and Apple should have been aware that such a one sided arrangement would inevitably backfire in this fashion. Good business works when the incentives for both parties are aligned, and you may extract short term benefit from screwing a supplier, but if what they supply is in short supply then you're going to end up screwing yourself.

waps 12y ago
My faith in management just keep strengthening over time. Apparently it's not considered ridiculous to agree with someone who says : > Apple said GT should, “Put on your big boy pants and accept the agreement,” he said. But the cynic in me fully understands what happened here. GT management, who have massive amounts of stock knew that an agreement with Apple would be seen by the invester community as a ridiculously positive development ( e.g. http://www.cnbc.com/id/101573666 http://www.cnbc.com/id/101573666 chosen for effect, not because I think this guy is a good stock picker, btw : please note that Cramer was right on all timeframes < 7 months ), and they were right. Then they proceed to unload their shares, making 32 million dollars between 6 people ( https://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=GTAT+Insider+Transactions https://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=GTAT+Insider+Transactions ). They would have known the terms of the Apple deal, and would have known that it'd be a breakeven deal at best, probably already in March. TLDR: https://www.tradingview.com/e/qTWS9Zzq/ https://www.tradingview.com/e/qTWS9Zzq/

waps 12y ago

My faith in management just keep strengthening over time. Apparently it's not considered ridiculous to agree with someone who says : > Apple said GT should, “Put on your big boy pants and accept the agreement,” he said. But the cynic in me fully understands what happened here. GT management, who have massive amounts of stock knew that an agreement with Apple would be seen by the invester community as a ridiculously positive development ( e.g. http://www.cnbc.com/id/101573666 http://www.cnbc.com/id/101573666 chosen for effect, not because I think this guy is a good stock picker, btw : please note that Cramer was right on all timeframes < 7 months ), and they were right. Then they proceed to unload their shares, making 32 million dollars between 6 people ( https://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=GTAT+Insider+Transactions https://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=GTAT+Insider+Transactions ). They would have known the terms of the Apple deal, and would have known that it'd be a breakeven deal at best, probably already in March. TLDR: https://www.tradingview.com/e/qTWS9Zzq/ https://www.tradingview.com/e/qTWS9Zzq/