RusNano Revives Plastic Logic

Mountain View, CA-based Plastic Logic, which last year quashed a planned tablet-sized e-reading device based on its plastic semiconductor technology after repeated delays, said today that it has inked a multi-year financing deal with the state-owned Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies, or RusNano. The Russian firm said it will put $150 million in equity-based financing into Plastic Logic immediately, and will provide another $100 million in debt guarantees. Previous Plastic Logic investor Oak Investment Partners will put in an additional $50 million, and the company will raise $400 million more in equity and debt “over the next few years,” for a total of $700 million, according to a joint Plastic Logic-RusNano announcement. As part of the agreement, Plastic Logic will build a display factory in Zelenograd, Russia. “Flexible plastic electronic displays will provide another major milestone in how people process information,” RusNano managing director Georgy Kolpachev said in a statement. “Entering this new disruptive segment at the stage of its inception gives Russia a chance to win a leading position in global market of future electronics.”

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/