Energy Conversion Devices heads toward its liquidation
May 08, 2012 (Menafn - Detroit Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Auburn Hills-based Energy Conversion Devices is headed toward liquidation, announcing Monday that it had failed to attract any acceptable bids for its solar roofing materials business and plans to immediately lay off 300 employees worldwide.
The company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in mid-February, said it canceled an auction of its United Solar Ovonic subsidiary that was to occur today because it did not receive an acceptable bid.
"Today's announcement is one that everyone here at ECD and Uni-Solar worked extremely hard to avoid," Julian Hawkins, ECD's CEO and president, said.
It is unclear how many of the 300 workers are in Michigan. An ECD spokeswoman did not return requests seeking comment Monday. At the time of the bankruptcy filing, ECD employed 750 workers, including 450 in Michigan, though some were on furlough.
The company said that its investment banker, Quarton Partners, continues to work with prospective buyers. But ECD and Uni-Solar have retained auction services provider Hilco Industrial to prepare for a sale of the companies' assets, including two plants in Auburn Hills and two in Greenville.
Analysts predicted in February that ECD would have a tough time finding a buyer interested in keeping Uni-Solar intact because the firm's technology was costlier and less efficient than some competitors'. The only company to announce a public bid for ECD was the Salamon Group, a Canadian firm that was interested in ECD's tax losses. ECD and Uni-Solar will retain an unspecified number of employees to continue to support the bankruptcy process. And some Uni-Solar employees will continue to do solar technology work for government-funded contracts.
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