Arrowhead Research
Corporation (Nasdaq: ARWR) announced today that its majority owned subsidiary,
Unidym, Inc., has closed its Houston, Texas operation in order to consolidate
its carbon nanotube (CNT) production capabilities with the rest of its operations
in California's Silicon Valley. This move was the latest in a series of steps
taken to improve efficiencies implemented by Unidym's newly appointed chief
executive officer, Mark Tilley, Ph.D., who also serves as Arrowhead's Vice President
of Advanced Materials.
"Unidym has built what we believe to be a dominant position in high value
CNTs for electronics and energy applications by rolling up foundational technologies
from over a dozen institutions and acquiring three companies," said Dr.
Christopher Anzalone, Arrowhead's chief executive officer. "A challenge
for this type of roll-up is integration, and consolidating CNT production in
California represents the completion of Unidym's integration of Houston-based
Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc., which was acquired in 2007."
As part of the consolidation, Unidym is also sharpening its focus to better
serve its ongoing joint development agreements with touch panel and LCD manufacturers.
Unidym's CNT production efforts are now aimed solely at producing the proprietary
high grade of material needed for its CNT inks and films for the electronic
industry. Unidym is expanding its licensing program to extract value from production
of other grades of CNTs for non-core markets.
"Although the timing of the plant closure was based on the expiration
of our facility sublease, the decision to consolidate in the Valley is driven
by longer term considerations including integration of our business development,
R&D and production teams in the same location during our commercial ramp
up and an improved cost structure," Dr. Tilley said.
Unidym is a leader in carbon nanotube-based transparent, conductive films (TCFs)
for the electronics industry. TCFs are a critical component in devices such
as touch panels, displays, and thin-film solar cells. For example, both touch
panels and LCDs typically employ two TCF layers per device. Unidym's TCFs offer
substantial advantages over the incumbent technology, indium-based metal oxides,
including: improved durability, lower processing costs, and lower overall cost
structure.