Kodak Departs Copper Mesh Touch-Sensor Business It Went At Alone 2 Years Ago

A little more than two years after Kodak decided to go it alone in developing copper mesh touch-sensor technology for touch screens following UniPixel’s decision to terminate the joint development agreement the two companies shared since 2013 (see 1504280030), Kodak decided to “shut down” its investment in that business, CEO Jeff Clarke announced on a Wednesday earnings call. Kodak continued to invest in copper mesh touch sensors after shutting down its silver mesh sensors business in 2016, and had orders “in our pipeline,” but the “market opportunity and requisite ROI have not materialized as expected,” said Clarke. The business hasn't “scaled as significantly as we had planned, is not meeting current milestones, and is therefore being shut down,” said Clarke, adding that Kodak expects to save about $5 million annually by cancelling the “program.” UniPixel made much the same determination about copper mesh touch sensors in April 2015 when it said the “risks” of developing a “viable business model” in that sector were “too great” to continue the joint development agreement with Kodak. Clarke addressed those risks in Q&A when he said that "trying to apply copper metal mesh in touch sensors at very low microns is one of the harder challenges in materials science” and that it was a "high risk-reward program." Kodak “will retain some significant IP” in the technology, “and we will continue to try and license that,” Clarke said. Kodak sees “other applications using the IP and the know-how that we learned,” he said. UniPixel representatives didn’t comment Thursday on Kodak’s departure from the business. UniPixel held its scheduled quarterly earnings call after our Thursday deadline.