subject: Proview Scrap Piles Rise While Waiting On Apple Cash Infusion [print this page] A walk round back tells the reasonA walk round back tells the reason. The mothballed south China factory of what was once the worlds fourth-biggest maker of computer monitors is being dismantled for scrap. Almost a year and a half since Proview Shenzhen shut after missing payments to suppliers and banks, the company teeters on bankruptcy. Founder Rowell Yang and creditors led by Bank of China Ltd. are now wringing out Proviews last possession of value: rights to the iPad trademark in China that Apple Inc. (AAPL) wants and may have to dip into its $98 billion cash pile to get.
The creditors hope that Proview Shenzhen can be renewed and restart production, Roger Xie, an attorney for the company, said in a March 2 interview at his office in downtown Shenzhen. Proview Shenzhen has two hopes. One is to transfer or license the trademark. The other is for Apple to compensate them and purchase the trademark to give Proview Shenzhen the ability to clear its debts.
Apple last week appealed a Shenzhen court ruling that its 2009 purchase of the iPad trademark in China from a Taiwan sister company of Proview was invalid. Consumers in China associate the iPad name with Apples tablet, and it would be unfair to give Proview the value of that trademark which Apple created, the Cupertino, California-based company told the Higher Peoples Court of Guangdong.
Apple may unveil a new iPad tablet in the U.S. today.
Proview, which began selling its own product called the iPAD in 2000, shuttered its Shenzhen factory in November 2010. In contrast with the buildings facade, shattered windows scar the back, and rubbish is strewn on the yard. Scrap Piles WOW Gold
During a March 2 visit, workers wearing blue dust-masks appeared from time to time to augment two towering piles of scrap in what used to be a loading bay. Metal sheets, pipes and tubes protruded from the heaps.
Its true, said Yang, when asked whether the factory was being gutted, in a March 5 telephone interview. The Banks have taken over the assets, and can sell them.
Proview peaked at 10 percent of the global monitor market in 2006, when they ranked No. 4, said Alberto Moel, a Hong Kong- based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co Runescape Money.
