Samsung acquires e-paper tech firm Liquavista

CALIFORNIA, USA: Samsung Electronics Co said on Thursday it had acquired Dutch display firm Liquavista, which specialises in electronic paper technology, as the world's biggest LCD screen maker seeks to expand in the booming mobile display market.

Samsung declined to reveal the acquisition value of the Eindhoven-based firm, a spin-out from Philips Research Labs.

Liquavista offers a new type of electronic display technology called electrowetting used in e-readers, mobile phones and media players and consumes just 10 percent of the battery power of existing display technologies, Samsung said.

"As electrowetting can be manufactured by modifying LCD production lines, Samsung will be able to realise significant synergies through the utilisation of existing manufacturing equipment and capabilities," it said in a statement.

The move marks growing interest in the next-generation display technology by electronics firms, as they vie for a bigger share of the emerging e-reader market which is dominated by the likes of Amazon's Kindle e-book and Apple's iPad tablet.

LG Display , which supplies panels for Sony's Sony Reader, is also in a technology partnership with Taiwan's E Ink Holdings .

Shares in Samsung Electronics fell 1.3 percent on Thursday, after rising more than 3 percent on Wednesday to fresh record highs, as strong results by Apple lifted expectations of a recovery in the battered technology sector.