GT Advanced Technologies Inc., (NASDAQ: GTAT), announced that the name change from GT Solar to its new name, GT Advanced Technologies Inc., is now complete. As part of the rebranding and new corporate identity, the company is now trading under its new GTAT stock ticker symbol on NASDAQ.
“Our transition from GT Solar to GT Advanced Technologies reflects our broader strategic market focus,” said Tom Gutierrez, GT Advanced Technologies’ president and CEO. “We are growing beyond our historic focus on the solar industry to include other growth markets such as the LED industry. We also continue to look for strategic expansion opportunities into other adjacent markets that leverage our core competencies in crystal growth technology and the commercialization of equipment that drives the growth of new industries. Our name is now more closely aligned with our strategic vision and provides a new platform for us to grow and strengthen our global brand.”
GT Advanced Technologies is a market leader in each of its three core technology segments – polysilicon production equipment, photovoltaic (PV) silicon casting furnaces and sapphire equipment and materials. In the solar industry, GT Advanced Technologies is a global industry leader in polysilicon production technologies used in the manufacture of high purity polysilicon, the fundamental raw material for the solar PV industry. The company is also the world’s largest manufacturer of casting furnaces which crystallize polysilicon into ingots used to product solar wafers.
In July 2010, the company entered the fast-growing LED market through its acquisition of Crystal Systems, Inc., a pioneer in the field of crystallizing sapphire material for a wide range of industries. GT is both a producer of sapphire material as well as a supplier of Advanced Sapphire Furnaces (ASF) which it sells to companies that produce sapphire material. Since the company introduced its ASF in December of 2010, it has booked nearly $1 billion in orders, quickly establishing itself as a leading provider of sapphire crystal growth equipment.
