Russian state-owned nanotechnology corporation Rusnano is in advanced talks to take over the UK display screen maker Plastic Logic—a deal that would assist Russia in bringing Western know-how to its fledgling tech industry.
According to the Financial Times, Rusnano is considering the purchase of a significant stake in Plastic Logic—on the condition it relocates the next phase of its development to Russia.
Plastic Logic makes screens for the rapidly expanding electronic book market. It was founded in 2000 in Cambridge, but has its main manufacturing facility in Germany. Owned by a number of venture capitalist firms and large groups including Intel of the US and BASF of Germany, the company has received around $200 million in investments to date.
For the company to fulfil its long-term potential to make plastic chips, it is said to need fresh injections of capital that could run to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev has placed the technology sector at the heart of ambitious plans to modernise his country, which is currently highly dependent on oil and natural resources.
Rusnano has received $10 billion of state funds to ensure the technology sector generates $30 billion of annual sales by 2015.
It is thought that Chinese investors have also expressed an interest in buying a stake in Plastic Logic, but so far no agreements have been reached.
