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GT Advanced Technologies Inc, Apple Inc’s partner in a sapphire glass plant in Arizona, said it had filed for voluntary bankruptcy protection.

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Samsung Electronics Co. the world’s largest smartphone maker, is heading for its roughest quarter in years amid rising competition from Apple Inc. and China’s Xiaomi Corp.





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The company’s shares fell more than 90% to 75 cents, wiping out about US$1.4 billion in market value. The stock traded as high as US$20.54 in early July.

GT Advanced suffered a major setback last month when its scratch-resistant sapphire glass was left out of Apple’s new large-screen iPhones.

“It would appear that something very fundamentally broke down in the relationship between Apple and GT Advanced,” Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov said in an email.

Sapphire glass is scratch-resistant and nearly unbreakable, making it a potential alternative to Gorilla glass for smartphone displays.