AUBURN HILLS ? The 52 year-old technology pioneering company, Energy Conversion Devices, has filed for Chapter 11 after an ill-starred foray into solar energy generation.

The company cited its ?current capital structure and legacy costs? for making the filing necessary. Dow Jones reported the filing came after ECD was unable to come to terms on an out-of-court deal with its

bondholders.

Company officials said ECD intends to sell United Solar and, in a separate sale, ?other assets,? including its minority stake in the computer memory developer Ovonyx Inc.

ECD said United Solar will continue to operate during the sale process.

Founded in 1960 by legendary inventor Stan Ovshinsky, ECD was best known for its Ovonics Unified Memory (OUM) based on phase-change techniques. Many of the world?s leading memory companies licensed the technology, but none produced a mainstream OUM memory.

Intel co-founders Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore worked on OUM with Ovshinsky and Gordon Moore co-authored with Ron Neale an article about phase-change memory in Electronics magazine in 1970.

Ovshinsky started his solar business, called United Solar Ovonic, in 1990 to produce thin-film solar laminates for industrial and commercial buildings. He built four factories but the business went sour three years ago and ECD lost over $765 million in 2010 and 2011.

It is expected that the business will be sold as a going concern free of debts as a result of the Chapter 11 proceedings.

ECD has also sold Ovonic Battery to BASF for $58 million.

Ovshinsky, who will be 90 years old in November, has 400 patents from a sting of inventions in a wide variety of fields including batteries, displays, memories and fuel cells. His research into so-called disordered and amorphous materials led to advances like nickel-metal-hydride batteries, thin and flexible solar panels, flat screen liquid crystal displays, rewritable CDs and DVDs and advanced computer memories. Ovshinsky is self-taught, without formal college or graduate training.

The company said it generated about $20 million in revenue and shipped about 11 megawatts of solar product in the quarter ended Dec. 31. But officials said it ?continued to operate at unsustainable levels, resulting in substantial losses and a continued decline in cash balances ? the company has determined that its current financial position is insufficient to sustain the current operating environment and make the necessary investments for the future of the business, without restructuring through the bankruptcy process.?

ECD cut 500 employees from its work force late last year and furloughed hundreds of others as production was halted. At this point, company officials say ECD has about 450 employees in Michigan, split about equally between its operations in Oakland County and at a solar panel plant in Greenville, near Grand Rapids.

Ovshinsky left ECD in 2007 and established a new company, Ovshinsky Innovation LLC, devoted to developing the scientific basis for highly innovative and revolutionary energy and information technologies.

ECD said it had obtained support for its divestiture plans through a formal agreement with about 70 percent of the holders of $263 million worth of debt. Unlike other solar industry collapses in recent months, ECD had no loans from the federal government.

ECD retained the investment banking firm Quarton Partners LLC to manage the sale process, which is expected to be completed within 90 days. To participate in the USO sale process, contact Andre A. Augier at (248) 594-0400 or [email protected].

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