It doesn’t matter how you spin it, lithium-ion battery manufacturer A123 Systems has had a heady mix of fortune this week.
Firstly the company, bought for £251million by China’s Wanxiang Group in 2012 after filing for bankruptcy, sold its the non-automotive lithium-ion battery and system integration branch.
Japan’s NEC paid $100 million for A123 Energy Solutions – three years after it failed in a joint bid with Johnson Controls to buy A123’s assets.
Called NEC Energy Solutions, the company is set to begin pairing its information and communications technology with A123’s energy storage systems operations in June.
The purchase is set to bolster NEC’s automotive and stationary battery business lines in the global grid-scale battery installations market.
NEC Energy Solutions announced an agreement to deploy at least 60MW network of NEC Energy’s integrated battery storage systems for Amergin Energy’s late stage developments for grid-scale energy storage within PJM Interconnection.
Meanwhile, in the U.S a federal judge granted A123 more time to finalise a settlement with Apple.
A123 Systems filed a federal lawsuit in February accusing Apple of poaching its scientists and engineers to build a competing battery business. Read more here
The two sides have reached an agreement, signed a term sheet, and are in the process of drafting a final settlement agreement, said business news website Xconomy in a report.
