Armed with financing from heavyweight partners like Apple Computer Inc and exclusive rights to Field Emission Display technology, a French start-up, Pixel International SA, says it intends to become a leader in the manufacture of flat colour displays. Created in June, Pixel has been financed at $3m by Advent International (which manages Apple’s European capital risk programme), Baring Venture Partners, CEA Industrie (the industrial group of the Commission for Atomic Energy), Innolion (Credit Lyonnais), Sofirem and Sud Capital. The technology comes from CEA’s Laboratory of Electronic, Technology and Instrumentation. A previous accord in 1988 with Videocolor, a subsidiary of Thomson Consumer Electronics, was never realised because Videocolor didn’t see immediate opportunities for the technology in its TV set market. The presence of Apple among Pixel’s investors promises an important outlet, since personal computer makers are today the largest market for flat screens. On his trip to Germany last week, John Sculley said Apple is exploring new flat-screen technologies, but no one at Apple Europe was available to confirm what role the start-up, based in Rousset, France, would play in supplying screens for Apple’s planned Newton product line, for instance.
