Billions have been spent on the Russian flexible “Chubais tablet”. The company went bankrupt, there is no tablet

Rusnano has launched the bankruptcy process for the manufacturer of flexible displays, the Plastic Logic company, as reported by Interfax.

The initiation of bankruptcy proceedings for Plastic Logic LLC is associated with the completion of an assessment of the prospects for restoring the company's solvency, carried out by the Rusnano team to return the initial investment. The event is being implemented as part of the work plan for the investment project and is determined by legal requirements, as well as the need to optimize tax obligations.

Rusnano

In 2011, the Plastic Logic 100 electronic tablet for schoolchildren was demonstrated to Vladimir Putin by Anatoly Chubais. Rusnano invested 7 billion rubles in this company in the first three years and acquired almost 44% of its shares. It was about a tablet with a black and white 11-inch touchscreen display that could display any text and graphic information. However, the screen refresh rate (three frames per second) did not allow video playback.

Anatoly Chubais demonstrates the Plastic Logic 100 tablet monitor, 2011 (Photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov / TASS)

At that time, it was planned to build a plant in Zelenograd for the production of flexible non-silicon displays with an annual capacity of 100 thousand units. However, the planned project was never implemented.

In 2014, it became known that the technologies necessary for implementation had not been acquired, and the plant in Zelenograd was never built. In 2015, Chubais admitted in an interview with TASS that the project had failed: “Yes, we could not make a tablet for schools that was competitive in price. But we are not closing the project, since other applications are possible and work continues on them.”

At the end of 2022, the net loss of Plastic Logic amounted to 702.4 million rubles, which was three times more than a year earlier.

Currently, Rusnano has handed over the inspection materials of this company to law enforcement agencies and plans to close it.