AZ Electronic Materials plc is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 specialty chemicals

Fine chemicals

Fine chemicals are pure, single chemical substances that are commercially produced with chemical reactions for highly specialized applications. Fine chemicals produced can be categorized into active pharmaceutical ingredients and their intermediates, biocides, and specialty chemicals for technical...

 company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...

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History

The Company was established in the 1950s as a division of Hoechst

Hoechst AG

Hoechst AG was a German chemicals then life-sciences company that became Aventis Deutschland after its merger with France's Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999...

 (now Sanofi). The name of the company is derived from the organic compound

Organic compound

An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides, as well as the...

 diazo

Diazo

Diazo refers to a type of organic compound called diazo compound that has two linked nitrogen atoms as a terminal functional group. The general formula is R2C=N2. The simplest example of a diazo compound is diazomethane...

. In 1997 it was acquired by Clariant

Clariant

Clariant is a Swiss speciality chemical company which was formed in 1995 as a spin off from Sandoz.- Business :The company has a turnover of around US$8 billion and is headquartered in Muttenz, near Basel, Switzerland....

, a Swiss specialty chemicals business and in 2004 it was bought by funds controlled controlled by the Carlyle Group

Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group is an American-based global asset management firm, specializing in private equity, based in Washington, D.C. The Carlyle Group operates in four business areas: corporate private equity, real assets, market strategies and fund-of-funds, through its AlpInvest subsidiary...

. Vestar Capital Partners

Vestar Capital Partners

Vestar Capital Partners is an American private equity firm focusing on leveraged buyout transactions in the United States, Europe and Asia.The firm, which was founded in 1988 is headquartered in New York City with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, Denver, Colorado in the US as well as Paris, Milan,...

 took a stake in the company in 2007. In October 2010 it was first listed on the London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...

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Operations

The Company produces and sells specialty chemical materials used in the manufacture of integrated circuit

Integrated circuit

An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...

s and flat panel display

Flat panel display

Flat panel displays encompass a growing number of electronic visual display technologies. They are far lighter and thinner than traditional television sets and video displays that use cathode ray tubes , and are usually less than thick...

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