Here's the real reason Apple supplier GT Advanced went bankrupt

Enlarge Photo

GT Advanced Technologies Inc. filed for bankruptcy last month.

Amidst the war of words between Apple Inc. and its bankrupt sapphire supplier GT Advanced Technologies, Business Insider has uncovered what it has dubbed "the real reason" GTAT filed for bankruptcy.

In an affidavit, GTAT COO Daniel Squiller revealed the bottom-line reason the deal between Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and GTAT (OTC: GTAT) went belly up: Apple asked GTAT to alter its business model.

"The Apple agreements shifted the GTAT Group's sapphire business model from being primarily an equipment manufacturer to also being a sapphire materials manufacturer," Squiller said in the affidavit.

Before GT partnered with Apple and was given the keys to a $100 million factory in Mesa, its primary business was not sapphire manufacturing, but the actual furnaces used to produce the stuff.

The crux of GT's bankruptcy was its inability to create sapphire acceptable to Apple.

"But considering the risks Apple was asking GTAT to take, it's no surprise the deal fell through," wrote Business Insider.