Investors call for cull at Nanoco over tech firm's battle with Samsung

Angry shareholders have demanded that Nanoco bosses step down in a bitter row over the company’s David and Goliath battle with Samsung.

A group of investors led by Tariq Hamoodi, who has a 4.23 per cent stake in the British quantum company, has called for chief executive Brian Tenner and chief finance boss Liam Gray to resign following a settlement with Samsung last month.

Nanoco filed a lawsuit in February 2020 for patent infringement, alleging the South Korean tech giant used its ‘quantum dot’ technology in its TVs without permission.

The pair were due to go to court in Texas but agreed to settle. Samsung last month agreed to pay £123million to Manchester-based Nanoco – far below industry estimates of around £215million. 

Shareholders said: ‘Nanoco had settled on terms substantially less favourable than its prior statements had led shareholders to believe.’

Nanoco said it ‘emphatically rejects the shareholder group’s speculative concerns’.