In the second quarter, GAAP net income was $449 million.
However, GAAP earnings per share was a loss of $0.42 due to the GAAP accounting treatment required for the transaction entered into with Samsung Display.
As part of the agreement, Samsung converted preferred stock into common stock, and Corning immediately repurchased 35 million shares of that common stock from Samsung.
Excluding this, U.S. GAAP earnings per share would have been $0.52.
Versus second-quarter 2020, sales grew 35% to $3.5 billion.
EPS grew 112% to $0.53 on the higher sales and expanding margins.
Free cash grew 65% to $471 million with first-half cash generation of $843 million.
Each of our five segments grew sales by a double-digit percentage year over year, ranging from 16% for specialty materials to 80% for environmental technologies.
Now, of course, 2020 was an easy compare so I think it's worth noting that even versus second quarter of 2019, we grew total company sales and earnings per share 17% and 18%, respectively.
About $200 million is from Hemlock and more than $300 million is organic growth with about 70% of that coming from success of our more Corning content strategy and outperforming the competition.
The other 30% of organic growth is from rising with the market.
For example, over the past few years, we have created new-to-the-world products including ceramic shield, tougher Gorilla Glasses, auto-grade glass, Valor drug packaging, Gen 10.5 display glass, innovative passive optical solutions that are dramatically increasing the ease and cost efficiency of network deployments.
We knew that BOE would need glass for its Gen 10.5 panels, that car companies would need gasoline particulate filters to meet new regulations, that bio tech companies would need high density cell culture to support gene therapy, and that smartphone OEMs would need increasingly durable, scratch-resistant cover glass as they design thinner phones and bigger cameras.
Today the build projects we undertook from 2016 to 2019 are collectively delivering return on invested capital above 20%.
They've helped us increase our sales run rate from $10 billion in 2015 and 2016 to our current run rate of $14 billion, and they've help us improve total company ROIC by three percentage points.
In the quarter, consistent with our strategy to a customer commitments and support of build initiatives, Apple awarded Corning an additional $45 million from its advanced manufacturing fund to help expand our manufacturing capacity in the United States and to support our R&D.
To date, we've received $495 million dollars in total from Apple's fund.
We're uniquely suited to address these trends and we're pursuing $100 per car content opportunity across emissions, precision glass products, and auto glass solutions.
Our solutions are enabling the augmented reality head-up display in Hyundai's new electric crossover, the IONIQ 5.
Additionally a new generation of gasoline particulate filters is helping us on our way to surpassing $500 million in annual GPF sales, well ahead of our original timeframe.
We worked with Thermo Fisher and OPTIMA Pharma to create solutions that increase [Inaudible] filling speed by nearly 70%, thereby alleviating a critical bottleneck in the medical supply chain.
Meanwhile the emergence of Gen 10.5 has given us a unique opportunity although the market for large size keys is expected and projected to grow at a double-digit CAGR through 2024.
And Gen 10.5 provides the most economical approach for larger sets.
We recently hosted the official opening ceremony for our Gen 10.5 facility in the city of Wuhan.
This site is co-located with a large BOE plant, allowing Corning to deliver Gen 10.5 glass substrates more efficiently to our customer for its production of large-sized display panels.
Gen 10.5 provides strong economics for our shareholders while creating options to use earlier generation fusion tanks for new applications such as automotive and cover glass.
To illustrate, remember that we launched our Gorilla Glass business back in 2007 by repurposing some of our existing fusion assets.
Broadband usage for June was up 33% versus pre-pandemic levels, and up 10% versus June 2020, which was a peak quarantine period.
Global 5G subscriptions have grown to almost $300 million, and they're on track to double that by the end of 2021 according to industry projections.
On AT&T's earnings call last week, their CEO said that by year end, they expect to have expanded their fiber footprint by 3 million locations, including both business and consumer customers.
Deutsche Telekom's managing director recently shared that by 2024, they're planning to have about 10 million homes passed and 97% 5G coverage.
We launched Corning SM-28 contour fiber, which offers an industry first combination of superior bendability, compatibility with other fibers, and low signal loss.
We also launched Edge rapid connect solutions that increase fiber density and reduce customer installation time by up to 70%.
We added almost $1 billion in sales year over year, a half a billion in sales over pre-pandemic levels, and we generated significant operating and free cash flow.
Sales increased 35% year over year to $3.5 billion, a strong run rate.
Net income was $459 million, up 111%, an earnings per share was $0.53, up 112% year over year.
Sequentially gross margin improved 200 basis points to 37.8% and operating margin improved 120 basis points to 18.3%.
On a year-over-year basis, gross margin expanded 450 basis points and operating margin expanded 710 basis points.
In total, we felt about the same 150 basis points drag on margins as in Q1.
Free cash flow was $471 million, up $186 million year over year.
Cumulative free cash flow for the first half of 2021 was $843 million.
In display technology, second-quarter sales were $939 million, up 9% sequentially and 25% versus 2020.
Net income was $248 million, up 16% sequentially and 63% year over year.
I'll focus on televisions since they represent about 70% of the glass market.
Since LCD TV has emerged as mainstream technology in 2004, LCD's television units have only three times and never two years in a row an annual glass demand has never declined.
Assess 2014 television set for units are typically range bound between 225 million and 235 million while average screen size grows about an inch and a half a year.
In 2020, global TV units increased 4% above the trend line to about 242 million.
Screen size growth was about 1.2 inches, about 20% below trend.
Unit volume for TVs, 65 inches and larger increased over 20% and smaller televisions were down by a high single digit percentage.
Let's move to optical communications, which continues its growth in with sales surpassing a billion dollars, up 21% year over year and 15% sequentially.
Net income was $148 million, up 83% year over year and 33% sequentially.
In environmental technology, second-quarter results for $407 million, up 81%year over year but down 8% sequentially.
Net income improved year over year to $81 million and also grew sequentially, partly due to improved freight and logistics costs versus Q1.
Car-related sales increased 68% year over year as vehicle production improved from pandemic lows and GPF adoption continues in Europe and China.
We remain on track to build a $500 million gasoline particular filter business ahead of our original timeframe.
In diesel, sales grew 101% year over year driven by continued customer adoption of advanced after-treatment in China and continued strength in the North American heavy duty truck market.
Following first-quarter year-over-year growth of 28%, the second quarter was up 16% year over year with sales of $483 million.
During the quarter, our premium glasses and services supported multiple new phone and I.T. launches, including 16 smartphones along with six laptops and tablets featuring Gorilla Glass.
Life sciences second-quarter sales were $312 million, up 28% year over year and 4% sequentially driven by ongoing recovery in academic and pharmaceutical research labs and continued strong demand for bio production vessels and diagnostic-related consumables.
Net income with $52 million, up 68% year over year and 8% sequentially driven by the higher sales and solid operating performance.
This year we increased our quarterly dividend by 9% and resumed share buybacks by repurchasing and retiring 4% of our outstanding common shares from Samsung Display.
For the third quarter, we expect core sales in the range of $3.5 billion to $3.7 billion and we expect earnings per share in the range of $0.54 to $0.59.

Summary:
However, GAAP earnings per share was a loss of $0.42 due to the GAAP accounting treatment required for the transaction entered into with Samsung Display.
Versus second-quarter 2020, sales grew 35% to $3.5 billion.
EPS grew 112% to $0.53 on the higher sales and expanding margins.
Sales increased 35% year over year to $3.5 billion, a strong run rate.
Net income was $459 million, up 111%, an earnings per share was $0.53, up 112% year over year.
In display technology, second-quarter sales were $939 million, up 9% sequentially and 25% versus 2020.
Let's move to optical communications, which continues its growth in with sales surpassing a billion dollars, up 21% year over year and 15% sequentially.
For the third quarter, we expect core sales in the range of $3.5 billion to $3.7 billion and we expect earnings per share in the range of $0.54 to $0.59.