Royal Philips Electronics has obtained full ownership of Philips Lumileds Lighting, the world leader in high-power LEDs and pioneer in LED technology for every day purposes.
Philips acquired last year the 47% stake in Lumileds owned by Agilent Technologies – see Philips takes control of LED maker Lumileds (August 2005).
The remaining 3.5% of Lumileds share capital has now been acquired from Lumileds’ employees and management. The 3.5% stake was related to an employee stock option program at Lumileds, which has now been replaced by a new incentive program.
Philips will take a one-time charge of approximately EUR 8 million in its financial results for the fourth quarter 2006.
"In the last year we have made tremendous progress in aligning Philips' and Lumileds' business and strategy to further strengthen our position in the fast growing, emerging solid-state lighting market," says Theo van Deursen, CEO of Philips Lighting.
"Philips now owns the entire new value chain, from technology expertise to in-depth customer knowledge, which provides us with a real competitive edge."
In a separate speech, van Deursen said that during the next few years Philips expects to be able to announce more technology breakthroughs in relation to energy-efficient lighting using LEDs.
"LED technology will also have a big future impact in the home," he said. "We already have decorative LED light bulbs for the home, which can replace incandescent light bulbs where only a decorative effect is required both indoor and outdoor." Such bulbs don’t just use less energy, said van Deursen; they slot into existing light fittings and also provide the consumer with a new lighting experience, using colors. "I should stress however, that the light output of these current LED light bulbs is not yet comparable to an incandescent lamp."
Philips is investing heavily in this area, not only in inorganic LEDs produced by Philips Lumileds, but also in organic LEDs. "We formed a research consortium, under our initial leadership, together with companies like BASF, and OSRAM, and we aim for a European lead in this field as well," added van Deursen.
