Peter Scott, CEO of Fern-Howard Lighting, was welcomed as Lighting Industry Association (LIA) President by departing President, Alasdair McRury, Managing Director of Holophane Europe during the LIA’s Annual Lunch held on May10, 2016.

Spartanburg City Council on Monday night approved design concepts for a US $1 million public art project that will light up neighborhoods later this year.  The funding is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. In 2015, the City of Spartanburg was selected as one of four cities nationwide to take part in Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge, a new program to support temporary public art projects that celebrate creativity, enhance urban identity, encourage public-private partnerships, and drive economic development.

Japanese manufacturer Dai Nippon Printing will triple the output of evaporation masks, a core component in OLED panel production, to take advantage of estimated growth demands from smartphone panel applications and others, reported Nikkei.

Authorities of City of Waterloo in Canada will upgrade its current LED streetlights to smart LED streetlights adding features of analyzing traffic conditions, detecting snowfall and connecting to gas and water utility meters, reported Waterloo Chronicle.

The City of West Jordan in Utah, U.S., is replacing approximately 5,000 traditional streetlights with LED (light emitting diode) lights, which provide improved illumination at a reduced operating cost – and shrink the city’s carbon footprint. 

Digital Lumens, the market leader in intelligent lighting systems, announced that it has partnered with Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation. The partnership enables Schneider Electric customers to leverage the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) across a variety of building environments via Digital Lumens’ sensor-based connected lighting and next-generation analytics suite.

RayVio, an advanced UVC LED vendor, announced that it has closed new funding rounds of in total $26 million led by IPV Capital and Tsing Capital. RayVio will use the new funding to scale production to meet global consumer demand for protection against germs in water and environments. RayVio’s powerful Ultraviolet (UV) LED technology enables compelling new health and hygiene products, such as point-of-use water disinfection, and creates new markets and revenue streams for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners around the world.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy have awarded three Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants targeting advances in solid-state lighting (SSL) technology. These Phase I grants will explore the technical merit and commercial potential of different innovative concepts or technologies that are expected to contribute to the achievement of the price and performance goals described in DOE’s SSL R&D Plan.

Philips has decided on the price for its initial public offering for its lighting unit recently, and estimates the spinoff could raise between EUR 694 million and EUR 844 million (US $785 million to US$ 954 million), reported Wall Street Journal.

DOE recently announced two lab funding opportunities, including the DOE’s Technologist in Residence program and The Manufacturing Innovation through Energy and Commerce pilot project.

StrongLED Lighting Systems, a company registered in Cayman Islands, but with operations based in Taiwan and China is rumored to have acquired Osram’s outsurce orders, reported Taiwanese media Commercial Times.

An electronic manufacturer in China recently sued Chinese LED luminaire manufacturer Opple Lighting for trademark infringement, according to a report from Fawan, a Chinese media specializing in legal news.

The board of Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar decided to invite strategic partners through Global Depository Receipts (GDR) or private equity (PE). Epistar locates at the upstream in the industry supply chain and the partnership with application clients secures the company’s oversea exit, said Epistar Spokesman RiderChang. In other words, the company intends to partner with the clients of their client through stake investment. The company’s shareholder’s meeting is to be launched on June 17, 2016. The stake released by two...

Veeco Instruments announced that SemiConductor Devices (SCD), a leading worldwide supplier of high-end infrared (IR) detectors and laser diodes, has purchased a Veeco GEN200® Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) System to meet the expanding demand for the production of IR detectors.  

Despite delivering overall positive financial performance, Taiwanese electronic group LiteOn’s LED lighting business revenue fell slightly during first quarter of 2016.

Taiwanese LED manufacturer Tailon announced it will undergo capital reduction, as part of its effort to halt financial bleeding, restructure finances, and improve its financial operations.

Lextar consolidated revenue during first quarter of 2016 slid 3.2% YoY to NT$ 3.39 billion (US $ 104.19 million), due to price pressures on the market.

Cree, a leader in LED lighting, has filed counterclaims in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina against Feit Electric Company, Inc. to stop infringement of Cree’s patented technologies. The suit alleges infringement of two patents related to LED bulbs.

The biggest LED street light replacement project in NSW, Light Years Ahead, has come to an end with the last light installed in March.

Over the last two weeks, two Taiwanese LED manufacturers Harvatek and Knightbright decided to settle patent disputes with Cree, ending a nearly two year lawsuit. Both Taiwanese vendors agreed to sign patent royalties for an undisclosed sum. Few details have been released about the conditions of the settlements. It is becoming clearly evident that Cree’s strategy is centered on cashing in from its LED patent portfolio, said a LEDinside analyst, who chose to remain anonymous.

Cree, a leader in LED lighting, announced today that it has reached a confidential settlement in its patent infringement lawsuit with Kingbright, Inc. Kingbright and Cree have agreed to a royalty bearing, worldwide license to the Cree patents-in-suit, thereby ending the lawsuit between the parties.

NEMA's Electroindustry Business Conditions Index (EBCI) continued its recent volatile behavior, dropping to a neutral 50 points in April after surging to 64.7 in March from 44.4 in February. Nineteen percent of panelists reported conditions improved in April, down from 41% in March. Another 19% reported the business environment worsened in April, up from 12% in March. The vast majority, though, claimed conditions were unchanged in April, up from the 47% who held this view a month ago.

The Sohar Port and Freezone located in Middle East nation Oman, announced that it will be installing LED streetlight systems within premises of the port and freezone, reported Times of Oman.

Chico, a city in California, U.S. will be replacing its streetlights with more efficient LED lights in the next four to six weeks, reported The Orion.

It has been confirmed that Philips Lighting will be issuing an IPO instead of being put up for sale, Philips will gradually sell more than 25% of its stake in the lighting business. Additionally, the company’s IPO announcement will disappoint several investors, such as Go Scale Capital, Melrose, and Apollo to name a few that had previously been interested in submitting bidding proposals. The company’s lighting arm in Thailand has also decided to shut down its fluorescent bulb factory as market penetration of LEDs escalate in the local market to more than 34%.

India’s national LED program Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA), will be implemented nationwide by 2019, said the country’s Minister for Power and Coal, Piyush Goyal recently.

MLS released its 1Q16 earnings last week, reporting the company’s revenue of 9.15% year on year (YoY) growth at RMB 819 million (US $125.8 million).

Cree announces that Darren Jackson, most recently the Chief Executive Officer of Advance Auto Parts (AAP), a position he held from January 2008 to January 2016, has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective May 3, 2016.

Today Lumileds and Arrow Electronics announced a strategic agreement for the global distribution of Lumileds comprehensive portfolio of application optimized LEDs including high power, mid power, low power, CoB, color and UV LEDs as well as the infinitely configurable Matrix Platform. The agreement aligns with both companies’ dedication to providing customers with responsive, accelerated service and reliable, high performance solutions.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) latest sustainability campaign is offering discounts of up to 25% to selected brand LED bulbs to urge local residents to switch to more energy efficient and environmental friendly lights, reported Gulf News.