Acuity Brands  announced it has acquired for cash certain assets, including all proprietary technology and other intellectual property, of GeoMetri, LLC, a provider of a software and services platform for mapping, navigation and analytics.

Intense competition in the LED market will spur the LED market into a new phase, and with Nichia’s white LED patents expiring in 2017, Taiwanese LED chip maker Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) is focusing on the emerging flip chip LED and CSP LED market, said the company Chairman David Chung in a recent interview with China Post.

Colorado State University and Philips Lighting have forged a long-term collaborative partnership by signing an agreement to create a state-of-the-art LED-lighted education, research and training horticulture facility at CSU.

NEMA's Electroindustry Business Conditions Index (EBCI) for current conditions in North America fell to 41.2 in December as a larger share of panelists reported conditions deteriorated than reported they improved. The December reading represented a substantial decline from November's reading of 58.3. Meanwhile, the EBCI for future North American conditions slipped to 52.9 in December from 55.6 in November.

In a recent interview with German magazine Manager Magazin, Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser affirmed he was surprised by Osram’s R&D investment plans, and noted the company had not sold a single share it had in Osram.

 A GBP17.5 million (US $25.75 million) investment by UK Green Investment Bank and Sustainable Development Capital Limited is UK’s largest ever fully-funded LED lighting retrofit project. About 90,000 new lights to be installed across Santander’s entire UK estate of 800 branches and 14 office buildings. The project will generate energy savings of more than 50% and cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 7,000 tonnes annually.

The Bangkok Post followed with an update of findings from The Office of the Ombudsman pointing that the Thailand capital’s city hall extravagant lighting show was financed using budget allocated for next year.

Yankon Lighting announced on December 29 that the company received subsidies from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) for “Industrial upgrade to smart manufacturing and IoT+ mobile support security project—Secured chip improvement and application.”

HC Semitek announced on Dec. 28, 2015 that the board of directors discussed with local government about large investment valuing RMB $5 billion (US $770 million) in the next three to five years.

A recent report from Navigant Research examines the global market for commercial building lighting controls, including forecasts for unit shipments and revenue, segmented by equipment type, building type, construction type, technology, and region, through 2024.

Thailand capital Bangkok’s large city hall LED lighting upgrade project has attracted criticism from netizens, who have questioned city officials’ decision to spend emergency budget on 5 million LED bulbs, reported Thai Visa News.

The oversupply situation in the LED industry this year has urged large Korean LED companies to size down, according to a Money DJ report by citing Korean media ETNews.

Siemens has been indiscreet about its dissatisfaction with Osram’s R&D strategy recently. A report from German media Handelsbatt on Monday pointed out the lighting company’s largest shareholder intends to sell its 17% stake to an Asian buyer, just one week after Siemens announced it was unsupportive of Osram new business strategy.

Osram’s largest shareholder Siemens might be considering selling its 17% stake in the company, reported Reuters.Citing a report from leading German newspaper Handelsblatt, a source in the industry revealed Siemens might sell its stake in Osram to an Asian manufacturer. No further details were offered about the potential Asian candidate.

The LED lighting industry outlook for invisible LED business opportunities has been increasingly optimistic, with many international and Taiwanese companies jumping in this new blue sea market. Japanese, Korean, European and American manufacturers are all developing UV LEDs for curing, sterilization, medical, water and air purification systems. Security, retina recognition markets that require IR LED, are also presenting new business and technology opportunities for LED companies specializing in these fields.

In response to partly misleading media reports ‒ most recently in the Mittelbayrische Zeitung under the headline "Siemens knew" ‒ regarding the involvement of Siemens in the planned strategic realignment of Osram AG, Siemens comments as follows:

Indian consumers are embracing the LED replacement wave, and have swapped more than 10 million traditional and CFL bulbs with LEDs within the last month, but some states have been delaying LED streetlight upgrades ahead of the upcoming elections, reported Indian media.

Seven Canadian climate entrepreneurs will be going into 2016 with a significant financial lift from a new grant program being offered by Shell Canada in collaboration with Canadian Geographic. 

Having survived oversupply in the LED industry, and endured a harsh winter, listed LED manufacturers have been leading the way in mergers and acquisitions in 2015. Listed companies mergers grew significantly this year to become a major trend on the market. Listed companies acquisitions and trade value have grown exponentially, reflecting features of listed companies merging with smaller companies. More than 37 merger deals were negotiated as of October 2015, and have continued to grow.

Orion Energy Systems, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance, energy-efficient retrofit lighting platforms, today announced a multi-billion dollar global retailer with over 575 warehouse club operations has selected Orion LED retrofit lighting as the spec for its retail stores and corporate offices.

Veeco Instruments announced today that it has received multiple orders from a leading foundry in Asia for its Precision Surface Processing (PSP) WaferStorm™ system.  The WaferStorm platform provides wafer processing solutions for advanced packaging applications.

In the era of LED lighting, traditional lighting brands have continued to control the market’s developments, reported PIDA. Lighting giant Royal Philips (Philips) slashed 2-packed LED bulb prices to US $4.97 on April 22, 2015. A single bulb price during the promotion period that lasted till July was about $2.49 per bulb, reported Chinese-language media Money DJ.com.

To coordinate with the market situation and considering the requests from users, recently BIS has published below notifications for CRS.

Billion Electric, a leading networking and energy management solutions provider, today announces that it is in a strategic partnership with numerous LED streetlight vendors to deploy its Smart Streetlight Control Solution (LCMS) for a city-wide street light infrastructure project, providing automatic dimming and energy saving controls based on environmental illumination, motion, and regional sunrise and sunset schedules. Billion is in collaboration with the Bureau of Energy, Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs to expand its system capacity controlling up to 6,000 street lights for a freeway project.

India-based Eon Electric Limited (EEL), a manufacturer of energy-efficient LED lighting products, has secured an extended LED streetlight installation contract aimed at replacing conventional streetlights with LEDs in Jodhpur.

The Indian government aims to distribute more than 60 million LED bulbs through State-owned Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) within one year, said the country’s Power Minister Piyush Goyal recently.

Chinese LED manufacturer Changelight Chairman Dianming Deng has retired from his role as the company chairman, and successor has been chosen by the company board, according to a recent company statement.

Royal Philips announced that today’s Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (EGM) appointed Abhijit Bhattacharya as a member of the Board of Management with effect from December 18, 2015.

Chinese LED maker MLS as a potential acquisition of Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar has become the latest gossip in Taiwan’s LED industry. Following the market rumors, the LED chip maker’s shares have soared, giving the LED stock market a major boost. Market rumors claim Chinese manufacturers potential investments in Taiwanese companies have allowed local LED enterprises to reevaluate their market value. However, LEDinside interviews with local market research companies noted the chances of MLS acquiring Epistar was fairly low, and the Chinese company’s current focus was mostly directed towards bidding Osram’s lighting business.

According to a Bloomberg report, Apple’s secret facility in Taiwan is working on display technology, most likely OLED panels.