Sweden-based Fagerhult announced on December 21 that it has signed an agreement to acquire iGuzzini, the Italian lighting group for EUR 385 million (US$ 439 million). According to Fagerhult, the price of EUR 385 million will be paid with 74 percent in cash and 26 percent in new Fagerhult shares. The transaction is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2019. With iGuzzini joining the Fagerhult Group will, the largest lighting company in the Nordic countries will increase its presence in Italy, Switzerland, Spain and North America. The combined compan...

Bowery Farming, an indoor autonomous farming startup from New York, has raised US$ 90 million in Series B funding from investors including GV (formerly Google Ventures). and CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi. The company began operating in February 2017 and has opened two vertical farming facilities near New York since then. Bowery Farming applies technologies including robotics, machine learning and predictive analytics to autonomously operate the growing conditions for the crops. Vegetables are grown with controlled environment with optimized LED lighting spectr...

By the end of last month, Bloomberg reported that Bain Capital, a U.S.-based private equity firm, has been eyeing a buyout of Osram. Soon after that, another private equity company, Carlyle, reportedly joined the list of potential bidders for the German lighting technology group, according to Financial Times. The report of Financial Times noted that two people directly involved in the situation have confirmed Carlyle’s interest in the buyout of Osram. But neither Carlyle nor Osram commented on the information. (Image: Osram) Osram has been through a fina...

Japan Display Inc. (JDI) has been negotiating with Chinese companies and investors to receive financial supports of JPY 50 billion (US$ 440.65 million), reported NHK. The potential investors include mobile component producer Ofilm, automotive component manufacturer Minth Group and the Silk Road Fund. With the support, the Chinese investors will hold 33 percent or more of the share of JDI, suppressing the current major shareholder INCJ, who owns 25.29 percent of the share. In addition to the investment, the Chinese investors were also reportedly offering a ...

LED manufacturers reported revenue drop for November as the demands decrease in the off-peak season. AOT, the LED company under the Foxconn Group, has posted a revenue of NT$ 332 million (US$ 10.76 million) for November with a decrease of 10.4% MoM and 39.9% YoY. LED backlighting is the major business of the company which accounts for more than 90 percent of its revenue. Therefore, the dropped demands of TV backlight due to seasonality led to the decreased monthly revenue of AOT. (Image: AOT) AOT also began the development of Mini and Micro LE...

The fourth quarter is usually the off-peak season for the LED market. Industry players including Lextar and Macroblock have reported lukewarm business performance in November and are expecting growth in 2019 with the booming Mini LED market. Lextar posted its monthly revenue of NT$ 823 million (US$ 26.67 million) for November with a decrease of 6.5% MoM and 7.8% YoY. The company has continued its product shipments including Mini LED backlights, Mini LED RGB modules, fine-pitch displays and VCSEL packages. Meanwhile, it also focuses on further tech...

DigiLens, a U.S.-based HUD device developer, announced that it has received an investment from AR software company Niantic and Diamond Edge Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (MCHC) in its Series C funding round. With the investment, DigiLens will continue its development in holographic AR displays for automobile, consumer and other applications. With its technology in holographic waveguide displays, DigiLens provides proprietary nanomaterials and core technologies for AR displays. The company aims to create...

Taiwanese LED packager Edison Opto has shifted its business focus from LED lighting to LED automotive lighting modules due to the decreasing profit of its conventional lighting business. The portfolio adjustment has come into effect with the company reporting the highest profit margin in the past five year despite its lukewarm revenue performance. (Image: Edison Opto) Edison Opto posted a revenue of NT$ 639 million (US$ 20.71 million) for 3Q18 with on quarter decrease of 14% and on year decrease of 7.4%. However, the quarterly profit margin came to the highest p...

Kulicke and Soffa (K&S) has announced its financial results of the fourth quarter and its fiscal 2018 ended September 29, 2018. The Company’s revenue for the fourth quarter was US$184.8 million and the full year revenue was US$889.1 million. Dr. Fusen Chen, Kulicke & Soffa's President and CEO, stated, “Over the past two years, our organizational redesign and development efforts have diversified our business and provided access to several new and promising growth opportunities. Throughout fiscal year 2018, these fundamental improvements resul...

SemiLEDs Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of LED chips and LED components, has posted its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal year 2018, ended August 31, 2018. (Image: SemiLEDs) Revenues for the fourth quarter and for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 were both approximately US$2.0 million. GAAP net loss attributable to SemiLEDs stockholders for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 was US$1.1 million, compared to a loss of $326 thousand in the third quarter of 2018, or a net loss of US$0.32 per diluted share, compared to...

Orion Energy Systems reported results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2019 ended September 30, 2018. The company posted a revenue of US$ 13.2 million for 2Q19, down14.3% YoY and 4% QoQ due to lower sales through the distribution channel and delays of certain projects. Gross margin declined to 19.3% in 2Q19, compared to 23.5% in 2Q18. According to Orion, the business in the U.S. is progressing significantly with its automotive, retail and public sector customers. With its capability to provide tailored LED lighting solutions, the growth momentum of Orion com...

As the peak season has passed, Taiwanese Panel producer AUO has reported a revenue drop for October. Meanwhile there are rumors saying that the Foxconn Group plans to divide and restructure its panel business. AU Optronics (AUO) posted its consolidated revenue of NT$ 26.49 billion (US$ 861.59 million) for October which dropped by 3.4% MoM and 3.4% YoY. For the third quarter of 2018, the revenue was NT$81.04 billion (US$ 2.64 billion), up by 8% QoQ. According to AUO, the amount of shipment for large size panels including TVs, monitors and notebook...

Osram has announced the financial results of fiscal 2018 and the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 and addressed that it will focus on digitalization and high-growth markets.

General Electric (GE) has begun organization restructure and unveiled the intention to sell its lighting business since a year ago. In July 2018, the company has scheduled the selling plan to be in the end of the year. Finally, GE announced on November 6th that it has signed a proposed agreement to sell its Current, powered by GE business to American Industrial Partner (AIP)

The fourth quarter is usually the low season in the LED industry. As business growth slows down, LED producer Epistar has announced plans to restructure the company to efficiently manage resources for reducing operation cost. Meanwhile, Lextar has speeded up the process of product development for new applications. Epistar has announced the merger of four of its subsidiaries including Epistar JV Holding (BVI), UEC Investment, HUGA Holding (BVI) and Bee Rich Corporation. The goal of the merge is to productively distribute the resources of the company and r...

LG and Samsung have been competing in the field of display, showcasing their novel display technology in international fairs one after another. Samsung revealed “the Wall,” the 146-inch Micro LED modular TV at the CES event in the beginning of the year and by the end of August, LG introduced its 173-inch Micro LED TV at the IFA. Aside from Micro LED, the two companies also fought against each other in the high-end TV market by releasing large sized OLED TVs. The two Korean electronics giants have both revealed their financial results fo...

Signify has reported its results for the third quarter of 2018. The sales for 3Q18 came to EUR 1.6 billion (US$ 1.82 billion), with an on-year drop of 5.3 percent. The sales of LED-based products represented 70% of total sales and grew by 0.1% compared to 3Q17. Its net income was EUR 93 million (US$ 105.85 million), which dropped by 15.1% YoY.

Taiwanese panel producer Innolux has announced the restructuring of the company’s organization. Robert Shiao, the prior president of the company, has become Vice Chairman. James Yang was promoted as President from Vice President and will oversee the business unit, operation unit and manufacturer unit of Innolux. According to Jim Hung, Chairman of Innolux, the new management team would strengthen the flexibility and competitiveness of the company.

With the orders of backlight products and fine pitch displays, Epistar has reached the highest monthly revenue of NT$ 1.93 billion (US$ 62.38 million) of the year in September with an increase of 1.36% MoM and a decrease of 22% YoY. 

Lextar has reported revenue drop in September due to its continuous product adjustments. The company registered a revenue of NT$ 98 million (US$ 3.17 million) for September with a decrease of 6.7% YoY. 

Automotive LED lighting module producer Laster Tech has reported continuous shipment of its automotive lighting modules even during the off-peak season for automakers. The company has registered a revenue of NT$ 359 million (US$ 11.64 million) for August with an increase of 17.15% YoY and 0.13% MoM. 

LED packaging company Everlight has announced revenue of NT$2.21 billion (US$ 71.69 million) for August, up by 9.26% MoM and down by 5.83% YoY. 

The market scale of LED lighting has continued to grow with the driving forces from the emerging market and the transition of traditional lighting to LED lighting. The expanding market has attracted many companies to join, leading to escalating competition and sliding profit. Many LED companies have thus decided to quit their lighting business or to reorganize their strategies. 

Taiwan-based LED auto lamp modules and components manufacturer EOI (Excellence Optoelectronics Inc) has reported high profit margin for 1H18 which was pushed by the strong demands of LED automotive lamps in the North American market.

Innolux, the Taiwanese panel maker, has announced a revenue for July of NT$ 25.2 billion (US$ 819.58 million) with an increase of 1.6% MoM and a decrease of 0.8% YoY. 

In the beginning of 3Q18, Epistar’s revenue report did not match its expectation. The company registered a revenue of NT$ 1.81 billion (US$ 58.87 million) for July, down by 0.1% MoM and 19.36% YoY.

Lextar reported its financial report for the second quarter of 2018 with a consolidated revenue of NT$ 2.98 billion (US$ 97.24 million), up by 12.6% QoQ. The net profit came to NT$ 50 million (US$ 1.63 million). For the first half of the year, the revenue was NT$ 5.63 billion (US$ 183.71 million) with a decrease of 8.8 YoY, while the net profit dropped by 75.5% to NT$ 12 million (US$ 391,572). 

LED IC driver manufacturer Macroblock registered a revenue of NT$ 245 million (US$ 7.99 million) for July, down by 9.97% MoM, which was not in line with the expectation of the peak quarter. Macroblock indicated that the trade war between the U.S. and China has impacts on the company’s orders.

Automotive LED module producer Laster Tech has registered a revenue of NT$ 358 million (US$ 11.68 million), up by 45.82% YoY, hitting record high levels. 

Canadian automotive components supplier Magna has reported its net income of the second quarter with a growth of 13% YoY to US$636 million. Despite the growth, the company has adjusted its outlook for 2018 in response to tariffs.