One more day to go before the New Years, so how did the industry fare in 2016? LEDinside organized a couple of articles reviewing some top trends in technology advancements and international mergers. A couple trends that are becoming more evident over the past year is different research institutes searching for more energy efficient and lower cost materials, while international mergers between Western technology companies and Chinese investors are under more government scrutiny. We expect protectionism measures to become increasingly common in the next few years, especially under new U.S. President Donald Trump’s government.

Before celebrating the New Year, Chinese-language newspaper UDN in Taiwan has a tradition of conducting an annual poll, requesting readers to pick out a word that best represents the year. For 2016, the Taiwanese people chose the Chinese character Ku (苦), which can be translated as a bitter taste, hardships or even a painful experience. Asked how 2016 went, most in the LED industry would probably agree it was another hard year that left a particularly bitter aftertaste.

LED products have become more popular in Denmark than ever before. People have especially been finding many LED gifts during the Christmas season. They are loving how these lights are easy to use and can illuminate a variety of different LED spots.

AIXTRON announced that it intends to voluntarily delist its American Depositary Shares (ADSs) from The NASDAQ Global Select Market (“NASDAQ”) and deregister and terminate its reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended ("Exchange Act").

Chinese TV manufacturer LeEco’s takeover of U.S. TV maker Vizio for US $2 billion is still waiting for approval from Chinese government authorities, according to a TechNews report.

NVC Lighting and CAS Smart City signed an intelligent lighting partnership agreement recently in Huizhou, reported Yicai.com.

Last Friday, LED epiwafer manufacturer Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) outlined its future roadmap at a press conference, stating it was redirecting its focus to CSP LEDs for automotive lighting, reported Money DJ.com.

Honglizhihui, formerly a Chinese LED package manufacturer known as Hongliopto, forecasted its profits could plummet as much as 40% for 2016 compared to the same period last year.

Members of the Finance and Contracts Committee (F&CC) at Jalandhar in India gathered recently to discuss a 65,000 high pressure sodium streetlight replacement project with LEDs that will cost an estimated INR 2.74 billion (US $40.39 million), reported The Tribune.

Patent suits left an indelible mark in the LED industry in 2016, Seoul Semiconductor took the lead this week warning 29 companies over potential patent infringement issues. Nichia also announced it had won two legal YAG patent suits against Everlight in Dusseldorf District Court in Germany and the local appeal court. Cree also has settled a long pending patent infringement case with Feit Electric for an undisclosed amount, and the two companies have signed a patent license agreement.

ETI forecasted losses incurred from operations would peak to RMB 100 million for the fourth quarter of 2016, stated the company in a press release.

China Development Bank (CDB) and San’an Opto group signed a strategic partnership agreement Thursday in southern province Xiamen to propel the Chinese LED company’s global sales strategy and rankings.

To meet OLED display supplies for the next generation iPhone 8, Apple tracked down equipment maker Canon Tokki located in Japanese rice fields next to the city of Mitsuke in Niigata prefecture, reported Bloomberg.

GE, the world’s leading digital industrial company, executed on its agreement to acquire a 75% stake in Concept Laser of Germany. The agreement, announced in late October, allows for GE to take full ownership over the next several years.

Philips Lighting, a global leader in lighting, announced that the Dutch alstroemeria grower Hoogenboom Alstroemeria is moving to hybrid lighting in its 1.5-hectare greenhouse with Philips GreenPower LED toplighting. By using Philips GreenPower LED, grower Dick Hoogenboom will shorten growth cycles, increase quantity and quality of yields while reducing energy consumption up to 42%.

Factory Pipe, a manufacturer of high-performance exhaust systems, is collaborating with Current, powered by GE, to make its Ukiah, California headquarters more efficient. The company is offsetting 75% of its energy use through Current’s rooftop solar offering and saving close to 60% in lighting-related energy use with an LED lighting retrofit in its manufacturing warehouse.

A recent Nikkei Asian Review report claiming Innolux would be scaling back LCD supplies to competitors because of Foxconn group policy was refuted by the LCD panel subsidiary recently.

Taiwan’s LED industry production value increased nearly 15% year-on-year during the first nine months of 2016, as more governments around the globe rolled out policies supporting environmental friendly businesses, said the Ministry of Economics Affair (MOEA) recently.

Even though Japan Display has temporarily solved its fundraising deadlock with the aid from a state-backed company in the OLED panel sector, the outlook remains uncertain and there are still challenges ahead before mass production, reported Nikkei Asian Review.

Big Chinese smartphone brands bullish revenue growth targets for 2016-2017 could cause oversupply of unsold phones, warned a Morgan Stanley analyst.

Leading Japanese LED chip manufacturer Nichia announced today it had won two separate YAG LED patent disputes against Everlight subsidiaries in the Düsseldorf Court of Appeal in Germany.

The upcoming iPhone 8 will overhaul basic form factor designs, gone will be the flat glass screen design to sport a curved plastic OLED display made by arch-rival Samsung, reported The Korean Herald.

Andreas Weisl (38), former Vice President Europe of Korean LED manufacturer Seoul Semiconductor (SSC), has taken on the position of CEO at Seoul Semiconductor Europe GmbH based Munich, Germany, with effect from Nov. 11, 2016.

Dinos Café, a popular old-fashion American diner located in Bloomingdale, Illinois replaced their outdated 250 watt HID lights on their rooftop with weather resistant, vibrant, state-of-the-art color changing 30w Serenity LED floodlights. These LED floodlights are remote-controlled with 32 different color options and are part of the Serenity LED Rainbow Series. Serenity LED, a U.S. based innovative lighting company, manufactured these LED Floodlights and used a US Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business to install the lights.

After halting trade on the Chinese bourse for four consecutive months, Kingsun Optoelectronics recently announced its Hong Kong subsidiary will be acquiring China’s leading international education enterprise NIT Group for RMB 2.9 billion (US $41.76 million)

The Baker-Polito Administration today announced US $11.4 million in grant funding opportunities to help cities and towns across Massachusetts convert traditional streetlights to LED technology through the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) Rapid LED Streetlight Conversion Program. DOER has partnered with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC), Energy New England (ENE), and four Municipal Light Plant (MLP) communities to administer the grant funding to municipalities that currently own their traditional streetlights and expedite streetlight conversions.

Towards the end of 2016, more mergers and acquisition talks have been concluded. CFIUS opposition against Go Scale Capital acquiring Lumileds for US $3.3 billion earlier in January resulted in the wipe out of US $1.3 billion in company value for the LED chip and component maker. Lumileds parent company Philips Lighting sold the independent legal entity for US $2 billion to Apollo Global Management.

LG Display is merging its businesses to specialize in OLED technology, a sector the company considers its next generation growth engine. To keep up with accelerated growth in the OLED market, the company intends to merge and restructure existing distributed business structure by product to optimize efficiency and synergy, reported Business Korea.

The Odisha Government will supply energy efficient LED tube lights and ceiling fans at subsidized rates, said state government Energy Secretary Rajesh Verma.

The relighting of Detroit – a city that just three years ago was in chronic darkness – has been completed on time and under budget.