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.

Amerlux recently supplied its Avista LED light engines as part of a major retrofit project in the downtown Los Angeles  area in California, U.S. Since the late 1920s, GE lamps were used to provide light for the streets of downtown LA during its modern revitalization. The Bureau of Street Lighting reported that more than half of its streetlights have already been retrofitted to LED, including 600 fixtures with Amerlux Avista light engines. This retrofit project saves the taxpayers of Los Angeles almost 80% in energy costs and provides better color rendering for enhanced visibility, safety and security throughout the community.

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.

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.

To strategically strengthen the Fagerhult Group’s position in the professional lighting market as well as adding leading complementary product ranges, Fagerhult has acquired 100% of the shares of LED Linear GmbH based in Neukirchen-Vluyn, Germany. The acquisition is expected to have a positive effect on the earnings per share during 2016 and forward.

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.

The latest potential suppliers of Apple’s iPhone OLED screens have changed, reported Korea Herald.

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.

Georgia Power is working with the Athens-Clarke County Transportation and Public Works Department to convert approximately 4,300 roadway lights in Athens-Clarke County from high-pressure sodium (HPS) to light-emitting diode (LED) technology. The project began the week of May 9 and is expected to take 6-8 weeks to complete. It involves no capital cost to Athens-Clarke County.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Sensity Systems Inc., provider of a leading Internet of Things (IoT) platform for Smart Cities, today announced an agreement under which the two organizations will form a new joint venture in China to focus on the development of smart city solutions for China and sales worldwide. The resultant IoT Platform for Chinese Smart Cities will be application compatible with the current Sensity IoT Smart City Platform, thereby providing application developers access to a global market for cities. Outside of China, the joint venture products will be sold under the Sensity platform program.

Cree has been very active in courts lately, settling a two year-long patent dispute with Knightbright, while filing a patent infringement counterclaim against Feit Electric. According to LEDinside analysts, the company is focusing its attention on collecting revenue from licensing patent royalties.

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...

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.

Zumtobel’s Brand PR manager Andreas Reimann sheds light on the lights used to brighten up Issey Miyake shop in Antwerp, Belgium in this company blog entry.

The Fisheries Department of Goa, a coast on the western coastal area of India, has issued an official order this Tuesday that bans the use of LED lights for fishing in the region, reported Herald.

Elemental LED, a leading U.S. based engineering and technology company that manufactures LED lighting solutions announced today a partnership with CW Lighting that extends its Diode LED product brand into the surrounding region of Houston, TX. Elemental LED and its wholesale and manufacturing division, Diode LED, provides a wide variety of superior quality linear, task, and accent LED lighting solutions for both residential and commercial applications.

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.

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.

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.

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).

The market for automotive LED components has grown rapidly in recent years. In the interior automotive lighting application market, the penetration of LED products has reached 70% to 80%. The number of vehicles using LED headlamps has also increased considerably.  Among Taiwan-based LED package suppliers, EVERLIGHT has been the most active in the automotive LED market. As one of the leading LED manufacturers worldwide, EVERLIGHT has overcome technology barriers to achieve mass production capability to provide a wide range of automotive LED products. In a recent interview with LEDinside, Torrent Chin, Associate Vice President, Product R&D Marketing, EVERLIGHT, discussed in detail the company’s developments in the automotive LED market and trends observed.

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.

The result of financial probe of the extravagant lighting show held by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) was revealed, reported Bangkok Post.

A senior Samsung Electronic TV business official reaffirmed plans that the company would not be making OLED TVs in the near future, and will be focusing on quantum dot (QD) TVs next year, according to a Korea Herald report.

 Revenues of $78 million, down 21% compared with the same period last year GAAP net loss per share of $0.40 and Non-GAAP net loss per share of $0.15 Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of negative $2.1 million

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) announced that ANSI Accredited Standards Committee C78 reaffirmed ANSI C78.42 High-Pressure Sodium Lamps. This standard sets forth the physical and electrical requirements for HPS lamps, to ensure performance and interchangeability. The data given also provides the basis for the electrical requirements for ballasts and ignitors, as well as the lamp-related requirements for luminaires.  

Royal Philips announced on Tuesday its lighting business’s “historical” Initial Public Offering (IPO), which will result in the listing of the lighting business on the Dutch bourse , and aims to sell at least 25% of its shares in the lighting company. The announcement ended contending Chinese and foreign investors takeover bid of the lighting business.

Demand of LED has resumed in the second quarter. Leading Taiwanese LED chip maker Epistar reached full production capacity in AlGaInP LEDs. Meanwhile, Unity Opto is expected to see two-digit growth in the second quarter as its order visibility rose to two months.

As previously communicated, Philips continues to simultaneously prepare for an initial public offering (IPO) or a private sale of Philips Lighting. With equity markets’ sentiment improving compared to the first couple of months of the year, an IPO increasingly appears a more likely outcome, subject to further market developments and other relevant circumstances.