Egypt’s state-owned company Neeasae  has set up a new plant to manufacture LED bulbs, reported the country’s state news agency MENA.

Merck, a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in the healthcare, life science and performance materials sectors, has inaugurated an OLED Application Center (OAC) in Korea (Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province). Johannes Baillou, Chairman of the Board of Partners of E. Merck KG, Walter Galinat, President and CEO of the Performance Materials business sector, Udo Heider, Head of the OLED business, Michael Grund, Managing Director of Merck Korea and many distinguished guests including Rolf Mafael, German Ambassador, Yongrae Kim, Director General of Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE), and representatives from Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), Pyeongtaek City Government, Korean-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KGCCI), Samsung Display(SDC), LG Display(LGD) attended the official ceremony held on May 28, 2015. 

Veeco Instruments announced today that Xiamen Changelight (Changelight) has purchased multiple TurboDisc® EPIK™ 700 Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) systems for faster production and greater yield of high-quality LED for general lighting applications.

Legacy Electronics, a U.S. designer and manufacturer of high-density memory modules, circuit boards and solid-state drives (SSDs) has expanded their management team by selecting Mike Ridling to fill the new position director of business development. In addition, Legacy is broadening their portfolio of components and memory modules through a contract to be the authorized North American distributor of Zentel Electronics DRAM and LED products.

Seoul Semiconductor, a leader in LED technology, announced that it will increase the global automotive LED market share by strengthening its high efficient and high reliable LED product line-up for the automotive application on May 28, 2015.

ON World’s recently completed survey with 1,000+ U.S. online adult consumers found that smart lighting is the most popular home automation product area with 1 in 5 likely to purchase a smart LED light bulb within the next two years.

Noribachi, a leading U.S.-based custom LED manufacturer for high output commercial and industrial lighting solutions, announces its Bespoke Engineered and Specifically Tailored (BEST) LED lighting products are RETILAP certified through CIDET and are now available in Colombia.

Leviton today announced the acquisition of Intense Lighting, LLC, a leading solutions-based manufacturer of LED luminaires. Intense Lighting, based in Anaheim, Calif., enhances Leviton’s current product offerings with a wide variety of specification grade LED lighting solutions for the commercial, hospitality, supermarket, retail and residential markets.

Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, announces today the world’s first major install of its connected lighting system with LED-based indoor positioning for Carrefour, the leading retailer in Europe and the third-largest in the world. The newly refurbished Carrefour hypermarket in Lille, France has replaced its previous fluorescent lighting with 2.5 kilometers of energy efficient Philips LED lighting that uses light to transmit a location signal to a shopper’s smartphone, triggering an app to provide location-based services.

LG Innotek, a leading global materials and components manufacturer, today announced that the company starts its mass production of super-slim, independent-type in 37 watt class LED driver for LED lighting.

Kiyoyuki Amano, the designer of the sensual LED mini skirt Hikaru Skirt, has kicked off a crowdfunding project for the skirt on Japanese crowdfunding platform Makuake.

Osram has obtained a favorable first instance judgment in a patent infringement lawsuit against the Taiwanese consumer electronics manufacturer ASUSTek Computer Osram had claimed that certain white LED such as those incorporated in first generation ASUS Nexus 7 tablets infringe its German patent DE 196 55 185. The District Court in Düsseldorf has awarded Osram an injunction and found that ASUS has to compensate Osram’s damage caused by the patent infringement. ASUS has filed an appeal against this judgment. Osram has initiated the provisional enforcement of the judgment against the provision of a security.

LEDinside was covering one of the largest LED tradeshows in Southeast Asia, LED Expo Thailand 2015 last week, and there will be more upcoming articles on the show and market trends this week.

Researchers from Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) have developed a Visible Light Communication (VLC) system based on LED technology, reported Korea Business recently.

Acolyte LED and PROGEN have teamed up to offer full support to lighting designers, architects, and distributors in the Middle East by opening an office in Dubai’s Media City. Paul Bedard of Acolyte LED will head the new full-time Dubai office. For the past two years, Mr. Bedard has helped to build and manage Acolyte’s Asia manufacturing facility and has overseen sales for Asia and the Middle East. Paul’s new position will allow Acolyte to have full sales and customer service support throughout the Middle East.

Orion Energy Systems, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance, energy-efficient lighting platforms, today announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 fourth quarter and year ended March 31, 2015, highlighted by higher revenues driven by accelerating LED sales and gross margin expansion.

No manufacturer wants to easily give up on the lighting sector because of the bright prospects ahead. Yet, Absen a Chinese LED manufacturer that previously heavily invested in the LED lighting sector decided to put a stop to bleeding losses, and terminate investments in the LED lighting businesses.

After winning the elections last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to invest in the country’s electricity, rail and other infrastructures to improve India’s economic performance, reported Chinese media Cali-Light.com.

Cree announced that Cree’s wholly owned Power and RF subsidiary has submitted a draft registration statement on a confidential basis to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a potential initial public offering of the subsidiary’s Class A common stock.

In 2012, the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute published a study that changed the way we think about using “self-luminous devices” such as tablets, laptops and e-readers at night. The study led by Professor Mariana Figueiro, Light & Health program director at the LRC, found that light from tablets can affect evening melatonin and, therefore, may delay sleep. The research results were widely covered by the news media, with stories appearing in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Scientific American, The Economist, and other major news organizations around the world.

Servcorp, the world’s leading premium office space provider with over 150 locations in 23 countries worldwide, is to use Nualight LED lighting in all of its new and refurbished office locations it has been announced.

Philips is raising its LED lamp outsourcing ratio in LED lamps to 70% in the Indian market in the next six to eight months to meet local market demands, reported Indian media The Economic Times.

Pepco Energy Services, a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings and a leader in energy savings performance contracting, announced that it has commenced implementation of an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) with Florence County, South Carolina. Under the contract, Pepco Energy will install over $6.6 million of energy efficiency improvements at thirty Florence County facilities that are guaranteed to save more than $432,000 annually and $7.6 million over the term, while also addressing critical infrastructure needs.

This has been a rather slow week for the LED industry. LEDinside has released latest reports for LED package and bulb prices. LED package prices have slid over the past months as market intensifies, and more manufacturers are moving to more profitable industries. In the LED bulb market, Chinese market is seeing a price uptick as lower quality products exit the market.

When Chris Bajuk, founder and CEO of the urban farming company "Urban Harvest" enters the production halls of his vegetable crop business in the mornings, he sees hundreds of square meters of sprightly growing lettuce heads. What's special: Bajuk isn't standing in giant greenhouses set in a rural atmosphere, but in the center of the million-strong U.S. metropolis of Seattle.

Apple recently announced it will be launching Apple HomeKit devices next month, denying a previous Fortune report that pushed back the release date to fall, according to several tech and business media reports.

Noribachi, a leading U.S.-based custom LED manufacturer for high output commercial and industrial lighting solutions, announced 117% quarter over quarter revenue growth (Q1 2014 vs. Q1 2015). This marked the 8th consecutive quarter over quarter revenue growth for the company.

Lextar, a large LED manufacturing company under the AUO group, has sold one of its factory in Hsinchu County, Taiwan for NT $361 million (US $11.82 million) to Twoway Communications.

A recent survey commissioned by Philips shows that while New Zealand consumers now tend to opt for energy efficient light bulbs over traditional incandescent bulbs, they need more information and encouragement to make the shift from CFL light bulbs to LED for their homes. Philips’ release this month of its latest LED bulb range, with a further reduction in recommended retail prices across the range, provides consumers with another reason to move up the lighting technology curve. 

Blue light is important for the body to regulate the circadian rhythm, but too much exposure can cause permanent damage to the eyes, reported Pocono Record.