As GE lighting is still a strong brand in North America, it is expected a number of Chinese LED and lighting firms will scramble for the sale. In this regard, LEDinside looked into the Chinese lighting industry and found out a few firms that might be interested in buying GE’s assets.

Major smartphone vendors like Samsung and Apple have been making improvements regarding unlocking devices beyond password-based methods, resulting in the rapid development of biometrics recognition in smartphones. In addition to smartphones, biometrics authentication methods will also be used in tablets and wearable devices.

San’an Optoelectronics announced, on December 5, 2017, the firm's board meeting passed the Investment Cooperation Agreement, which is going to be co-signed by the firm, People's Government of Quanzhou City in Fujian Province, and People's Government of Nan'an City in Fujian Province.

Marking a milestone for its Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) business, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC) announced it has shipped 100 Prismo A7 MOCVD tool chambers since the product's introduction last year.

China’s largest LED chip maker San’an Opto lately announced it has received a RMB 124 million subsidy from the Xiamen Torch Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone Administration Committee for its purchase of MOCVD systems.

German engineering conglomerate Siemens said on Wednesday it sold its share of more than 17% in Osram, the noted lighting giant that was originally a part of it, in an accelerated bookbuild run by Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.

Epistar's major stockholder Xiamen San’an Optoelectronics announced on September 27 that it has sold all of its 3.05% share of Epistar. San’an lately sold 33.306 million shares of Epistar in a block trade, gaining NTD 1.244 billion (USD 41.01 million) after deducting the transaction fee.

AIXTRON SE, a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced today that globally leading Chinese optoelectronics manufacturer San’an has successfully completed the qualification of AIXTRON’s novel Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) process chamber designed for the production of Deep Ultra Violet (DUV) LEDs.

The LED industry had quite a peaceful time in 1H17. Apart from a few M&As, the most-discussed technology would be Micro LED. Lots of high-tech giants worldwide have already started a series of R&D and the number of participants is getting bigger. The supply chain of Micro LED, although of limited mature technologies, is slowly shaping up. Here, LEDinside lists out major events and milestones made on the path of developing Micro LED in the first half of 2017.

Chinese LED chip maker San’an Opto kicked off 2017 with a new round of product price hikes.

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.

Chinese LED manufacturers have been very active in international acquisitions in recent years. One of the most successful representatives in the LED lighting industry this year has been Forest Lighting (MLS) and a consortium of Chinese investors acquired Osram’s general lighting business LEDVANCE. Other Chinese investors also showed interest in absorbing the company recently, with market rumors about San’an Opto’s acquisition of Osram spreading like wildfire recently.

San’an Opto clarified rumors that it was in acquisition talks with Osram on Monday.

Chinese LED chip manufacturer San’an Opto is in talks of acquiring Osram group, German magazine Wirtschaftswoche reported Thursday, without indicating information sources.The acquisition talks are more than just business transacations, but reveal Chinese government's industry policies, analyzed LEDinside.

San’an Opto announced last Thursday it has temporarily shut down its LED manufacturing sites in Xiamen, Fujian province of China for repairs, due to damages caused by Typhoon Meranti last weekend.

San’an Opto announced during first half of 2016, the company revenue was up 21.25% to reach RMB 2.78 billion (US $471.81 million), which was mainly from increased production capacity.  

GCS Holdings (GCS) announced it dropped the deal to sell itself to San’an Opto after U.S. regulatory authority blocked the transaction, reported TechNews.

A report from Korean media ET News claimed Chinese manufacturers San’an Opto and HC Semitek joined Epistar’s lead in raising LED chip prices, which Korean media and others analyzed was a sign that plummeting LED chip prices finally rebounded. However, LEDinside found the Korean media report was not an exclusive interview with senior executives from San’an Opto, nor was it a large scale price adjustment.

Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Arima Optoelectronics Corporation (AOC) has released a statement on Thursday stating it is assessing whether Chinese competitor San’an Opto’s AlGaInP LED products had infringed its wafer bonding technology patents.

In a company statement, former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) and founder of PlayNitride, Yun-Li (Charles) Lee has refuted GPI’s allegations of selling the company’s key technologies to Chinese LED manufacturer San’an Opto, reported TechNews.

Taiwanese LED epiwafer manufacturer Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) has filed a lawsuit against its former Chief Technology Officer Yun-Li Lee for stealing and selling trade secrets to Chinese competitors, and applying acquired GPI technology in his startup company PlayNitride.

Chinese LED manufacturers San’an Opto and Silan Microelectronics both announced receiving massive subsidies from the local government recently.

Rosen Law Firm, a global investor right law firm, announced recently it is investigating potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Aixtron resulting from allegations that Aixtron might have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.

San’an Opto announced Thursday its subsidiary specializing in integrated circuits (IC) has borrowed RMB 140 million (US $22.04 million) loan that will be paid in 10 year instalments at an interest rate of 1.20%.

San’an Opto announced recently its subsidiary in Fujian Province, China has received RMB 170 million (US $) subsidy from Anxi County Finance Bureau to invest in LED R&D, according to a report from Quamnet.

As of Aug. 21, 2015, 14 Chinese manufacturers have released their financial results for the first half of 2015. Some have become more profitable, while others have continued to incur heavy losses. LEDinside takes a closer look into these companies financial performance.

China’s A-shares started off with a strong rebound this week, after plunging to an all-time low last Thursday and Friday. In the short term, A shares are stabilizing on the market. Many listed LED manufacturers that suspended trade to avert impacted by the volatile stock market have gradually resumed trade. More than 350 listed Chinese companies resumed trade as of Monday, according to latest statistics.

To protect investors rights, San’an Opto suspended trade on the Chinese bourse on July 8, 2015, due to the uncertain outcome of an important company decision that potentially could have impacted its stock performance. The company explained the trade suspension was to ensure all information was transparent, open and fair.

The Chinese LED industry is very familiar with subsidies, the country’s government has offered financial support to local companies since 2009. Subsidies issued by the central government over the last six years has spurred the explosive growth witnessed in the country’s LED industry. LED enterprises all want a share in government subsidies. Listed companies in particular often covet subsidies to give their financial performance a facelift. LEDinside editor Flora Wu has ranked manufacturers that have received the most subsidies in 2015 in the following order below:

Following Chinese governments declining subsidies in 2015, industry insiders projected a slowdown in global LED production capacity growth rates, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report. The industry, though, still faces oversupply situation as the total volume of MOCVDs will reach 2,000 this year, said Epistar Chairman B.J. Lee.