philips

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics N.V.), usually known as Philips, (Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG) is one of the largest electronics companies in the world. In 2004, its sales were € 30.3 billion (US$38.7 billion) and it employed 159,709 people in more than 60 countries. Philips is organized in a number of divisions: Philips Consumer Electronics, Philips Lighting, Philips Medical Systems and Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care.

History

The company was founded in 1891 by Gerard Philips in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Its first products were light bulbs 'and other electrotechnical equipment'. Its first factory remains as a museum. In the 1920s, the company started to manufacture other products, and in 1939 its first electric razor, the Philishave, was introduced. Philips markets its shavers in the USA using the Norelco name. Philips introduced the compact audio cassette tape, which was wildly successful, though its attempt to set a standard for video cassette recorders, the V2000, was unsuccessful in the face of competition from the Betamax and especially VHS standards.

World War II

On May 9, 1940, the Philips directors were informed about the German invasion of the Netherlands to take place on May 10. They decided to leave the country and flee to the United States, taking a large amount of the company capital with them. Operating from the US as the North American Philips Company, they managed to run the company throughout the war. At the same time, the company itself was moved to the Netherlands Antilles (on paper) to keep it out of German hands. After the war it was moved back to the Netherlands, with their headquarters in Eindhoven. Many secret research facilities were locked and successfully hidden from the invaders, which allowed the company to get up to speed again quickly after the war.

It is also believed that Philips - both before and during the war - supplied enormous amounts of electric equipment to the German occupation forces, which has led some people to think that the company collaborated with the Nazis^{citation needed]} , like many other firms in their day. However, there is no evidence to suggest that Philips itself or its management ever sympathized with the Nazis or their ideologies. The only Philips family member who did not leave the country, Frits Philips, saved the lives of 382 Jews by indicating to the Nazis that they were indispensable for the production process at Philips. In 1996, he was awarded the Yad Vashem reward by the Israeli ambassador for his actions. Clearly, there is little Philips could have done to prevent the Germans from abusing their production facilities and forcing their employees to perform slave labor during the occupation. The production facility in Eindhoven was the only Dutch industrial target that was deliberately bombed by the allied forces during the war.

Postwar era

In 1991, the company's name was changed from N.V. Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken to Philips Electronics N.V. At the same time, North American Philips was formally dissolved, and a new corporate division was formed in the U.S. with the name Philips Electronics North America Corp.

In 1997 the decision was made to move to Amsterdam, along with the corporate name change to Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. The move was completed in 2001. Initially, the company was housed in the Rembrandt tower, but in 2002 they moved again, this time to the Breitner tower. In a sense, the move to Amsterdam can be considered a return to the company's roots, because Gerard Philips lived in Amsterdam when he came up with the idea of building a light bulb factory. Philips Lighting, Philips Research, Philips Semiconductors and Philips Design, are still based in Eindhoven. Philips Medical is based in Best, a town next to Eindhoven.

Sale of Semiconductors

As a chip maker, Philips Semiconductors was among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.

In December 2005, Philips announced its intention to make the Semiconductor Division into a separate legal entity. This process of "disentanglement" was completed on 2006-10-01.

On 2006-08-02, Philips completed an agreement to sell a controlling 80.1% stake in Philips Semiconductors to a consortium of private equity investors consisting of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Silver Lake Partners and AlpInvest Partners. The sale completed a process, which began December 2005, with its decision to create a separate legal entity for Semiconductors and to pursue all strategic options. Six weeks before, ahead of its online dialogue, through a letter to 8,000 of Philips managers, it was announced that they were speeding up the transformation of Semiconductors into a stand-alone entity with majority ownership by a third party. It was stated then that "this is much more than just a transaction: it is probably the most significant milestone on a long journey of change for Philips and the beginning of a new chapter for every one – especially those involved with Semiconductors".

In its more than 115 year history, this counts as a big step that is definitely changing the profile of the company. Philips was one of few companies that successfully made the transition from the electrical world of the 19th century into the electronic age, starting its semiconductor activity in 1953 and building it into a global top 10 player in its industry. As such, Semiconductors was at the heart of many innovations in Philips over the past 50 years.

Agreeing to start a process that would ultimately lead to the decision to sell the Semiconductor Division therefore was one of the toughest decisions that the Board of Management ever had to make.

On 2006-08-21, Bain Capital and Apax Partners announced that they had signed definitive commitments to join the expanded consortium headed by KKR that is to acquire the controlling stake in the Semiconductors Division.

On 2006-09-01, it was announced in Berlin that the name of the new semiconductor company founded by Philips is NXP.

Co-inciding with the sale of the Semiconductor Division, Philips also announced that they would drop the word 'Electronics' from the company name, thus becoming simply Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Royal Philips N.V.).

Major consumer electronics products

In 1963, Philips introduced the Compact Cassette.

In 1978, Philips introduced the laserdisc player, using technology invented already in the 1960s.

In 1979, Philips introduced the Video 2000-system: a technically superior design, but a commercial failure.

In 1982, Philips launched the Compact Disc in partnership with Sony.

In 1991, Philips introduced the disastrous CD-i, the Compact Disc Interactive system which had many video-game console-type features.

In 1992, Philips launched the ill-fated Digital Compact Cassette format.

The company receives a royalty on every DVD manufactured ^[1].

Medical systems products

CEOs

Past and present CEO:

• 1891–1922: Gerard Philips
• 1922–1939: Anton Philips
• 1939–1961: Frans Otten
• 1961–1971: Frits Philips
• 1971–1977: Henk van Riemsdijk
• 1977–1981: Nico Rodenburg
• 1982–1986: Wisse Dekker
• 1986–1990: Cornelis Van der Klugt
• 1990–1996: Jan Timmer
• 1996–2001: Cor Boonstra
• 2001 to date: Gerard Kleisterlee

Other

Companies acquired by Philips through the years include Magnavox, Signetics, Mullard, VLSI, portions of Westinghouse and the consumer electronics operations of Philco and Sylvania. Philips abandoned the Sylvania trademark which is now owned by SLI (Sylvania Lighting International) except in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the USA where it's owned by the Osram unit of Siemens. Philips also owns a 96.5% share in the light-emitting diode manufacturer Lumileds.

Philips also owns the naming rights to Philips Arena in Atlanta and to the Philips Championship the premier basketball league in Australia, which is traditionally known as the National Basketball League.

In 1913, to celebrate the Dutch 100 years of independence from France, Philips founded a sports club for its employees. The club was called Philips Sport Vereniging, or PSV Eindhoven, as it is now known.

Since the Football World Cup 1978 in Argentina, Philips has been an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup[2]

In 2001, Philips successfully launched the Senseo coffeemaker, first in the Netherlands and from 2002 onwards, in other countries across Europe. It produces coffee by brewing from custom-made pods containing coffee grounds. The original Senseo pods are produced by Douwe Egberts. The Senseo has been available in the US since 2004.

In 2004, Philips abandoned the slogan "Let's make things better" in favour of a new one: "Sense and Simplicity".

ASM Lithography is a spin-off from a division of Philips.

Worldwide

Philips has many different divisions in many different countries.

Australia

Philips in Australia has its headquarters in Sydney, New South Wales. This concern employs over 400 people nationwide. Regional offices are located in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. IT services are provided by P-GIS (CAS, CIS & BTS).

Current operating divisions/activites include;

• Philips Medical Systems
• Philips Consumer Electronics
• Philips Lighting
• Philips Dictation Systems

Philips Australia was founded in 1927 and has been involved in many activities over the years , esp manufacturing. Today it is essentaily a sales and support office.

As a result of Project LION (divestment of semiconductors), Australia's ranking rises from 43rd in the Philips world in terms of turnover to 18th.

United Kingdom

Philips in the United Kingdom has its headquarters in Guildford, Surrey. The concern employs over 2500 people nationwide.

• Philips Applied Technology, Redhill, Surrey develops new products and sub-systems including digital TV and communication technologies.
• Philips Business Communications, Cambridge offers voice and data communications products, specialising in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, IP Telephony, data networking, voice processing, command and control systems and cordless and mobile telephony.
• Philips Consumer Products, Guildford provides sales and marketing for televisions, including High Definition televisions, DVD recorders, hi-fi and portable audio, CD recorders, PC peripherals, cordless telephones, home and kitchen appliances, personal care (shavers, hair dryers, body beauty and oral hygiene ).
• Philips Dictation Systems, Colchester, Essex.
• Philips Lighting: sales from Guildford and manufacture in Hamilton, Lanarkshire.
• Philips Medical Systems, Reigate, Surrey. Sales and technical support for X-ray, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, patient monitoring, magnetic resonance, computed tomography, and resuscitation products.
• Philips Research Laboratories, Redhill, Surrey. Originally these were the Mullard Research Laboratories.
• Philips Semiconductors, Hazel Grove, Stockport, Cheshire and Southampton, Hampshire, both also earlier part of Mullard. These now become part of NXP.

In the past, Philips UK also included

• Mullard Equipment Limited (MEL) which produced products for the military
• Consumer product manufacturing in Croydon
• London Carriers, logistics and transport division.

References

Funding Universe Company History: Philips Electronics North America Corp.

External links

General

• Philips on the Internet
• Philips Research
• Philips office locator
• Philips in the UK
• Royal Philips Electronics NV - Fact Sheet - Hoover's Online
• Bloomberg report on Semiconductors spinoff (Dec 2005)
• Member of the Digital Watermarking Alliance - Furthering the Adoption of Digital Watermarking

Consumer Electronics

• Philips Consumer website
• Philips CD-i, History of
• What is the CD-i?

Semiconductors

• Philips to sell majority stake in semiconductors business to private equity consortium KKR, Silver Lake and Alpinvest — Press release 2006-08-03
• NXP Semiconductors
• NXP Semiconductors - related articles

Medical Systems

• Philips medical systems - for new systems
• Used Philips medical imaging equipment and parts - top remarketer

Lighting

• Philips Lighting Company Worldwide
• Philips Lighting - North America
• Philips Lumileds Lighting Company - High power LED lighting manufacturer
• Bulbs.com - Joins forces with Philips to sell light bulbs online.