| Type | Naamloze vennootschap |
|---|---|
| Traded as | Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG |
| Industry | Electronics |
| Founded | 1891, Eindhoven |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Frans van Houten (CEO), Jeroen van der Veer (Chairman of the supervisory board) |
| Products | Consumer electronics, domestic appliances, lighting, medical systems, medical technology |
| Revenue | €25.42 billion (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | €2.065 billion (2010)[1] |
| Profit | €1.446 billion (2010)[1] |
| Total assets | €32.27 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Total equity | €15.09 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Employees | 114,500 (2011) |
| Website | philips.com |
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics), more commonly known as Philips, (Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG) is a multinational Dutch electronics company.
Philips is one of the largest electronics companies in the world. In 2010, its sales were €25.42 billion. The company employs 119,000 people in more than 60 countries.[1]
Philips is organized in a number of sectors: Philips Consumer Lifestyle (formerly Philips Consumer Electronics and Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care), Philips Lighting and Philips Healthcare (formerly Philips Medical Systems).
Contents |
The Philips Company was founded in 1891 by Gerard Philips and his father Frederik as a family business. Frederik Philips, being a banker in Zaltbommel, financed the purchase and setup of a modest, empty factory building in Eindhoven, where Philips started the production of carbon-filament lamps and other electro-technical products in 1892. This first factory has been adapted and is used as a Museum devoted to light sculpture[2]
In 1895, after the first difficult years and near bankruptcy, the Philipses brought in Anton, Gerard's younger brother by sixteen years. Though he had earned a degree in engineering, Anton started work as a sales representative; soon, however, he began to contribute many important business ideas. After Anton's arrival, the family business began to expand rapidly, resulting in the foundation in 1907 of the N.V. Philips’ Metaalgloeilampfabriek (the Philips Lightwire-bulb Factory Inc) in Eindhoven, followed in 1912 by the foundation of the N.V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken. (the Philips Light-bulbs Factories Inc). After Gerard and Anton Philips changed their family business by founding the Philips Incorporation, they laid the base of the later electronics multinational.
In the 1920s, the company started to manufacture other products, such as vacuum tubes. In 1939 they introduced their electric razor, the Philishave (marketed in the USA using the Norelco brand name).
Philips was also instrumental in the revival of the Stirling engine.
On 11 March 1927 Philips went on the air with shortwave radio station PCJJ (later PCJ) which was joined in 1929 by sister station PHI. PHI broadcast in Dutch to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) while PCJJ broadcast in English, Spanish and German to the rest of the world.
The international program on Sundays commenced in 1928, with host Eddie Startz hosting the Happy Station show, which became the world's longest-running shortwave program. Broadcasts from the Netherlands were interrupted by the German invasion in May 1940. The Germans commandeered the transmitters in Huizen to use for pro-Nazi broadcasts, some originating from Germany, others concerts from Dutch broadcasters under German control.
Philips Radio did not resume after Liberation. Instead' the two shortwave stations were nationalised in 1946 and renamed as Radio Netherlands Worldwide, the Dutch International Service. Some PCJ programs, such as Happy Station, continued on the new station.
On 9 May 1940, the Philips directors learned that the German invasion of the Netherlands was to take place the following day. Having prepared for this, Anton Philips and his grandson Franz Otten, as well as other Philips family members, fled 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 was moved (on paper) to the Netherlands Antilles to keep it out of American hands.
Frits Philips, the son of Anton, was the only Philips family member to stay in the Netherlands. He saved the lives of 382 Jews by convincing the Nazis that they were indispensable for the production process at Philips.[3] In 1943 he was held at the internment camp for political prisoners at Vught for several months because a strike at his factory reduced production. For his actions in saving the hundreds of Jews, he was recognized by Yad Vashem in 1995 as a "Righteous Among the Nations".[4]
After the war the company was moved back to the Netherlands, with their headquarters in Eindhoven. Many secret research facilities had been locked and successfully hidden from the invaders, which allowed the company to get up to speed again quickly after the war.
In 1949, the company began selling television sets.[6] In 1950, it formed Philips Records.
Philips introduced the audio Compact Audio Cassette tape in 1963, and it was wildly successful. Compact cassettes were initially used for dictation machines for office typing stenographers and professional journalists. As their sound quality improved, cassettes would also be used to record sound and became the second mass media alongside vinyl records used to sell recorded music.
Philips introduced the first combination portable radio and cassette recorder, which was marketed as the "radiorecorder," and is now better known as the boom box. Later, the cassette was used in telephone answering machines, including a special form of cassette where the tape was wound on an endless loop. The C-cassette was used as the first mass storage device for early personal computers in the 1970s and 1980s. Philips reduced the cassette size for the professional needs with the Mini-Cassette, although it would not be as successful as the Olympus Microcassette. This became the predominant dictation medium up to the advent of fully digital dictation machines.
In 1972 Philips launched the world's first home video cassette recorder, in England, the N1500. Its relatively bulky video cassettes could record 30 minutes or 45 minutes. Later one-hour tapes were also offered. As competition came from Sony's Betamax and the VHS group of manufacturers, Philips introduced the N1700 system which allowed double-length recording. For the first time, a 2-hour movie could fit onto one video cassette. In 1977, the company unveiled a special promotional film for this system in the UK, featuring comedian Denis Norden.[7]
The concept was quickly copied by the Japanese makers, whose tapes were significantly cheaper. Philips made one last attempt at a new standard for video recorders with the Video 2000 system, with tapes that could be used on both sides and had 8 hours of total recording time. As Philips only sold its systems on the PAL standard and in Europe, and the Japanese makers sold globally, the scale advantages of the Japanese proved insurmountable and Philips withdrew the V2000 system and joined the VHS Coalition.
Philips had developed a laser disk early on for selling movies, but delayed its commercial launch for fear of cannibalizing its video recorder sales. Later Philips joined with MCA to launch the first commercial laser disk standard and players. In 1982, Philips teamed with Sony to launch the Compact Disc; this format evolved into the DVD and later Blu-Ray, which Philips launched with Sony in 1997 and 2006 respectively.
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 company officers decided to move the headquarters from Eindhoven 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. Philips Lighting, Philips Research, Philips Semiconductors (spun off as NXP in September 2006) and Philips Design, are still based in Eindhoven. Philips Healthcare is headquartered in both Best, Netherlands (just outside Eindhoven) and Andover, Massachusetts, United States (near Boston).
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 1 October 2006.
On 2 August 2006, 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 everyone – especially those involved with Semiconductors".
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.
On 21 August 2006, 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 1 September 2006, it was announced in Berlin that the name of the new semiconductor company founded by Philips is NXP Semiconductors.
The Philips physics laboratory has scaled down. As of 2010, the company does not try to be innovative in consumer electronics through fundamental research, but continues to improve its many consumer lifestyle products.[8]
Due to net profit slumped 85 percent in Q3 2011, Philips has announced to cut 4,500 jobs to match part of an Euro800 million ($1.1 billion) cost-cutting scheme to boost profits and meet its financial target.[9]
In 1962 Philips invented the compact audio cassette medium for audio storage. Although there were other magnetic tape cartridge systems, the Compact Cassette became dominant as a result of Philips's decision to license the format free of charge.
Laserdisc was a 30 cm disc designed with MCA meant to compete with VHS and even replace it. It was not as generally popular as VHS, because of the initial investment costs of players, somewhat higher costs of movie titles, and the read-only format. But like Betamax, it enjoyed extensive success among serious video collectors. The technologies created for Laserdisc would later be used again for the Compact Disc.
Although Philips' and MCA's Laserdisc project never reached the VHS mass market level, Philips still thought the format should be able to succeed, and, in collaboration with Sony, launched the smaller CD in 1982.
The DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc), the eventual successor of the CD (Compact Disc), met a long road of setbacks. Philips wanted to continue with the CD in a new format called MultiMedia Compact Disc (MMCD), while another group (led by Toshiba) was developing a competing format, then named Super Density (SD) disc. Their representatives approached IBM for advice on the file system. IBM also learned of Philips' and Sony's initiative. IBM convinced a group of computer industry experts (among them Apple, Dell, etc.) to form a working group. The Technical Working Group (TWG) voted to boycott both formats unless they merged to prevent another format war (like the videotape format war). The result was the DVD specification, finalized in 1995. The DVD video format was first introduced in Japan in 1996, later in 1997 in the U.S. as limited test run, then across Europe and the other continents from late 1998 onwards.
Blu-ray Disc, yet again primarily developed by Philips and Sony, utilizes blue-violet coloured diodes to create an even shorter wavelength beam than CD or DVD. Because of this, the capacity is much more than that of CD or DVD, being 25 GB single-layered or 50 GB dual-layered.
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.
Origin, now part of Atos Origin, is a former division of Philips.
Its record division, PolyGram, was sold to Seagram in 1998 and was merged into Universal Music Group. Philips Records continues to operate as part of UMG, its name licenced from its former parent.
Philips Intellectual Property and Standards,[10] is the company's division dealing with licensing, trademark protection and patenting. Philips currently holds about 55,000 patent rights, 33,000 trademark registrations, and 49,000 design registrations.
Past and present CEOs:
Companies acquired by Philips through the years include Amperex, Magnavox, Signetics, Mullard, VLSI, Agilent Healthcare Solutions Group, Marconi Medical Systems, ADAC Laboratories, ATL Ultrasound, portions of Westinghouse and the consumer electronics operations of Philco and Sylvania. Philips abandoned the Sylvania trademark which is now owned by Havells Sylvania except in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the USA where it is owned by the Osram unit of Siemens. Formed in November 1999 as a equal joint venture between Philips and Agilent Technologies, the light-emitting diode manufacturer Lumileds became a subsidiary of Phillips Lighting in August 2005 and a fully owned subsidiary in December 2006.[11][12] In 2000, Philips bought Optiva Corporation, the maker of Sonicare electric toothbrushes. The company was renamed Philips Oral Healthcare and made a subsidiary of Philips DAP. In 2006 Philips bought out the company Lifeline Systems headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. In August 2007 Philips acquired the company Ximis, Inc. headquartered in El Paso, Texas for their Medical Informatics Division.[13] In October 2007, it purchased a Moore Microprocessor Patent (MPP) Portfolio license from The TPL Group.
On Friday, 21 December 2007 Philips and Respironics, Inc. announced a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Philips will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Respironics for US$66 per share, or a total purchase price of approximately €3.6 billion (US$5.1 billion) to be paid in cash upon completion.[14]
On 21 February 2008 Philips had completed its acquisition of VISICU Baltimore, Maryland through the merger of its indirect wholly owned subsidiary into VISICU. As a result of that merger, VISICU has become an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Philips. VISICU was the creator of the eICU concept of the use of Telemedicine from a centralized facility to monitor and care for ICU patients.[15]
Polymer Vision,[16] the maker of The Readius,[17] is a spin out from Philips Electronics. In May 2011, Polymer Vision designed and manufactured a 6-inch screen that displays black and white e-ink text and images at 800×600 pixels and can roll around a tube the circumference of a dime.[18]
APRICO Solutions is a venture within Philips Intellectual Property and Standards.[19]
Philips also forayed into the pharmaceuticals market in a company best known as Philips-Duphar (Dutch Pharmaceuticals). Philips-Duphar made products for crop protection, veterinary medicine and products for human use. Duphar was sold to Solvay, now Solvay Pharmaceuticals. In subsequent years divisions have been sold of, by Solvay, to other companies (crop protection was sold to UniRoyal, now Chemtura and the veterinary division was sold to Fort Dodge, a division of Wyeth). Philips also acquired Dynalite, an Australia based lighting control company in 2009, in order to provide its customer a complete lighting solution.
Traditionally Philips has a vested interest in sports, originally as a means to provide a healthy form of recreation for its employees. In 1913, in celebration of the Centenary of Dutch independence from France, Philips founded a sports club called Philips Sport Vereniging (Philips Sports Club), or PSV, as it is now known. The sports club encompasses all kinds of sports, but is currently most famous for its Premier League football team and its swimming team. Philips owns the naming rights to Philips Stadion, located in Eindhoven, which is home to Dutch football team PSV Eindhoven.
Abroad, Philips sponsors and has sponsored numerous sport clubs, sport facilities, and events. Philips recently (November 2008) extended its very successful F1 partnership with AT&T Williams to include many more product groups.
Furthermore, Philips owns the naming rights to the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia and to the Philips Championship, the premier basketball league in Australia, traditionally known as the National Basketball League. Between 1988 and 1993 Philips were also the major sponsors of The Balmain Tigers, an Australian rugby league team.
Outside of sports Philips sponsors the Philips Monsters of Rock festival, held in many countries all over the world.
Philips also used to sell major household appliances (whitegoods) under the name Philips. After selling the Major Domestic Appliances division to Whirlpool Corporation it changed via Philips Whirlpool and Whirlpool Philips to Whirlpool only. Whirlpool bought a 53% stake in Philips' major appliance operations to form Whirlpool International. Whirlpool bought Philips' remaining interest in Whirlpool International in 1991.
Philips is a member of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) consortium of broadcasting and Internet industry companies (also including SES Astra, Humax, OpenTV and ANT Software) that is promoting and establishing an open European standard (called HbbTV) for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface.
Philips Australia was founded in 1927 and has been involved in many activities over the years, especially manufacturing. Philips Australia has its headquarters in North Ryde, New South Wales. The company employs over 400 people nationwide.
Regional sales and support offices are located in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. IT infrastructure Services are provided by IBM under the APAC regional River contract and managed by Philips ITI.
Current operating sectors/activities include;
As of 2009 philips removed the majority of its AV products from Australia. It is now only a small appliance reseller. These products are sold by a distributor.
Philips do Brasil was founded in 1924 Rio de Janeiro.[20] In 1929, Philips started to sell radio receivers. In the 1930s, Philips was making its light bulbs and radio receivers in Brazil. From 1939 to 1945, World War II forced Brazilian branch of Philips to sell bicycles, refrigerators and insecticides. After the war, Philips had a great industrial expansion in Brazil,and was among first groups to establish in Manaus Free Zone. In the 1970s, Philips Records was a major player in Brazil recording industry. Nowadays, Philips do Brasil is one of the largest foreign-owned companies in Brazil.
Philips Canada was founded in 1934. It is well known in medical systems for diagnosis and therapy, lighting technologies, shavers, and consumer electronics.
The Canadian headquarters are located in Markham, Ontario.
For several years, Philips manufactured lighting products in two Canadian factories. The Windsor, Ontario, plant opened in 1971. It produced A19 lamps (including the "Royale" long life bulbs), PAR38 lamps and T19 lamps (originally a Westinghouse lamp shape). Philips closed the factory in May, 2003. The Trois-Rivières, Quebec plant was a Westinghouse facility which Philips continued to run it after buying Westinghouse's lamp division in 1983. Philips closed this factory a few years later, in the late 1980s.
In early 2008 Philips Lighting, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, opened a small engineering center to adapt the company's products to vehicles in Asia.[21]
Philips Hong Kong began operation in 1948. Philips Hong Kong houses the global headquarter of Philips' Audio Business Unit. It also house Philip's Asia Pacific regional office and headquarters for its Design Division, Domestic Appliances & Personal Care Products Division, Lighting Products Division and Medical System Products Division.[22]
Philips also has a Light Factory in Hong Kong, with 11 automatic production lines installed which is capable of producing 200 million pieces a year. The Philips Light Factory was established in 1974, now certified with ISO9001:2000 & ISO14001, its product portfolio ranges from Prefocus, Lensend to E10 miniature light bulbs.[22]
Philips France has its headquarters in Suresnes. The company employs over 3600 people nationwide.
Philips started operations in India at Kolkata (Calcutta) in 1930 under the name Philips Electrical Co. (India) Pvt Ltd, comprising a staff of 75. It was a sales outlet for Philips lamps imported from overseas.
In 1938,Philips India set up its first Indian lamp-manufacturing factory in Kolkata. After the Second World War in 1948, Philips started manufacturing radios in Kolkata. In 1959, a second radio factory is established near Pune.
Philips has been active in Israel since 1948 and in 1998 set-up a wholly owned subsidiary, Philips Electronics (Israel) Ltd. The company has 600 employees in Israel and generated sales of over $300 million in 2007.[24]
There are several manufacturing plants in Mexico. Some of them are:
Philips Lighting in:
Philips Consumer Electronics in:
Philips Domestic Appliances used to be manufactured in a large factory in Industrial Vallejo sector of Mexico City but was closed in 2003–2004.
Philips has been active in Pakistan since 1948 and has a wholly owned subsidiary, Philips Electrical industries of Pakistan Limited. [25] Philips Pakistan is mainly focused on three areas:
It has manufacturing in Karachi and two regional sales offices in Lahore and Rawalpindi.
Philips UK has its headquarters[26] in Guildford, Surrey. The company employs over 2500 people nationwide.[27]
In the past, Philips UK also included
Philips' American headquarters is Philips Electronics North America Corporation, 3000 Minuteman Rd., Andover, Massachusetts. For many years, the North American headquarters was located in New York, but with the company's footprint in healthcare ever increasing, it made sense to co-locate its headquarters office with its largest business sector (healthcare).
Philips Lighting has its corporate office in Somerset, New Jersey
with manufacturing plants in:
distribution centers in:
Philips Healthcare is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts. The North American sales organization is based in Bothell, Washington. There are also manufacturing facilities in:
One factory in Knoxville, Tennessee has closed. (Need info.)
Philips Consumer Lifestyle has its corporate office in Stamford, Connecticut. It has a manufacturing plant in Snoqualmie, Washington which makes Sonicare electric toothbrushes.
Philips Research has a laboratory in Briarcliff Manor, New York.
In 2007, Philips has entered into a definitive merger agreement with North American luminaires company Genlyte Group Incorporated, which provides the company with a leading position in the North American luminaires (also known as ˜lighting fixtures"), controls and related products for a wide variety of applications, including solid state lighting. The company also acquired Respironics, which was a significant gain for its healthcare sectore.
On 21 February 2008 Philips had completed its acquisition of VISICU Baltimore, Maryland through the merger of its indirect wholly owned subsidiary into VISICU. As a result of that merger, VISICU has become an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Philips. VISICU was the creator of the eICU concept of the use of Telemedicine from a centralized facility to monitor and care for ICU patients.
Philips has received many awards for its design, innovation and business standards. It is considered by many as one of the world's leading innovators in technology, particularly for healthcare, lighting and consumer products.
Clinical Informatics
Imaging Systems
Diagnostic Monitoring
Defibrillators
Consumer |
Patient Care and Clinical Informatics
|
|
In Greenpeace's 2011 Guide to Greener Electronics that ranks electronics manufacturers on sustainability, climate and energy and how green their products are, Philips ranks 5th place (down from 3rd place) with a score of 4.5/10. The company was the top scorer in the Energy section due to its energy advocacy work calling upon the EU to adpot a 30% reduction for greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It is also praised for its new products which are free from PVC plastic and BFRs. However, the guide criticizes Phillips' sourcing of fibres for paper, arguing it must develop a paper procurement policy which excludes suppliers involved in deforestation and illegal logging.[30] Philips have made some considerable progress since 2007 (when it was first ranked in this guide), in particular by supporting the Individual Producer Responsibility principle, which means that the company is accepting the responsibility for the toxic impacts of its products on e-waste dumps around the world.[31] For its "green products", Philips is using Philips Green Logo, which identifies products that have a significantly better environmental performance than their competitors or predecessors.[32] Also, the company is running the EcoVision4 initiative in which it committed to a number of environmentally positive improvements by 2012.[33] In 2011, Philips won a $10 million cash prize from the Department of Energy's L-Prize competition, which rewarded the company with first place for its LED replacement bulbs.[34] See alsoReferences
External links
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||