Philips headquarters in Amsterdam
(
Royal Philips Electronics Inc.), most commonly known as
Philips, (, ) is a
Dutch electronics company.
Philips is one of the largest
electronics companies in the world. In 2007, its sales were €26.79
billion. The company employs 123,800 people in more than 60 countries.
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).
History
The company was founded in 1891 by
Gerard Philips, a maternal cousin of
Karl Marx, in
Eindhoven,
the Netherlands. Its first products were light bulbs and other electro technical equipment. Its first factory remains as a museum devoted to
light sculpture. In the 1920s, the company started to manufacture other products, such as
vacuum tubes (also known worldwide as 'valves'), In 1927 they acquired the British electronic valve manufacturers
Mullard and in 1932 the German tube manufacturer
Valvo, both of which became subsidiaries. In 1939 they introduced their electric
razor, the
Philishave (marketed in the USA using the
Norelco brand name).
Also on March 11, 1927 Philips went on the air with a station called PCJ now known as Radio Netherlands. It was broadcast to the Dutch East Indies. The host of the first broadcast was Eddy Startz and from 1927 until he retired in 1969 he hosted a show called Happy Station. The only time the station went off air was when the Nazis invaded Holland. At the end of the war PCJ changed its name to Radio Netherlands and has continued broadcasting to this day.
The company was also instrumental in the revival of the
Stirling engine.
World War II
thumb|right|80px|Philips shieldOn , the Philips directors were informed about the
German invasion of the Netherlands to take place the next day. 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 (just on paper) to keep it out of German hands.
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, 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, for which he was awarded recognition as a "
Righteous Among the Nations" by
Yad Vashem in 1995. There is little Philips could have done to prevent the Germans from abusing their production facilities and forcing their employees to perform slave labour 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
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 1950, Philips formed
Philips Records.
Philips introduced the audio
Compact Cassette tape in 1963 and 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 to sell recorded music alongside
vinyl records. Philips introduced the first combination
portable radio and cassette recorder which is marketed as the "radiorecorder" and which 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 found itself also as the first
mass storage device for early
personal computers in the 1970s and 1980s. Philips would also reduce the cassette size for the professional needs, first with the
mini cassette and later the
microcassette which were predominant dictation machines up to the advent of fully digital dictation machines.
In 1972 Philips launched the world's first home
video cassette recorder, the N1500 with bulky video cassettes that 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 and for the first time would fit a 2 hour movie onto one video cassette. This idea was soon 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 thus 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 early developments of a
laser disk for selling movies but delayed its commercial launch for fear of cannibalizing its video recorder sales. Later Philips would join with Sony to launch the first commercial laser disk standard and players, and again in 1982 with Sony to launch
Compact Disc. This evolved to the present day DVD, which Philips launched with Sony in 1997.
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 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. 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. He also conducted his first experiments in the field of mass production of light bulbs there, together with Jan Reesse. 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).
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 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".
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 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.
Coinciding 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.).
Corporate affairs
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 to form
Universal Music Group.
Philips Intellectual Property and Standards , 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.
CEOs
Past and present
CEOs:
Acquisitions, subsidiaries and spinouts
Acquisitions
Companies acquired by Philips through the years include
Amperex,
Magnavox,
Signetics, Mullard,
VLSI,
Agilent Healthcare Solutions Group, Marconi Medical Systems,
ADAC Labs,
ATL Ultrasound, 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 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., 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, TX for their Medical Informatics Division.
In October 2007, it purchased a Moore Microprocessor Patent (MPP) Portfolio license from The TPL Group.
On Friday, 21st of 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.
Spinouts
Polymer Vision , the maker of The Readius , is a
spin out from Philips Electronics.
APRICO Solutions , is a venture within Philips Intellectual Property and Standards.
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).
Sports, sponsorships and naming rights
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.
In
Thailand Philips is a sponsor of
PEA FC.
Outside of sports Philips sponsors the
Philips Monsters of Rock festival, held in many countries all over the world.
Worldwide presence
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.
Australia
Philips in Australia has its headquarters in
Sydney,
New South Wales. The company employs over 400 people nationwide.
Regional offices are located in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
IT services are provided by Philips IT.
Current operating divisions/activities include;
- Philips Healthcare (also responsible for New Zealand operations)
- Philips Lighting (also responsible for New Zealand operations)
- Philips Consumer Lifestyle (also responsible for New Zealand operations)
- Philips Dictation Systems
Philips Australia was founded in 1927 and has been involved in many activities over the years, esp manufacturing.
Today it is essentially a sales and support office.
Brazil
Philips do Brasil was founded in 1924. 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.
China, People's Republic of
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.
Hong Kong
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.
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.
India
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.
- In 1957, the company is converted into a public limited company, renamed "Philips India Ltd".
- In 1965 on 3 April, the millionth Philips radio is manufactured in India.
- In 1970 a new consumer electronics factory is started in Pimpri near Pune. (This factory was shut down in 2006.)
- In 1982, Philips brought colour television transmission to India with the supply of four outdoor broadcast vans to DD National during the IX Asian Games.
- In 1996, the Philips Software Centre was established in Bangalore (It is now called the ).
- In 2008, Philips India entered a new product category, water purifiers designed and made in India, and exported to other countries.
As of 2008, Philips India has about 4,000 employees.
Mexico
- The Philips Mexicana SA de CV corporate office is based in Mexico City
There several manufacturing plants in Mexico, some 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.
Poland
- European financial and accounting centre: Łódź
United Kingdom
Philips UK has its in
Guildford,
Surrey. The company employs over 2500 people nationwide.
.
- Philips Applied Technology, Redhill, Surrey develops new products and sub-systems including digital TV and communication technologies.
- Philips Healthcare Informatics, Belfast develops healthcare software products.
- 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 Healthcare, Reigate, Surrey. Sales and technical support for X-ray, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, patient monitoring, magnetic resonance, computed tomography, and resuscitation products.
- Philips Research Laboratories, Cambridge (Until 2008 based in Redhill, Surrey. Originally these were the Mullard Research Laboratories.)
In the past, Philips UK also included
- Consumer product manufacturing in Croydon
- London Carriers, logistics and transport division.
- Mullard Equipment Limited (MEL) which produced products for the military
- Pye Telecommunications Ltd of Cambridge
United States
Philips' American headquarters is Philips Electronics North America Corporation, 3000 Minuteman Rd., Andover, Mass. 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 Jerseywith 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:
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, NY.
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.
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.
Major consumer electronics products
1951 - introduced the
Philishave two-headed rotary shaver, marketed in the USA under the Norelco name.
1963 - introduced the
Compact cassette.
1963 - introduced the first domestic home video tape recorder, the
405 line 1" tape reel model
EL3400.
1978 - introduced the
laserdisc player, using technology invented in the 1960s.
1979 - introduced the
Video 2000-system: a technically superior design, but a commercial failure.
1982 - launched the
Compact Disc in partnership with Sony.
1983 - participated in developing the MSX home computer standard. This computer standard was mainly popular in Japan and The Netherlands.
1991 - introduced the
CD-i, the Compact Disc Interactive system which had many video-game console-type features, but was not a sales success .
1992 - launched the ill-fated
Digital Compact Cassette format.
1995 - manufactured the
Atari Jaguar's
CD add-on for
Atari.
1999 - launched the
Super Audio CD in partnership with Sony.
2001 - 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 pads containing coffee grounds. The original Senseo pads are produced by
Douwe Egberts. The Senseo has been available in the US since 2004.
2004 - Philips HomeLabs research center created the
Mirror TV technology used in their MiraVision television line.
2006 - introduced the
Blu-ray Disc in partnership with
Sony.
2008 - introduced flatscreen with
WOW VX technology. (3D tv)
2008 - introduced the Relationship Care range of
Philips Intimate Massagers to the UK market.
The company receives a royalty on every
DVD manufactured.
2009 - introduced the
Philips Cinema 21:9 TV in a widescreen mode for HDTVs with an LCD display using the aspect ratio.
Healthcare products
Healthcare InformaticsImaging SystemsDefibrillators
| Diagnostic MonitoringPatient Monitoring- Multi-Measurement Servers
- Anesthetic Gas Monitoring
- Clinical Information Systems (OB TraceVue, CompuRecord, IntelliVue Clinical Information Portfolio(ICIP)(Formerly CareVue Chart))
ConsumerPhilips AVENT
|
See also
Spin-offs
