Lighting Industry

Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc. has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire all of the equity interests of spec-grade luminaire manufacturer The Luminaires Group, home to five niche lighting brands: a-light, Cyclone, Eureka, Luminaire LED and Luminis.

In Q119, TLED lamps accounted for 30.4 percent of linear lamp shipments. T8 lamps accounted for 50.9 percent of shipments while T5 and T12 lamps claimed 8.2 and 10.4 percent, respectively.

The Managing Board and Supervisory Board of OSRAM have waived the existing standstill agreement with AMS and signed a cooperation agreement. This clears the way for a voluntary public takeover offer by AMS AG. The offer, which is expected to be valid until the beginning of October, amounts to EUR 38.50 in cash per share, with a minimum acceptance level of 70%.

According to a recent story in Reuters, the University of California is suing five major retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, Target Corp, Ikea AB, and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc, over infringement among foreign suppliers for patents related to filament (“vintage” style) LED lamps. The University claims the retailers should enter license agreements and requested the Federal Trade Commission look into the retailers’ failure to require foreign suppliers to honor the patents.

The OSRAM acquisition just got a whole lot more interesting. On August 11, AMS AG, an Austrian company specializing in sensors for iPhones, submitted a fully financed proposal to OSRAM Licht AG for an all-cash takeover offer for 100% of the share capital of OSRAM at a price of €38.50 per share, 10% above the July offer made by Bain Capital and The Carlyle Group. This is an offer totaling about $4.1 billion.

In the latest salvo in the U.S.-China trade war, the Trump Administration announced a 10% tariff on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese imports not already taxed, starting September 1. This will include lamps and ballasts.

As previously reported in LightNOW, China has signaled that it may use its near monopoly on rare earths–used in a wide variety of products including fluorescent lamps and LED lighting–as a weapon in its trade war with the United States. David Shiller, President of Lighting Solution Development, argues that while this may be disruptive, there may be a bright side.

A bidding consortium composed of Bain Capital and The Carlyle Group has presented to the boards of OSRAM Licht AG a legally binding transaction offer for the public takeover of all the shares of the company.

Signify recently announced it has launched a new range of LiFi systems, branded Trulifi, which leverages existing and future professional luminaires. Instead of using radio signals (such as WiFi, 4G/5G, Bluetooth, etc.), Trulifi uses light waves to enable reliable and secure two-way wireless communications at speeds far above most conventional workplace wireless technologies.