Monday, February 18, 2008

Philips adds Fall River firm Lightolier to family

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Less than a year after Royal Philips Electronics NV spent $791 million for Burlington's Color Kinetics Inc. and established Massachusetts as the firm's epicenter of light-emitting diode (LED) research, the Dutch electronics giant has added another local lighting company -- Fall River's Lightolier Inc. -- to its portfolio.

The annexation of Lightolier comes through Philips' recent $2 billion acquisition of Kentucky-based lighting giant Genlyte Group Inc., which was formed in 1981 through a merger between the 100-year-old Lightolier and Bairnco Corp. The deal gives Philips almost 1,200 new employees in Massachusetts between Lightolier's Fall River headquarters and its Wilmington manufacturing facility.

With another large lighting player, Osram Sylvania, boasting 800 employees in Danvers, and LiteControl Inc. in Hanson employing more than 200, New England is home to some of the lighting industry's largest players.

Meanwhile, companies in the region's LED community, including Taunton semiconductor maker Kopin Corp., Billerica's Luminus Devices Inc. and Boston's LightSpace Corp. are also gaining ground on the LED semiconductor-equipment side. The combination is making New England a hotbed of LED innovation.

"Because LEDs are semiconductor devices, it's very easy to marry them with other semiconductor devices, such as control systems," said Kevin Dowling, vice president of innovation for Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions.

LEDs have been penetrating consumer electronics for many years, first as indicator lights and more recently as the driving systems behind flat-panel displays. But their lower power needs have made them attractive in lighting applications, and that is a trend that has lighting companies such as Philips interested.

"I think you are going to see more and more applications in the architectural and building-design space," said Brian Batease, COO of LightSpace, which makes interactive LED devices such as dance floors and wall coverings.

The LED lighting market is growing quickly. According to a report from California market research firm Strategies Unlimited, the LED lighting market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 37 percent over the next three years, reaching $1 billion by 2011.

Philips is hoping its solid-state lighting group plays a role in that growth. While the company's overall lighting headquarters will remain in New Jersey, its Massachusetts sites will continue to be the company's nerve center for new product development, according to David Wolfe, spokesman for Philips Electronics North America.