Osram has sold its lighting division

It has been announced, China has purchased the lighting division of Osram.

From Der Tag
Chinesen nehmen Osram Lampengeschäft ab

Osram-Glühbirnen haben hierzulande einen Stellenwert wie Nivea-Creme oder Maggi-Würze - irgendwie immer dagewesen, irgendwie gehören sie dazu. Wobei es natürlich auch tolle andere Cremes, Würzmischungen und Leuchtmittel gibt! Wie auch immer, Osram hat das Lampengeschäft nun nach China verkauft.

Ein Konsortium, bestehend aus dem LED-Hersteller MLS, dem strategischen Investor IDG Capital Partners und dem Finanzinvestor Yiwu State-Owned Assets Operation Center, übernehme die Tochter namens Ledvance für mehr als 400 Millionen Euro, teilt Osram mit.

Damit trennt sich Osram nicht nur von seinem größten Geschäftsfeld mit zuletzt rund zwei Milliarden Euro Umsatz und 12.500 Mitarbeitern, sondern auch vom Geschäft mit Endkunden. Der Hersteller will sich auf die Produktion von LED-Chips fokussieren.

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Moderator Note:
Please respect copyrights by attributing the source of quotes

Oh man, I can almost imagine exploding metal halide bulbs everywhere just because of corner-cutting made in the arc tubes... YIKES. Ain't going to look good. If their bulbs actually start to decline in term of quality, I'd look elsewhere. Sad that the business are outsourcing their companies (and having to watch the quality of their hardware pummel).

Osram has been manufacturing in China since 1995. They have operations in over 120 countries. Not sure "Outsourcing" is the key word here.

Would you mind translating that before posting, and giving a source?

Osram has disposed not only of its largest business segment with sales last around two billion euros and 12,500 employees, but also from the business with end customers. The manufacturer wants to focus on the production of LED chips.

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I get this to mean they will no longer sell any light bulbs, is that right?

Re: Osram has sold its lighting division to the Chinese - God help us

Original German

Chinesen nehmen Osram Lampengeschäft ab

Osram-Glühbirnen haben hierzulande einen Stellenwert wie Nivea-Creme oder Maggi-Würze - irgendwie immer dagewesen, irgendwie gehören sie dazu. Wobei es natürlich auch tolle andere Cremes, Würzmischungen und Leuchtmittel gibt! Wie auch immer, Osram hat das Lampengeschäft nun nach China verkauft.

Ein Konsortium, bestehend aus dem LED-Hersteller MLS, dem strategischen Investor IDG Capital Partners und dem Finanzinvestor Yiwu State-Owned Assets Operation Center, übernehme die Tochter namens Ledvance für mehr als 400 Millionen Euro, teilt Osram mit.

Damit trennt sich Osram nicht nur von seinem größten Geschäftsfeld mit zuletzt rund zwei Milliarden Euro Umsatz und 12.500 Mitarbeitern, sondern auch vom Geschäft mit Endkunden. Der Hersteller will sich auf die Produktion von LED-Chips fokussieren.

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Loose English translation by Alaric D
In this country, Osram bulbs have the same status as Nivea or Maggi-- seemingly ever-present; seemingly ever-belonging. Obviously, there are other moisturisers, seasonings, and lighting products. However, Osram has now sold their lamp business to China.

A consortium consisting of the LED manufacturers MLS, the strategic investor IDG Capital Partners, and the financial investor Yiwu State-Owned Assets Operation Center, will be taking over the child company "Ledvance" for more than 400 million euros, Osram announced.

Thus, Osram has disposed not only of their largest business segment (with sales last around two billion euros, and with 12,500 employees) but also from direct business with end customers. The manufacturer intends to focus on the production of LED chips.

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(Strange flavoring (see what I did there?) in that first paragraph)

This is not entirely news, however. Osram has been wanting to do this for some time starting with carving out LEDVANCE from the rest of Osram proper.

OverRiding64 said:

Would you mind translating that before posting, and giving a source?

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I gave as good a translation as my rusty German could produce. A source is Der Tag; there is probably a press release on osram.de as well but a cursory search has not yet found it.

Reuters is also reporting this.

Philips just recently announced they are "spinning off" their lighting division as well, this does not bode well at all.
Much easier to sell it as a stand alone company.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/20/b...o-spin-off-lighting-business-in-ipo.html?_r=0

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-2-8-billion-from-sale-of-lighting-unit-stake

Yikes! I'm beginning to think that I should get a new pair of Xenarc Night Breaker Unlimiteds now before the new management has its chance to foul things up.

XeRay said:

It has been announced, China has purchased the lighting division of Osram...

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The Chinese government will own a lighting business?

Most auto bulbs have been made in China for years cannot see any problem myself.

mcnair55 said:

Most auto bulbs have been made in China for years cannot see any problem myself.

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They buy up much of the worlds industries over time, you don't see a tactical (western security) problem with that ?

mcnair55 said:

Most auto bulbs have been made in China for years

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That might or might not be true on a purely numerical basis, but there are still a very large quantity of car bulbs made in Europe and Japan and South Korea, which are generally a lot better quality than the ones made in China. Consider: Osram has been making H4 bulbs at their Foshan Osram plant in China for many years, but those bulbs were only good enough for the domestic Chinese market where there's no point making a bulb any better than the rest of the low-quality Chinese cars. Osram could have made a lot of money supplying the developed world with H4 bulbs from China, but chose to continue producing them in Germany instead. Not because German quality is inherently better than Chinese quality, but because the Chinese quality is significantly inferior, even with the direct involvement of Osram.

I cannot see any problem myself.

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We don't see what we don't know what to look for or how to spot it. That doesn't mean there's no problem.

SubLGT said:

The Chinese government will own a lighting business?

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The Chinese Government owns or holds a significant stake in pretty much all businesses in China. Non-Chinese companies are not allowed to just walk in and open up shop, they have to do a joint venture with a Chinese company. The non-Chinese company is not allowed to hold any trade secrets back from the Chinese partner. In order to get the CCC (China Compulsory Certificate), a government approval mandatory for a huge range of products sold in China including cars and car parts, the non-Chinese company has to hand over all relevant intellectual property (CAD files, specifications, etc) and submit to (and pay for) a very detailed Chinese government inspection of the company's engineering and production facilities.

And what do you guess the Chinese government and the homegrown companies they protect do with all that IP and data and spy, er, inspection footage? Keep guessing until you arrive somewhere like here and here.

Please run this through your translator: http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/energ...am-verabschiedet-sich-von-der-Gluehbirne.html

Only the part of the company that takes care of "general lighting" is being sold. I don't know if automotive bulbs fall under this category, but all the speciality lamps like XBO Xenon bulbs etc. certainly don't. I wonder if high-efficiency Xenon halogen bulbs belong fall under this category.

I guess Newspaper German is rather like Newspaper English (that, and cognates abound, particularly for the first part of the first sentence):

Der Welt
Es ist das Ende einer Ära: Mehr als 100 Jahre war der Massenmarkt für Glühbirnen die Geschäftsgrundlage für die ehemalige Siemens-Tochter Osram. Nun soll dieser Bereich abgespalten werden.

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The World (Off the cuff translation by myself)
It is the end of an era: For more than 100 years, the mass market for light bulbs was the fundamental business for the former child company of Siemens, Osram. Now this area will be separated.

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The article doesn't explicitly mention automotive lighting, but I do get the sense this is about fixed lighting, especially considering Ledvance is a "general lighting" business division. So, all this panic could be about nothing...

Maybe we can get another moderator to move this to the Fixed Lighting subforum based on this information.

http://www.ledsmagazine.com/article...-legal-carve-out-of-ledvance-lamps-group.html

"LEDvance has now formalized its split from other Osram operations ... Meanwhile, the Osram-branded portion of Osram continues to position itself as a technology company. It is moving out of profit-challenged lamps to concentrate on its LED chip business, on specialty lighting such as for automobiles, and on smart lighting products and services."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-sales-meet-estimates-ahead-of-lamps-disposal

"Osram agreed to sell its lamps unit, which has been carved out from the company and renamed Ledvance, as the world's second-largest lighting company responds to a shift away from traditional light bulbs to light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. To meet the challenge, Osram aims to expand its semiconductor, automotive lighting and services businesses."

-Virgil- said:

(lots of stuff)

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+1

So, looks like the driving public is safe for now.