LumiLEDs (Luxeon) company sold off

Agilent to Sell Semiconductor Business and Its Stake in Lumileds

CompoundSemi News Staff
August 15, 2005...Agilent of Palo Alto, California USA, announced it will sell its semiconductor business to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion.

Company president and CEO, William Sullivan said that the semiconductor business unit of agilent was half as profitable as it should have been this year.

In addition to the sale of its semiconductor business, Agilent agreed to sell its 47% stake in Lumileds Lighting Inc., a maker of high-power LEDs, for about $950 million and $50 million for debt payoff to Royal Philips Electronics NV, a dominant light bulb manufacturer.

http://www.sslighting.net/lightimes/

Philips, huh? Interesting possibilities there.

They have long been partners, HP(Agilent/LumiLEDs) and Philips, since the beginning of LumiLEDs.

Looks like someone else now owns LumiLEDs, hopefully they can get a little more focused now...

Well, at least they didn't sell Lumileds to KKR.

Intersting...Does that mean new manufacturing base for the Luxeon now to increase the profit margin?

IMO, it is good deal for Philips Lighting because the RoHS/WEEE compliant lamp is essential for his market.

950m$...WoWoWoW~ it deserves, though.

Does that mean better Leds?

RoHS/WEEE is restriction for the industrail products not to contain harzardous material in it. For the LED, therefore, leadfree solder is being critical and essential. In the leadfree process soldering (chemical process) will be accompanied by very high temperature in the oven.
That's why LumiLeds has to develope new K2 package, which is more temperature resistant ( 185 degree C, Tj )

Of course K2 is (will be) the most efficient/brightest LED, I hope.

Warren,

PS. I am not an expert above technical process....I wrote in general..forgive me my Gurus at CPF.

Warren,

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LITEmania said:
IMO, it is good deal for Philips Lighting because the RoHS/WEEE compliant lamp is essential for his market.

950m$...WoWoWoW~ it deserves, though.

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SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA (August 15, 2005) --- Lumileds Lighting is uniquely positioned to accelerate solid-state lighting technology advancements as a result of the agreement for Royal Philips Electronics to purchase Agilent Technologies' interests in the company.

"Throw away last weeks charts that show expectations for LED performance," said Mike Holt, CEO of Lumileds.
http://www.lumileds.com/newsandevents/releases/PR41.pdf


-An agreement to divest the Semiconductor Products segment to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion(1).
-A definitive agreement to sell its stake in Lumileds to Royal Philips Electronics for $950 million plus repayment of $50 million of debt from Lumileds.
-Plans to spin off its SOC and Memory Test businesses as soon as practical in 2006.

As part of its repositioning as a "pure play" measurement company, Agilent expects to reduce its Global Infrastructure costs by $450 million, and infrastructure-related employment by about 1,300 jobs. This reduction will be accomplished through a combination of employee transfers to the divestiture and spin-off, attrition, and work force reduction. The company expects this restructuring to be largely completed by the middle of FY2006, and the roughly $200 million implementation cost to be essentially offset by the proceeds of property and other asset sales as the company reduces its global footprint.
http://www.investor.agilent.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=103274&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=743017&highlight=

Philips Lighting was already the majoring shareholder in Lumileds.

Newbie,
Who is KKR? Have they been in the lighting business?

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bippidie said:
Newbie,
Who is KKR? Have they been in the lighting business?

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KKR is a venture capital company, not specifically in the lighting business.

[ QUOTE ]
bippidie said:
Newbie,
Who is KKR? Have they been in the lighting business?

[/ QUOTE ]

KKR is a large private investment firm. They specialize in taking over companies, making them profitable, then selling them again.

Their biggest takeovers, I believe, were RJR Nabisco Corp. and Beatrice Foods, Inc. They like the consumer product sector in general, and one of their acquisitions was Duracell (from Kraft Corp.) in 1988.