Philips Electronics

Koninklijke Philips N.V., commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Philips was formerly one of the largest electronics companies in the world, but is currently focused on the area of health technology, having divested its other divisions.

The company gained its royal honorary title (hence the Koninklijke) in 1998 and dropped the “Electronics” in its name in 2013, due to its refocusing from consumer electronics to healthcare technology.

Philips is organized into three main divisions: Personal Health (formerly Philips Consumer Electronics and Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care), Connected Care, and Diagnosis & Treatment (formerly Philips Medical Systems). The lighting division was spun off as a separate company, Signify N.V.

Companies acquired by Philips through the years include ADAC Laboratories, Agilent Healthcare Solutions Group, Amperex, ATL Ultrasound, EKCO, Lifeline Systems, Magnavox, Marconi Medical Systems, Philips Medical purchased Intermagnetics based out of Latham, New York, Optiva, Preethi, Pye, Respironics, Inc., Sectra Mamea AB, Signetics, VISICU, Volcano, VLSI, Ximis, portions of Westinghouse and the consumer electronics operations of Philco and Sylvania. Philips abandoned the Sylvania trademark which is now owned by Havells Sylvania except in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the US where it is owned by Osram. Formed in November 1999 as an equal joint venture between Philips and Agilent Technologies, the light-emitting diode manufacturer Lumileds became a subsidiary of Philips Lighting in August 2005 and a fully owned subsidiary in December 2006. An 80.1 percent stake in Lumileds was sold to Apollo Global Management in 2017.

In 2018, Philips reported that it had acquired US-based Blue Willow Systems, a developer of a cloud-based senior living community resident safety platform.
In 2019, Philips announced that was acquiring the Healthcare Information Systems business of Carestream Health Inc., a US-based provider of medical imaging and healthcare IT solutions for hospitals, imaging centers, and specialty medical clinics.
In 2019, Philips announced that it has expanded its patient management solutions in the US with the acquisition of Boston-based start-up company Medumo.
In 2020, Philips announced the acquisition of Intact Vascular, Inc., a U.S.-based developer of medical devices for minimally invasive peripheral vascular procedures.
In 2020, Philips and BioTelemetry, Inc., a leading U.S.-based provider of remote cardiac diagnostics and monitoring, announced that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement.
In 2021, Philips announced the acquisition of Capsule Technologies, Inc., a provider of medical device integration and data technologies for hospitals and healthcare organizations.
In 2021, Philips announced the acquisition of Cardiologs, an AI-powered cardiac diagnostic technology developer, to expand its cardiac diagnostics and monitoring portfolio.

Former operations:

Philips subsidiary Philips-Duphar manufactured pharmaceuticals for human and veterinary use and products for crop protection. Duphar was sold to Solvay in 1990. In subsequent years, Solvay sold off all divisions to other companies (crop protection to UniRoyal, now Chemtura, the veterinary division to Fort Dodge, a division of Wyeth, and the pharmaceutical division to Abbott Laboratories).
PolyGram, Philips’ music television and movies division, was sold to Seagram in 1998; merged into Universal Music Group. Philips Records continues to operate as record label of UMG, its name licensed from its former parent.
In 1980, Philips acquired Marantz, a company renowned for high-end audio and video products, based at Kanagawa, Japan. In 2002, Marantz Japan merged with Denon to form D&M Holdings and Philips sold its remaining stake in D&M Holdings in 2008.
Origin, now part of Atos Origin, is a former division of Philips.
ASM Lithography is a spin-off from a division of Philips.
Hollandse Signaalapparaten was a manufacturer of military electronics. The business was sold to Thomson-CSF in 1990 and is now Thales Nederland.
NXP Semiconductors, formerly known as Philips Semiconductors, was sold a consortium of private equity investors in 2006.
Ignis, of Comerio, in the province of Varese, Italy, produced washing machines, dishwashers and microwave ovens, was one of the leading companies in the domestic appliance market, holding a 38% share in 1960. In 1970, 50% of the company’s capital was taken over by Philips, which acquired full control in 1972. Ignis was in those years, after Zanussi, the second largest domestic appliance manufacturer, and in 1973 its factories numbered over 10,000 employees only in Italy. With the transfer of ownership to the Dutch multinational, the corporate name of the company was changed, which became “IRE SpA” (Industrie Riunite Eurodomestici). Thereafter Philips used to sell major household appliances (whitegoods) under the name Philips. After selling the Major Domestic Appliances division to Whirlpool Corporation it changed from Philips Whirlpool to Whirlpool Philips and finally to just Whirlpool. 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 Cryogenics was split off in 1990 to form the Stirling Cryogenics BV, Netherlands. This company is still active in the development and manufacturing of Stirling cryocoolers and cryogenic cooling systems.
North American Philips distributed AKG Acoustics products under the AKG of America, Philips Audio/Video, Norelco and AKG Acoustics Inc. branding until AKG set up its North American division in San Leandro, California, in 1985. (AKG’s North American division has since moved to Northridge, California.)
Polymer Vision was a Philips spin-off that manufactured a flexible e-ink display screen. The company was acquired by Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer Wistron in 2009 and it was shut down in 2012, after repeated failed attempts to find a potential buyer.