As previously communicated, Philips continues to simultaneously prepare for an initial public offering (IPO) or a private sale of Philips Lighting. With equity markets’ sentiment improving compared to the first couple of months of the year, an IPO increasingly appears a more likely outcome, subject to further market developments and other relevant circumstances.

Augsburg, an university town in south Germany now can call itself a safer city for the so-called "smartphone zombies" as it is to officially embed LED lights to the road to display traffic lights to pedestrians that bury their head in the mobile, reoprted Sputnik Germany.

Nichia and researchers from AIST have developed the first standard LED that covers the full visible light.  

Soraa, the world leader in GaN on GaN™ LED technology, today announced that it has appointed marketing veteran Todd Antes to the role of Senior Vice President of Marketing. Todd will report directly to CEO Jeff Parker and work closely with the sales and product development teams.

Goa, a state located in the South western region of India is to become the first state 100% lit with LEDs. The authority, the Electricity Department, has rolled out the distribution project of 1.5 million LED bulbs to approximately 489, 000 local consumers. Meanwhile, LED streetlight replacement project hosted by EESL will switch 166,000 conventional streetlights to LEDs, reported Herald.

To accelerate digital outcomes and use cases for commercial, industrial and municipal users, Current, powered by GE (NYSE: GE), is adding 15 partners and microservices to its open Intelligent Environments ecosystem. The growth in the company’s app catalog and digital capabilities comes as Current deploys intelligent LED infrastructure in three cities –Tianjin, China; Schenectady, New York; and Cleveland – and on the heels of the company’s acquisition of Daintree Networks, an enterprise IoT provider of building controls solutions for small and medium commercial facilities.

“The second quarter was outstanding. We have achieved the best result in more than twenty quarters. And for the first time in ten quarters, revenue showed a noticeable increase nominally as well as on a comparable basis. This shows that our innovation and growth strategy is taking us in the right direction. Osram will successfully continue along this path. The foundation couldn’t be stronger,” said Olaf Berlien, Chief Executive Officer of OSRAM Licht AG.

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, today announced revenue of $367 million for its third quarter of fiscal 2016, ended March 27, 2016. This compares to revenue of $410 million reported for the third quarter of fiscal 2015, and $436 million reported for the second quarter of fiscal 2016. GAAP net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2016 was $152 thousand, or $0.00 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $476 thousand, or $0.00 per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2015. On a non-GAAP basis, net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2016 was $17 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2015 of $25 million, or $0.22 per diluted share.

All light sources work by absorbing energy – for example, from an electric current – and emit energy as light. But the energy can also be lost as heat and it is therefore important that the light sources emit the light as quickly as possible, before the energy is lost as heat. Superfast light sources can be used, for example, in laser lights, LED lights and in single-photon light sources for quantum technology. New research results from the Niels Bohr Institute show that light sources can be made much faster by using a principle that was predicted theoretically in 1954. The results are published in the scientific journal, Physical Review Letters.

The U.S. Department of Energy has released a report on the first GATEWAY demonstration involving OLED lighting. Aurora Lighting Design, Inc., in Grayslake, IL, installed Acuity Brands' TriliaTM OLED lighting system in September 2014. The new report recounts the experiences of this pioneering project and provides valuable feedback to OLED and component manufacturers as well as luminaire manufacturers.

Zumtobel Group, an international lighting group and a leading player in the field of innovative lighting solutions and components, and Bosch Software Innovations, the software and systems house of the Bosch Group, will cooperate for more energy efficient and intelligent commercial buildings. In a development partnership project, the companies will initially focus on remote monitoring and space management in the area of smart lighting solutions for connected buildings.

The U.S. Department of Energy's GATEWAY program has released the third report in a series documenting the performance of LED luminaires in the Yuma (Arizona) Sector Border Patrol Area, on the U.S.-Mexico border, which is a high-temperature, high-solar-radiation environment. The first report compared six LED luminaires installed in February 2014 to the incumbent high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting system, and the second discussed the performance of the LED system after 2,500 and 5,000 hours of operation, including unanticipated illuminance changes.

Frans van Houten, CEO: “Philips’ first-quarter 2016 results reflect solid comparable sales growth across our HealthTech businesses and our LED Lighting business, bolstered by the successful launch of several new products. We also delivered continued operational improvements throughout the company, driven by higher volume and improved product mix. Our overall performance strengthened, supported by the ongoing benefits of our multi-year Accelerate! transformation program, despite challenging macro-economic conditions in several markets.

Korea looks to increase subsidies it has been offering to OLED technology -related business projects to remain ahead of Chinese enterprises Reported Korea Times.

GE released first-quarter results last week, with industrial operating plus verticals earnings reaching $0.21 per share, up 5 percent compared to last year. The company said it remained on track to earn between $1.45 and $1.55 per share and return $26 billion to shareholders in 2016.

Biological implants that communicate with the brain to control paralyzed limbs or provide vision to the blind are one step closer to reality thanks to research by Brian Collins, an assistant professor of physics at Washington State University.

Today Current, powered by GE (NYSE: GE), announced the acquisition of Daintree Networks, an Industrial Internet provider of building controls solutions for commercial facilities. This acquisition will enable Current to expand its building automation platform and its energy-as-a-service offering to small- and medium-size facilities through the deployment of Daintree’s open, standards-based wireless control systems.

LEDinside has released two important research reports this week, in case you missed our research director Roger Chu’s talk at Taiwan International Lighting Show 2016 (TILS 2016) last week, you can find the complete summary of his talk from the contracting Chinese LED chip market piece. In addition, the company has unveiled the top 10 LED package manufacturer rankings in 2015. Nichia has defended the top ranking position, and Everlight edged up one spot. Taiwanese LED package manufacturer Lite-On has also squeezed into the top 10 rankings for the first time, for more details please see below.

Authorities of Vietnam capital Hanoi plans to roll out LED streetlight upgrade across the city, and has recently called on municipal agencies to scale up installation of LED lights in public lighting system in the locality to save energy, reported Vietnam Plus.

Korean researchers from Department of Bio and Brain Engineering and KAIST Institute for Optical Science and Technology have been able to boost OLED efficiency significantly by imitating nanostructures found in fireflies, according to a latest paper published in Nano Letters.

Greg McNevin sheds light in this Greenpeace blog entry how LEDs are illuminating invisible radiation levels in Chernobyl and Fukushima. 

Today, the U.S. Senate passed the Energy Policy Modernization Act by a vote of 85-12. This vote comes four months after a December 3, 2015, vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on its comprehensive energy legislation, the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act.

On April 18, 2016, United States District Court for the Northern District of California entered judgment in accordance with the jury’s verdict in Enplas Display Device Corporation v. Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (N.D. Cal., Case No. 3:13-cv-05038-NC) that EDD’s sale of light diffusion lenses #9854D, #9854E and #9879 in Japan and Taiwan induced unnamed parties to infringe claims 1, 6, 33, 34 and 35 of United States Patent No. 6,473,554 (USP ‘554) and its sale of those lenses and lenses #4922 and #9853A in Japan and Taiwan induced unnamed parties to infringe claim 20 of United States Patent No. 6,007,209 (USP ‘209) (under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b)). 

Lighting leader OSRAM SYLVANIA is announcing an exclusive partnership in North America with Senmatic A/S in Denmark to bring total greenhouse system solutions to the horticulture market that enhance operational performance and offer optimal lighting. OSRAM SYLVANIA will work directly with Senmatic A/S in the design, development and distribution of high-quality horticulture LED fixtures sold under the OSRAM brand.

Hubbell Control Solutions announces the appointment of three new US Regional Sales Managers. Greg Ortt takes over the Southeast states, while Joe Osterwyk handles the North Central states and Mark Westgate takes the Western states. Hubbell Control Solutions leverages a history of innovation to create future-proof lighting controls.

GSR Capital announced the formation of a US$ 1 billion cornerstone fund, "GSR Go Global Fund", with Limited Partners from Chinese leading high-tech companies, Taiwan industrial group, and world renowned entrepreneurs. The aim is to invest and build a world-class lighting industry through global acquisitions of leading LED lighting assets. The fund has already been oversubscribed and agreements have been signed by anchor Limited Partners. Industry experts Frank Fan and Jianghua Su will join the core general partner team.

At its meeting today, the supervisory board of OSRAM Licht AG decided key changes in the composition of the managing board. In line with the company’s stronger technology focus, the supervisory board appointed Stefan Kampmann, 52, as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) with effect from July 1, 2016. “We are happy to gain an experienced top manager and technology expert for Osram’s managing board,” said Peter Bauer, chairman of the supervisory board of OSRAM Licht AG. “His experience will give additional momentum to our innovation and growth initiative.” The supervisory board has also decided, for reasons of differing views regarding the strategic direction of the company and in best mutual agreement with Klaus Patzak, to launch a structured process to find a successor for the position of Chief Financial Officer.

Opposition party Projet Montréal in Canada is asking the city to halt its CA$ 110 million project to replace 110,000 streetlights with LEDs lights over health risk and light pollution concerns, reported Montreal Gazette.

Due to an ongoing positive business development in the second quarter the managing board of OSRAM Licht AG raises the revenue and profit outlook for fiscal year 2016.

QD Vision, a technology and market leader in the rapidly-growing quantum dot display market, has dismissed Nanosys’ recent legal action as an attempt to slow down the Company’s legitimate progress with an improper lawsuit.