Royal Philips  announced the appointment of Andy Ho as Chief Executive Officer for Greater China per November 2, 2015, succeeding Patrick Kung, who will retire on December 31, 2015. To ensure a seamless transition, Mr. Ho will join Philips on August 3, 2015, as Executive Vice President, Royal Philips, reporting to Philips CEO Frans van Houten. Mr. Ho joins Philips from IBM Corp., where he has held a wide range of sales, technology and senior management roles across Greater China, Canada and the United States in a career spanning over 30 years. His latest roles at IBM were General Manager for Greater China North and, subsequently, General Manager Technology Partnership and Strategic Alliances for Greater China.

China’s A-shares started off with a strong rebound this week, after plunging to an all-time low last Thursday and Friday. In the short term, A shares are stabilizing on the market. Many listed LED manufacturers that suspended trade to avert impacted by the volatile stock market have gradually resumed trade. More than 350 listed Chinese companies resumed trade as of Monday, according to latest statistics.

To protect investors rights, San’an Opto suspended trade on the Chinese bourse on July 8, 2015, due to the uncertain outcome of an important company decision that potentially could have impacted its stock performance. The company explained the trade suspension was to ensure all information was transparent, open and fair.

Nationstar announced Monday it will be acquiring electronic manufacturer Guangdong Desheng company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Guangsheng, for RMB 250 million (US $40.60 million).

Upon the request of Nichia Corporation ("Nichia"), the Munich District Court granted a preliminary injunction dated 25 June 2015 in the case 21 O 10999/15. In this decision, Mr. Bernd Kammerer and Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. are, on penalty of an administrative fine of up to EUR 250,000 (US $ 275,169), prohibited from making in business transactions for purposes of competition the following statements as made by Kammerer in a press interview published on //www.elektroniknet.de/optoelektronik/ledlighting/artikel/120231/:

Plessey Semiconductors announced today that it will be leading a GBP1.3 million government funded project in conjunction with AIXTRON and Bruker Nano Surfaces Division. This project will accelerate high volume manufacturing of Plessey’s innovative LEDs created with GaN-on-Silicon technology at its Devon based manufacturing site.

Monocrystal, a global leader in synthetic sapphire growing and processing, recently produced the world’s first 300 kg KY crystal.

Energesco Solutions, a leading provider of energy and water conservation measures to the commercial and multifamily real estate industry in the Mid-Atlantic region, announces its award of exclusive contracts by utility companies Pepco and SMECO (Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative) to provide energy efficiency and water conservation improvements to multifamily properties in Pepco's and SMECO's service areas throughout the state of Maryland. Both contracts were awarded under the Commercial Multifamily Program, a newly announced energy efficiency rebate program designed to support the EmPOWER Maryland initiative.

According to LEDinside’s latest report Nichia once again has the greatest market share in China’s LED package market in 2014, while U.S. LED manufacturer Cree rankings drop to fourth place. Some of the important picks for last week include the impact from China’s volatile stock market on Chinese LED manufacturers. Several major Chinese LED manufacturers including San’an Opto have suspended trade on the Chinese bourse, due to upcoming acquisitions or repurchase company shares to stabilize bourse performance.

Leading LED small pitch display manufacturer Leyard, has seen continual growth in the industry as the company reaps benefits from transforming its LED plant into a wholly automated production line, according to an industry insider.

In its latest fiscal report for first half of 2015, Absen Opto announced its net profit has declined compared to the same period a year before.

Chinese LED manufacturer Ledman announced it is planning to acquire a new LED luminaire company as of July 8, 2015.

Flash LEDs in smartphones have evolved from being a “marketing gimmick” to “standard equipment.” LED usage in smartphones have also jumped up from single to dual flash LEDs, and it is increasingly common for flash LEDs to be found in latest smartphone models.

China’s biggest display manufacturer, BOE, has proposed establishing an OLED joint venture business with LG Display and Samsung Display, reported The Korea Times.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted Samsung Electronics a patent for flexible and bendable TV and tablet PC displays, reported Business Korea recently.

Barrie’s future gets a little greener, as the City begins converting streetlights to LED (light-emitting diodes).  All of Barrie’s streetlights (nearly 11,000) are expected to be converted to LED by October 2015.

Cree, a market leader in silicon-carbide (SiC) power and RF products announced the acquisition of APEI, a global leader in power modules and power electronics applications. Combining two highly complementary innovators, the acquisition enables Cree’s Power and RF business to extend its leadership position and help to accelerate the market for high-performance, best-in-class SiC power modules.

Global semiconductor capital equipment manufacturer OEM Group announced today that a leading maker of LED products has placed a repeat order for an AGHeatpulse® RTP system. The system will be used for annealing gallium-nitride (GaN) films deposited on 150mm sapphire substrates, one of the critical process steps needed in advanced LED fabrication. This repeat order validates again the AGHeatpulse® RTP system's demonstrated capabilities meeting the exacting thermal requirements of new LED manufacturing technologies, and supports the LED industry's move from batch processing of smaller diameter sapphire substrates to single wafer processing of 150mm sapphire substrates.

Chinese LED manufacturer Leyard has halted trade on China’s bourse as the company prepares to acquire Mingji Electronic Technology (Beijing) (Mingji) and LEDAVENUE.

The Chinese LED industry is very familiar with subsidies, the country’s government has offered financial support to local companies since 2009. Subsidies issued by the central government over the last six years has spurred the explosive growth witnessed in the country’s LED industry. LED enterprises all want a share in government subsidies. Listed companies in particular often covet subsidies to give their financial performance a facelift. LEDinside editor Flora Wu has ranked manufacturers that have received the most subsidies in 2015 in the following order below:

Osram is making smartphones even smarter: Infrared technology enables mobile devices to be unlocked for the first time by scanning the iris of the user. Iris scanning is being used in the ARROWS NX F-04G smartphone from Fujitsu Limited, which is being marketed by the Japanese telecommunications company NTT DOCOMO Inc. This smartphone, which is currently only available in Japan, is the first in the world with this extremely secure functionality for consumers. Infrared light emitting diodes (IREDs) from Osram Opto Semiconductors are used as the light source. These IREDs are the only ones capable of the high power needed for iris scanning from a compact package. 

Avnet Abacus, one of Europe’s leading interconnect, passive, electro-mechanical and power distributors and a business unit of Avnet Electronics Marketing EMEA, a business region of Avnet, has signed a pan-European distribution agreement with Taiwan-based MechaTronix, an important player in the global market for LED cooling solutions.

TrueCar, the negotiation-free car buying and selling mobile marketplace, celebrates the kickoff of the Twilight Concert Series today with the launch of TrueCar L.E.D. (Light Emotion Data), a crowd-powered intelligent sensory experience that captures real-time emotive information and creatively displays data with a dazzling, interactive LED light show to transform the traditional concert experience.

Feit Electric Company filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina against Cree. to curb infringement of Feit Electric Company's patents.  The complaint alleges that Cree's line of 4FLOW LED light bulbs infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 8,408,748 and 9,016,901.

Following China’s stock market nosedive in recent weeks, more domestic listed companies have chosen to suspend trade. More than 760 listed companies combined have suspended trade on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses as of July 7, which is roughly equivalent to 27% of the total companies listed on both bourses. More than 100 companies applied for trade suspension on July 6 alone.

Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, has opened its state-of-the-art GrowWise Center at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Research being conducted by Philips will provide tailor-made LED light growth recipes making it possible for producers to increase their yields and grow tasty and healthy food indoors, all year round.

STG Aerospace, a world leader in pioneering aircraft lighting technologies, is delighted to announce that it has opened a new U.S. manufacturing and warehousing facility in Miami. Located adjacent to the Miami International Airport runway, the new building has double the space of the company’s previous U.S.premises.

The trending smart living concept has failed to enter average households because of smart devices high price tags, according to a report by ZOL.com.

NVC Lighting recently was notified by Chongqing First Intermediate People's Court that a Chinese bank has filed a plaintiff against the company for outstanding loans left by former CEO Wu Changjiang.

Chinese LED manufacturer ETI announced Monday, eight company executives will be increasing shareholdings in their company to boost investors’ confidence.