Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (lit. 'Royal Philips'), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is still in Eindhoven. 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.
For other uses, see Philips (disambiguation).Formerly
- Firma Philips & Co (1891–1912)
- N.V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken (1912–1994)
- Philips Electronics N.V. (1994–1998)
- Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (1998–2013)
- Euronext Amsterdam: PHIA
- NYSE: PHG
- AEX component
15 May 1891
Eindhoven, Netherlands
Gerard and Anton Philips
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Worldwide
- Feike Sijbesma (Chairman)
- Roy Jakobs (CEO)
- Abhijit Bhattacharya (CFO)
- Medical equipment
- Home appliances
- Intellectual property management and licensing (for divested businesses of Philips, such as audiovisual equipment and lighting)
€18.17 billion (2023)
€−115 million (2023)
€−463 million (2023)
€29.41 billion (2023)
€12.06 billion (2023)
69,656 (2023)
The company was founded in 1891 by Gerard Philips and his father Frederik, with their first products being light bulbs. It currently employs around 80,000 people across 100 countries.[2] The company gained its royal honorary title (hence the Koninklijke) in 1998 and dropped the "Electronics" in its name in 2013,[3] 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).[4] The lighting division was spun off as a separate company, Signify N.V.
The company started making electric shavers in 1939 under the Philishave and Norelco brands, and post-war it developed the Compact Cassette, an audiotape format, and co-developed the compact disc format with Sony, as well as numerous other technologies. As of 2012, Philips was the largest manufacturer of lighting in the world as measured by applicable revenues.
Philips has a primary listing on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange and is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.[5] It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Acquisitions include that of Signetics and Magnavox. It also founded a multidisciplinary sports club called PSV Eindhoven in 1913.
![1968–2008[152]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Philips_old_logo.svg/91px-Philips_old_logo.svg.png){kind=logo}
The famous Philips logo with the stars and waves was designed by Dutch architect Louis Kalff (1897–1976), who stated that the emblem had been created as a coincidence as he did not know how a radio system worked.[151]
Environmental record[edit]
Circular economy[edit]
Philips and its CEO, Frans van Houten, hold several global leadership positions in advancing the circular economy, including as a founding member and co-chair of the board of directors for the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE),[159] applying circular approaches in its capital equipment business,[160] and as a global partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.[161]
Planned obsolescence[edit]
Philips was a member of the 1925 Phoebus cartel along with Osram, Tungsram, Associated Electrical Industries, ELIN, Compagnie des Lampes, International General Electric, and the GE Overseas Group,[162] holding shares in the Swiss corporation proportional to their lamp sales. The cartel lowered operational costs and worked to standardize the life expectancy of light bulbs at 1,000 hours[163] (down from 2,500 hours),[163] and raised prices without fear of competition. The cartel tested their bulbs and fined manufacturers for bulbs that lasted more than 1,000 hours.
Green initiatives[edit]
Philips also runs the EcoVision initiative, which commits to a number of environmentally positive improvements, focusing on energy efficiency.[164]
Also, Philips marks its "green" products with the Philips Green Logo, identifying them as products that have a significantly better environmental performance than their competitors or predecessors.[165]
L-Prize competition[edit]
In 2011, Philips won a $10 million cash prize from the US Department of Energy for winning its L-Prize competition, to produce a high-efficiency, long operating life replacement for a standard 60-W incandescent lightbulb.[166] The winning LED lightbulb, which was made available to consumers in April 2012, produces slightly more than 900 lumens at an input power of 10 W.[167]
Greenpeace ranking[edit]
In Greenpeace's 2012 Guide to Greener Electronics that ranks electronics manufacturers on sustainability, climate and energy and how green their products are, Philips ranks 10th place with a score of 3.8/10.[168] The company was the top scorer in the Energy section due to its energy advocacy work calling upon the EU to adopt a 30% reduction for greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It is also praised for its new products which are free from PVC plastic and BFRs. However, the guide criticizes Philips' sourcing of fibres for paper, arguing it must develop a paper procurement policy which excludes suppliers involved in deforestation and illegal logging.[169]
Philips has made some progress since 2007 (when it was first ranked in this guide), in particular by supporting the Individual Producer Responsibility principle, which means that the company is accepting the responsibility for the toxic impacts of its products on e-waste dumps around the world.[170]
