Bye bye Cree

264 · 2019-03-16T05:33:02.000Z

Selling lighting division.

Cree selling off entire lighting business for $310 million

STURTEVANT — Lighting giant Cree, which has administrative and manufacturing facilities in Sturtevant, on Friday announced an agreement to sell its entire lighting products business unit, Cree Lighting, to Ideal

AlexGT · 2019-03-16T05:47:23.000Z

I wonder what will it mean for our hobby?

Lux-Perpetua · 2019-03-16T06:21:04.000Z

451: Unavailable due to legal reasons

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Spartan · 2019-03-16T06:35:59.000Z

Lux-Perpetua:

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:person_facepalming: :person_facepalming: :person_facepalming:

VPN is your friend.

keithd · 2019-03-16T06:39:00.000Z

Lux-Perpetua:

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:person_facepalming: :person_facepalming: :person_facepalming:

Here’s the first 5 paragraphs:
STURTEVANT — Lighting giant Cree, which has administrative and manufacturing facilities in Sturtevant, on Friday announced an agreement to sell its entire lighting products business unit, Cree Lighting, to Ideal Industries for approximately $310 million.

Durham, N.C.-based Cree is the company that bought the former Ruud Lighting in 2011 for $525 million and absorbed it. Cree Lighting includes the LED lighting fixtures, lamps and corporate lighting solutions business for commercial, industrial and consumer applications.

Cree said in a news release that the agreement to divest its lighting business continues Cree’s strategy, announced in February 2018, to create a more focused, “powerhouse” semiconductor company. It said the sale provides growth capital for Wolfspeed, Cree’s core power and radio frequency business, and equips Cree with additional resources to expand its semiconductor operations.

No information was immediately available Friday morning about the potential impact on Cree’s existing operations at 9201 Washington Ave., Sturtevant, where the company has an estimated 1,000 employees.

The closing of the transaction is anticipated to occur in the second quarter of this year, subject to receipt of required regulatory approvals and satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Hope that helps. If a moderator objects, you have my permission to edit my comment as needed.
-Keith

Spartan · 2019-03-16T06:39:28.000Z

AlexGT:

I wonder what will it mean for our hobby?

If the decide to cut off sales and make end products…goodbye to easily accessible LEDs.

The problem with myopic strategy like that would be proliferation of new manufacturers AND fighting an endless, marginal volume business.

Let’s see….

raccoon · 2019-03-16T06:46:31.000Z

Here's a png of the article for those that cannot access it:

https://abload.de/img/cree_2rj70.png

everydaysurvivalgear · 2019-03-16T06:54:56.000Z

I think they want to get rid of there light bulb and fixture division and focus on LEDs only. Osram is doing/done the same thing. The forward looking statements says improved LED technologies in the future.

wolfspeed.com

Cree to Sell Lighting Business to IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC. | Wolfspeed

everydaysurvivalgear · 2019-03-16T07:14:07.000Z

Interestingly enough it looks like Cree has a patent on blue LEDs.

Osram GmbH Cross-license agreement to all patents in the fields of blue LED chip technology, white LEDs and phosphors, packaging, LED luminaires and lamps, and LED lighting control systems. 04/04/2011

Philips
(Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.) Cross-license agreement to all patents covering blue LED chips, white LEDs and phosphors (including remote phosphors), control systems, LED luminaires and lamps as well as LED backlighting of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and patents in the Philips LED Luminaire Licensing Program. 07/07/2010

Rohm Co., Ltd. License to U.S. 6,600,175 to make and sell white LEDs that incorporate Cree LED chips. 05/19/2005
Seoul Semiconductor, Inc. License to manufacture and sell white-emitting packaged LED lamps each of which incorporate an LED chip from Cree and a phosphor and is encompassed by U.S. 6,600,175 and patents that issue from US. Ser. Nos. 10/623,198 and 11/264,124

Epistar
Cross license agreement to LED chip patents. 08/04/2015

thisnameisvalid · 2019-03-16T07:32:03.000Z

They’re only selling their lighting fixture business, not actual LEDs. This (hopefully) shouldn’t affect us.

ToyKeeper · 2019-03-16T08:53:14.000Z

Well, that seems less than ideal.

freeme · 2019-03-16T09:02:53.000Z

Hope they continue to develop good emitters under Ideal Industries name.

JaredM · 2019-03-16T09:10:44.000Z

thisnameisvalid:

They’re only selling their lighting fixture business, not actual LEDs. This (hopefully) shouldn’t affect us.

This is what I would seem to think as well. It sounds like they are focusing on ‘semiconductor’ manufacturing/development. It makes sense that they would focus on what they do best and leave it up to others for integration of chips/emitters into ‘lighting products.’