GE invests $100 million to grow its LED lighting business
CLEVELAND, the General Electric Company (GE) through its Consumer & Industrial business and the Nichia Corporation ("Nichia") announced today a strategic alliance agreement to support GELcore, LLC, based in Cleveland, Ohio.
GELcore, formed in 1999, was previously a joint venture between GE and the Emcore Corporation of Somerset, NJ. GE purchased Emcore's 49% interest in the joint venture for $100 million, demonstrating its ongoing commitment to invest in LED technology and the future of lighting.This agreement combines GELcore's LED system strengths in the Transportation, Signage, Specialty Illumination, and General Illumination segments with Nichia's extensive phosphor and optoelectronics products, such as LEDs. Both companies expect to benefit significantly from each other's expertise and penetrate the high-growth LED general illumination segment.
"This agreement is a true win-win outcome for both parties and clearly demonstrates GE's commitment to solid state lighting technology. GE and Nichia's combined excellence creates a preeminent alliance that is ideally suited to support GELcore's efforts to accelerate the growth and penetration of LED-based lighting solutions in the $12 billion global lighting segment," said Michael B. Petras, Jr., Vice President, Electrical Distribution & Lighting.
Noboru Tazaki, Executive Vice President & COO of Nichia, states, "This is a historic agreement when you consider that GE, a world leader in traditional lighting technology and LED systems and Nichia, a world leader in phosphor and optoelectronics technology are joining forces to advance LED technology and accelerate the penetration of LEDs into the general lighting industry."
About GELcore
LLCGELcore, LLC, drives innovation, energy efficiency and cost savings for industries that use LED products, systems and solutions. Fitted with robust, low-voltage, long-life LED light engines, GELcore solutions deliver world-class, GE-grade performance. For more information about GELcore, please visit www.gelcore.com
About GE Consumer & Industrial
GE Consumer & Industrial spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliance, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and services. Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use in more than 100 countries, GE Consumer & Industrial uses innovative technologies and "ecomagination," a GE initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that help customers and consumers meet pressing environmental challenges, to deliver comfort, convenience and electrical protection and control. General Electric (NYSE: GE - News) brings imagination to work, selling products under the Monogram®, Profile(TM) GE®, Hotpoint®, SmartWater(TM) Reveal® and Edison(TM) consumer brands, and Entellisys(TM) industrial brand. For more information, consumers may visit www.ge.com.
About Nichia
Nichia is the leading company of GaN-based optoelectronics products, including UV, blue, green and white LED products and blue-violet laser diodes. The application of products includes cellular phones, digital cameras, traffic signals, full-color displays, electronics signboards, and optical storages. Nichia is headquartered in Anan, Tokushima, Japan and has operations throughout the world. Please visit www.nichia.co.jp for more information.
