Philips Mirrors Siemens in Parting Some Light Operations
This article is for subscribers only.
Royal Philips NV will merge some lighting units into a 1.4 billion-euro ($1.9 billion) standalone company to share research and development costs with outside investors, echoing a move by German rival Siemens AG.
Philips will combine LED-component and automotive-lighting assets and explore strategic options including an initial public offering for those operations, the company said today in a statement. The stock rose as much as 3.9 percent in Amsterdam trading, the biggest intraday gain since Dec. 16.