Philips Corporate history

[Spekulatius]

Not that well known in the USA, but they were huge in Europe.

The company a shadow of its  former self, but spun off or helped to get off the ground NXPI, ASML, TSMC and Signify.

 

[Luca]

Yeah, it was pretty interesting to read that Phillips also gave Starter Capital to TSMC in the beginning. Thats where the very close ties to ASML come from...

[Spekulatius]

Philips was huge in Europe  but even in the 80‘s, they were already in decline. I think I owned the stock in the late 80‘s for a cyclical rebound and made some money if I remember correctly.

 

I think they would have had better results if they had done the exact opposite of whatever Management decided back then. A friend of meine from University started to work for them (in the lighting division , now spun off) but later changed to a different company over some frustrating issues.

 

The TSMC stake was later sold - of course they would be better off keeping it. The ASML connection is also interesting. I remember some earlier news when ASML struggled. One interesting fact is that Philips had a lot of know how in lighting and that ended up benefiting ASML when they developed the deep UV source.