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Most of Consumer Lighting had already been sold off. They were working on services like lightgrid management for cities. But even 30 years ago, Lighting was one

Most of Consumer Lighting had already been sold off. They were working on services like lightgrid management for cities. But even 30 years ago, Lighting was one of the smallest parts of GE.

wenc 6y ago
Good point. Philips Lighting is a competitor, and they have a similar portfolio of non-consumer lighting solutions, like UV-C lighting, lighting-as-a-service (financial product), city/building/warehouse/airport lighting, etc. https://www.lighting.philips.com/main/home https://www.lighting.philips.com/main/home I was about to say there's also specialized lighting niches where margins might be higher, like airfield lighting (GE Aviation lighting). Maybe the installation contract costs are where they make their money, because their consumables are not that expensive (<$100). https://airportlighting.com/airport-lighting-manufacturer-brands/general-electric-ge-aviation-lamps/ https://airportlighting.com/airport-lighting-manufacturer-br... An elevated runway light costs $17.76.
- ascagnel_ 6y ago
  Philips Lighting is interesting, since they're a spin-off of a merger of a sell-off of Westinghouse Electric. Both GE & Westinghouse were huge conglomerates (Westinghouse began its sell-off decades earlier than GE), so is this the market deciding that these companies were too big to be successful?
  - Someone 6y ago
    I thought Philips Lighting didn’t exist as a company name anymore, but that lighting.philips.com URL seems to indicate otherwise. Googling taught me it was spun off from Philips and later renamed to Signify, with “Philips” one of the Signify brands (https://www.signify.com/global/brands https://www.signify.com/global/brands). That Signify page links to a philips.com URL, so it seems the two companies are intertwined, the brand name was licensed, or whatever. I don’t think they were too successful. It’s more that former giants in electronics can’t/don’t want to compete in low-margin markets, and focus on higher-margin ones. Philips itself went even further, and spun off commercial lighting, focusing on health, where it thinks it can get even higher margins than in commercial lighting.

Most of Consumer Lighting had already been sold off. They were working on services like lightgrid management for cities. But even 30 years ago, Lighting was one of the smallest parts of GE.

wenc 6y ago

Good point. Philips Lighting is a competitor, and they have a similar portfolio of non-consumer lighting solutions, like UV-C lighting, lighting-as-a-service (financial product), city/building/warehouse/airport lighting, etc. https://www.lighting.philips.com/main/home https://www.lighting.philips.com/main/home I was about to say there's also specialized lighting niches where margins might be higher, like airfield lighting (GE Aviation lighting). Maybe the installation contract costs are where they make their money, because their consumables are not that expensive (<$100). https://airportlighting.com/airport-lighting-manufacturer-brands/general-electric-ge-aviation-lamps/ https://airportlighting.com/airport-lighting-manufacturer-br... An elevated runway light costs $17.76.

ascagnel_ 6y ago
Philips Lighting is interesting, since they're a spin-off of a merger of a sell-off of Westinghouse Electric. Both GE & Westinghouse were huge conglomerates (Westinghouse began its sell-off decades earlier than GE), so is this the market deciding that these companies were too big to be successful?
- Someone 6y ago
  I thought Philips Lighting didn’t exist as a company name anymore, but that lighting.philips.com URL seems to indicate otherwise. Googling taught me it was spun off from Philips and later renamed to Signify, with “Philips” one of the Signify brands (https://www.signify.com/global/brands https://www.signify.com/global/brands). That Signify page links to a philips.com URL, so it seems the two companies are intertwined, the brand name was licensed, or whatever. I don’t think they were too successful. It’s more that former giants in electronics can’t/don’t want to compete in low-margin markets, and focus on higher-margin ones. Philips itself went even further, and spun off commercial lighting, focusing on health, where it thinks it can get even higher margins than in commercial lighting.