Koninklijke Philips NV

Philips continued research into Stirling technology for several decades. One practical application was the reversed Stirling engine used as a cryocooler.

World War II

Following the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, several senior Philips executives left the country, while Frits Philips, the son of Anton Philips, remained in Eindhoven.

On 6 December 1942, the Royal Air Force carried out Operation Oyster, a low-level bombing raid against Philips industrial sites in Eindhoven that were producing components used by the German war economy. The raid severely damaged Philips facilities and also caused substantial civilian casualties and destruction in surrounding parts of Eindhoven.

During the German occupation, a workshop staffed by Jewish prisoners operated at the Vught concentration camp for Philips-related production. Of 469 Jewish prisoners who worked there, 382 were alive at the end of the war. Frits Philips was later recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for his efforts to protect Jewish workers.

Postwar expansion and consumer electronics

After World War II, Philips rebuilt and expanded its operations. The company became a major producer of televisions, audio equipment and other consumer electronics while continuing its activities in lighting and medical technology.

In August 1963, Philips introduced its first Compact Cassette recorder at the Funkausstellung exhibition in Berlin. The Compact Cassette subsequently became an international standard for recorded and recordable audio.

In the early 1970s, Philips introduced the N1500 videocassette recorder. The Science Museum Group describes the N1500 as the first practical domestic video recorder; it incorporated a television tuner and timer and recorded programs onto video cassettes.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Philips and Sony cooperated to standardize and commercialize the compact disc. Philips and Sony jointly developed the format, with the first commercial CD products appearing in 1982 and 1983.

Philips researcher Kees Schouhamer Immink developed the eight-to-fourteen modulation coding system adopted for the compact-disc standard.

Semiconductors and restructuring

In 1984, Philips and ASM International established ASM Lithography, later ASML, as a joint venture to commercialize wafer-stepper technology developed at Philips. The venture began operations on 1 April 1984.

In 1987, TSMC was founded as a joint venture among the government of the Republic of China, Philips and other private investors.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Philips underwent major restructuring following heavy losses. In 1990, under chief executive Jan Timmer, the company announced plans to cut about 10,000 jobs as part of a broad cost-reduction program.

In 1991, Digital Equipment Corporation agreed to acquire most of Philips' computer-systems division, including its minicomputer, networking and automated-teller-machine activities.

The legal name of the parent company changed from N.V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken to Philips Electronics N.V. on 6 May 1994, to Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. on 1 April 1998, and to Koninklijke Philips N.V. on 15 May 2013.

In October 1997, the company's board decided to relocate the corporate headquarters from Eindhoven to Amsterdam. The relocation began in 1998.

In 2006, Philips separated its semiconductor activities. On 29 September 2006, it completed the sale of an 80.1% stake in its semiconductor business to a private-equity consortium consisting of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Apax Partners and AlpInvest Partners. The semiconductor company became NXP Semiconductors, while Philips initially retained a minority interest.

Shift to health technology

During the 2010s, Philips progressively reduced its involvement in several traditional consumer-electronics businesses and concentrated more heavily on health technology.

In April 2012, Philips completed the transfer of most of its television business to TP Vision, a joint venture initially owned 70% by TPV Technology and 30% by Philips.

Philips separated its lighting business in 2016. The independent company, Philips Lighting N.V., changed its name to Signify N.V. in May 2018 and continued to use the Philips brand for lighting products under a licensing agreement.

In September 2021, Philips completed the sale of its Domestic Appliances business to Hillhouse Investment. The transaction included a long-term licensing agreement allowing the independent company to continue using the Philips brand. In February 2023, the independent business adopted the name Versuni.

Roy Jakobs succeeded Frans van Houten as president and chief executive officer on 15 October 2022.

In January 2023, amid losses and difficulties associated with the Philips Respironics recall, Philips announced an additional 6,000 job cuts worldwide over two years, on top of 4,000 reductions announced in 2022.

By 2025, Philips reported three main business segments: Diagnosis & Treatment, Connected Care and Personal Health.

On 15 January 2026, Philips completed its acquisition of SpectraWAVE, a United States-based developer of coronary intravascular imaging and physiological-assessment technology. Philips included the acquired business in its Diagnosis & Treatment segment.

Hong Kong

Philips Hong Kong began operations in 1948. Philips Hong Kong houses the global headquarters of Philips' Audio Business Unit. It also house Philips' Asia Pacific regional office and headquarters for its Design Division, Domestic Appliances & Personal Care Products Division, Lighting Products Division and Medical System Products Division.

In 1974, Philips opened a lamp factory in Hong Kong. This has a capacity of 200 million pieces a year and is certified with ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001. Its product portfolio includes prefocus, lensend and E10 miniature light bulbs.

China

Philips established its first 50/50 joint venture company Beijing Philips Audio/Video Corporation (北京飞利浦有限公司) with Beijing Radio Factory (北京无线电厂) to manufacture audio consumer electronic products in Beijing in 1987. In 1990, a factory was set up in Zhuhai, Guangdong, mainly manufactures Philishaves and healthcare products. In early 2008, Philips Lighting, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, opened a small engineering center in Shanghai to adapt the company's products to vehicles in Asia. Today, Philips has 27 WOFE/JVs in China, employing more than 17,500 people. China is its second-largest market.

India

Philips began operations in India in 1930, with the establishment of Philips Electrical Co. (India) Pvt Ltd in Kolkata (then Calcutta) as a sales outlet for imported Philips lamps. In 1938, Philips established its first Indian lamp manufacturing factory in Kolkata. In 1948, Philips began manufacturing radios in Kolkata. In 1959, a second radio factory was established near Pune. This was closed and sold around 2006. In 1957, the company converted into a public limited company, renamed "Philips India Ltd". In 1970, a new consumer electronics factory began operations in Pimpri near Pune. Also, a manufacturing facility was started in Chakan, Pune in 2012. In 1996, the Philips Software Centre was established in Bangalore, later renamed the Philips Innovation Campus. In 2008, Philips India entered the water purifier market. In 2014, Philips was ranked 12th among India's most-trusted brands according to the Brand Trust Report, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory.

Now Philips India is one of the most diversified health care companies and focuses on imaging, sleep and respiratory care products, ultrasound, monitoring and analytics items, as well as therapeutic care products. In 2020, Philips introduced mobile ICUs in order to support clinicians to meet the rising demand of ICU beds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Israel

Philips has been active in Israel since 1948 and in 1998, set up a wholly owned subsidiary, Philips Electronics (Israel) Ltd. The company has over 700 employees in Israel and generated sales of over $300 million in 2007.

Philips Medical Systems Technologies Ltd. (Haifa) is a developer and manufacturer of computerized tomography (CT), diagnostic and medical imaging systems. The company was founded in 1969 as Elscint by Elron Electronic Industries and was acquired by Marconi Medical Systems in 1998, which was itself acquired by Philips in 2001. Philips Semiconductors formerly had major operations in Israel; these now form part of NXP Semiconductors.

On 1 August 2019, Philips acquired Carestream HCIS division from Onex Corporation. As part of the acquisition, Algotec Systems LTD (Carestream HCIS R&D) located in Raanana Israel changed ownership in a share deal. In addition to that, Algotec changed its name to Philips Algotec and is part of Philips HCIS. Philips HCIS is a provider of medical imaging systems.

Pakistan

Philips has been active in Pakistan since 1948 and has a wholly owned subsidiary, Philips Pakistan Limited (Formerly Philips Electrical Industries of Pakistan Limited). The head office is in Karachi with regional sales offices in Lahore and Rawalpindi.

Singapore

Philips began operations in Singapore in 1951, initially as a local distributor of imported Philips products. Philips later established manufacturing sites at Boon Keng Road and Jurong Industrial Estate in 1968 and 1970 respectively. Since 1972, its regional headquarters has been based in the central HDB town of Toa Payoh, which from the 1990s until the early 2010s consisted of four interconnected buildings housing offices and factory spaces. In 2016, a new Philips APAC HQ building was opened on the site of one of the former 1972 buildings.

Denmark

Philips Denmark was founded in Copenhagen in 1927, and is now headquartered in Frederiksberg.

In 1963, Philips established the Philips TV & Test Equipment laboratory in Amager (moved to Brøndby Municipality in 1989) which was where engineers Erik Helmer Nielsen and Finn Hendil (1939–2011) created and developed some of Philips' most iconic television test cards, such as the monochrome PM5540 and the colour PM5544 and TVE test cards. In 1998 Philips TV & Test Equipment was spun off as ProTeleVision Technologies A/S and sold to PANTA Electronics B.V. which was owned by a consortium of investors led by Advent International. ProTeleVision Technologies A/S was dissolved in 2001 with products transferring to ProTelevision Technologies Corp A/S Archived 4 August 2023 at the Wayback Machine, DK-Audio A/S (dissolved 2018) and AREPA Test & Calibration.

France

Philips France has its headquarters in Suresnes. The company employs over 3600 people nationwide.

Philips Lighting has manufacturing facilities in Chalon-sur-Saône (fluorescent lamps), Chartres (automotive lighting), Lamotte-Beuvron (architectural lighting by LEDs and professional indoor lighting), Longvic (lamps), Miribel (outdoor lighting), Nevers (professional indoor lighting). All manufacturing in France were sold or discontinued before the Lighting spin-off in 2016.

Germany

Philips Germany was founded in 1926 in Berlin. Now its headquarters is located in Hamburg. Over 4900 people are employed in Germany.

Hamburg

Distribution center of the divisions Healthcare, Consumer Lifestyle, and Lighting

Philips Medical Systems DMC

Philips Innovative Technologies, Research Laboratories

Aachen

Philips Innovative Technologies

Philips Innovation Services

Böblingen

Philips Medical Systems, patient monitoring systems

Herrsching

Philips Respironics

Ulm

Philips Photonics, development and manufacture of vertical laser diodes (VCSELs) and photodiodes for sensing and data communication

Greece

Philips' Greece is headquartered in Chalandri in Attica. As of 2012, Philips has no manufacturing plants in Greece, although previously there were audio, lighting and telecommunications factories.

Italy

Philips founded its Italian subsidiary in 1923, basing it in Milan where it still operates. After the closure of the company's industrial operations, mainly manufacturing TVs in Monza and conventional light bulbs near Turin, Philips Italia exists for commercial activities only.

Hungary

Philips founded PACH (Philips Assembly Centre Hungary) in 1992, producing televisions and consumer electronics in Székesfehérvár. After TPV entering the Philips TV business, the factory was moved under TP Vision, the new joint-venture company in 2011. Products have been transferred to Poland and China and factory was closed in 2013.

By Philips acquiring PLI in 2007, another Hungarian Philips factory emerged in Tamási, producing lamps under the name of Philips IPSC Tamási, later Philips Lighting. The factory was renamed to Signify in 2017, still producing Philips lighting products.

Poland

Philips' operations in Poland include: a European financial and accounting centre in Łódź; Philips Lighting facilities in Bielsko-Biała, Piła, and Kętrzyn; and a Philips Domestic Appliances facility in Białystok.

Portugal

Philips started business in Portugal in 1927, as "Philips Portuguesa S.A.R.L.". Philips Portuguesa S.A. is headquartered in Oeiras near Lisbon. There were three Philips factories in Portugal: the FAPAE lamp factory in Lisbon; the Carnaxide magnetic-core memory factory near Lisbon, where the Philips Service organization was also based; and the Ovar factory in northern Portugal making camera components and remote control devices. The company still operates in Portugal with divisions for commercial lighting, medical systems and domestic appliances.

Sweden

Philips Sweden has two main sites: Kista, Stockholm County, with regional sales, marketing and a customer support organization; and Solna, Stockholm County, with the main office of the mammography division.

The company was a major supplier of defence electronics to the Swedish Armed Forces operating under the name Philips Elektronikindustrier AB with its final location in Järfälla, a suburb of Stockholm. What remains of that division is now part of Saab AB.

United Kingdom

Philips UK has its headquarters in Guildford. The company employs over 2,500 people nationwide.

Philips Healthcare Informatics, Belfast develops healthcare software products.

Philips Consumer Products, Guildford provides sales and marketing for televisions, including High Definition televisions, DVD recorders, hi-fi and portable audio, CD recorders, PC peripherals, cordless telephones, home and kitchen appliances, and personal care products (shavers, hair dryers, body beauty, and oral hygiene ).

Philips Dictation Systems, Colchester

Philips Lighting: sales from Guildford and manufactured in Hamilton

Philips Healthcare, Guildford; sales and technical support for X-ray, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, patient monitoring, magnetic resonance, computed tomography, and resuscitation products

Philips Research Laboratories, Cambridge (until 2008 based in Redhill, Surrey; originally it was called the Mullard Research Laboratories).

In the past, Philips UK also included:

Consumer product manufacturing in Croydon

Television Tube Manufacturing Mullard Simonstone

Philips Business Communications, Cambridge: offered voice and data communications products, specializing in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, IP Telephony, data networking, voice processing, command and control systems and cordless and mobile telephony. In 2006 the business was placed into a 60/40 joint venture with NEC. NEC later acquired 100 per cent ownership and the business was renamed NEC Unified Solutions

Philips Electronics Blackburn; vacuum tubes, capacitors, delay-lines, Laserdiscs, CDs

Philips Domestic Appliances Hastings: Design and Production of Electric kettles, Fan Heaters plus former EKCO brand "Thermotube" Tubular Heaters and "Hostess" Domestic Food Warming Trolleys

Mullard Southampton and Hazel Grove, Stockport was originally brought together as a joint venture between Mullard and GEC as Associated Semiconductor Manufacturers. They developed and manufactured rectifiers, diodes, transistors, integrated circuits, and electro-optical devices. It became Philips Semiconductors before becoming part of NXP.

London Carriers, logistics and transport division

Mullard Equipment Limited (MEL) which produced products for the military

Ada (Halifax) Ltd, maker of washing machines and spin driers, refrigerators

Pye TVT Ltd of Cambridge

Pye Telecommunications Ltd of Cambridge

TMC Limited of Malmesbury

Canada

Philips Canada was founded in 1941 when it acquired Small Electric Motors Limited. It is well known in medical systems for diagnosis and therapy, lighting technologies, shavers, and consumer electronics. The Canadian headquarters are located in Markham, Ontario.

For several years, Philips manufactured lighting products in two Canadian factories. The London, Ontario, plant opened in 1971. It produced A19 lamps (including the "Royale" long life bulbs), PAR38 lamps and T19 lamps (originally a Westinghouse lamp shape). Philips closed the factory in May 2003. The Trois-Rivières, Quebec, plant was a Westinghouse facility which Philips continued to run it after buying Westinghouse's lamp division in 1983. Philips closed this factory a few years later, in the late 1980s.

Mexico

Philips Mexico Commercial SA de CV is headquartered in Mexico City. This entity was incorporated in FY 2016 to sales consumer lifestyle and healthcare portfolios in the market.

United States

Philips' Electronics North American headquarters is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Philips Lighting has its corporate office in Somerset, New Jersey; with manufacturing plants in Danville, Kentucky; Salina, Kansas; Dallas and Paris, Texas; and distribution centers in Mountain Top, Pennsylvania; El Paso, Texas; Ontario, California; and Memphis, Tennessee. Philips Healthcare is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and operates a health-tech hub in Nashville with over 1,000 jobs. The North American sales organization is based in Bothell, Washington. There are also manufacturing facilities in Bothell, Washington; Baltimore, Maryland; Cleveland, Ohio; Foster City, California; Gainesville, Florida; Milpitas, California; and Reedsville, Pennsylvania. Philips Healthcare formerly had a factory in Knoxville, Tennessee. Philips Consumer Lifestyle has its corporate office in Stamford, Connecticut. Philips Lighting has a Color Kinetics office in Burlington, Massachusetts. Philips Research North American headquarters is in Cambridge.

From the early 1940s, Philco was legally able to prevent Philips from using the name "Philips" on any products marketed in the United States, because the two names were judged to sound similar enough to cause consumer confusion and potentially lead to claims of trademark infringement. This was made official and legally binding on January 19, 1943, when the court ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the corresponding case of Philco Corporation v. Philips Mfg. Co., that allowed Philco to prevent Philips from using its name on its products sold in the US. As a result, Philips instead used the name Norelco, an acronym for "North American Philips [electrical] Company". Philips continued to use that name for all their U.S. products until 1974, when Philips purchased The Magnavox Company. Philips then relabeled their U.S. consumer electronics products as Magnavox, but retained the Norelco name for their other U.S. products. When Philips bought Philco in 1981, Philips was able to freely use the Philips name for all of their U.S. products and renamed Magnavox Consumer Electronics to North American Philips Consumer Electronics, but they chose to retain the Norelco name for personal care appliances, and the Magnavox name for economy-priced consumer electronics.

By mid-1980s, the company used different brand names for its products in the United States - Magnavox, Sylvania, Philco, Norelco and even Philips - holding 10% of the American color television market, 9% of the compact-disk player market and 9% of the video cassette recorder market, selling VCRs made by Matsushita. In December 1986, Philips took direct control of its United States units - the North American Philips Company and the Signetics Corporation, which had been legally owned by a trust set up during World War II that was controlled by Philips. Philips tightened its operations and centralized its planning functions to prevent being "picked off piecemeal by the Japanese".

In 2007, Philips entered into a definitive merger agreement with the Genlyte Group, which provided the company with a leading position in the North American luminaires (also known as "lighting fixtures"), controls and related products for a wide variety of applications, including solid state lighting. The company also acquired Respironics, which was a significant gain for its healthcare sector. On 21 February 2008, Philips completed the acquisition of Baltimore-based VISICU. VISICU was the creator of the eICU concept of the use of Telemedicine from a centralized facility to monitor and care for ICU patients.

In April 2020, the United States Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) entered into a contract with Philips Respironics for 43,000 bundled Trilogy Evo Universal ventilator (EV300) hospital ventilators. This included the production and delivery of ventilators to the Strategic National Stockpile—about 156,000 by the end of August 2020 and 187,000 more by the end of 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in March 2020, in response to an international demand, Philips increased production of the ventilators fourfold within five months. Production lines were added in the United States with employees working around the clock in factories producing ventilators, in Western Pennsylvania and California, for example.

In March 2020, ProPublica published a series of articles on the Philips ventilator contract as negotiated by trade adviser Peter Navarro. In response to the ProPublica series, in August, the United States House of Representatives undertook a "congressional investigation" into the acquisition of the Philips ventilators. The lawmakers investigation found "evidence of fraud, waste and abuse".—the deal negotiated by Navarro had resulted in an over-payment to Philips by the US government of "hundreds of millions".

Australia and New Zealand

Philips Australia was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in North Ryde, New South Wales; it also manages the New Zealand operation from there. The company employs about 800 people. Regional sales and support offices are located in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and Auckland.

Products

Philips' core products are personal health products including shavers, beauty appliances, mother and childcare appliances, electric toothbrushes and healthcare products (including CT scanners, ECG equipment, mammography equipment, monitoring equipment, MRI scanners, radiography equipment, resuscitation equipment, ultrasound equipment and X-ray equipment).

In January 2020 Philips announced that it wanted to sell its domestic appliances division, which includes products like coffee machines, air purifiers, and air fryers.

Lighting products

Professional indoor luminaires

Professional outdoor luminaires

Professional lamps

Lighting controls and control systems

Digital projection lights

Horticulture lighting

Solar LED lights

Smart office lighting systems

Smart retail lighting systems

Smart city lighting systems

Home lamps

Home fixtures

Home systems (branded as Philips Hue)

Automotive Lighting

Audio and Visual products

Hi-fi systems

Wireless speakers

Radio systems

Docking stations

Headphones

DJ mixers

Alarm clocks

TVs

VCRs

DVD players

Healthcare products

Philips healthcare products include:

Clinical informatics

Cardiology informatics (IntelliSpace Cardiovascular, Xcelera)

Enterprise Imaging Informatics (IntelliSpace PACS, XIRIS)

IntelliSpace family of solutions

Imaging systems

Cardio/vascular X-ray wires and catheters (Verrata)

Computed tomography (CT)

Fluoroscopy

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Mammography

Mobile C-Arms

Nuclear medicine

PET (Positron emission tomography)

PET-CT

Radiography

Radiation oncology Systemsroots

Ultrasound

Diagnostic monitoring

Diagnostic ECG

Defibrillators

Automated external defibrillators

Portable monitor/defibrillators

Accessories

Equipment

Software

Consumer

Philips AVENTil

Philips Sonicare

Patient care and clinical informatics

Anesthetic gas monitoring

Blood pressure

Capnography

D.M.E.

Diagnostic sleep testing

ECG

Enterprise patient informatics solutions

OB TraceVue

Compurecord

ICIP

eICU program

Emergin

Hemodynamic

IntelliSpace Cardiovascular

IntelliSpace PACS

IntelliSpace portal

Multi-measurement servers

Neurophedeoiles

Pulse oximetry

Tasy

Temperature

Transcutaneous gases

Ventilation

ViewForum

Xcelera

XIRIS

Xper Information Management

In 2021, Philips acquired medical device company Capsule Technologies.