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Wayfair – The Journey of American E-Commerce Company.

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Wayfair is a furniture and home goods retailer based in the United States. The company was founded in 2002 and was previously known as CSN Stores. Wayfair grew into the behemoth it is today as a result of the dot-com crash in the early 2000s, the evolving nature of internet shopping, and an increasingly global supply chain. It has emerged as a pioneer of its peers. 

The online marketplace features 14 million products from over 11,000 international suppliers. It also has 80 “house brands,” which aren’t actually brands but are used to categorize and merchandise products based on certain decorating aesthetics. The company does not manufacture any of the products it sells and instead operates on a drop-ship basis. When a customer places an order, Wayfair purchases the item from one of its suppliers, who then ships it to the customer in a variety of ways. Wayfair has 12 fulfillment centers and over 12 million square feet of warehouse space in Europe and North America. 

The Wayfair Brand And Its “Lifestyle Brands”

Wayfair is more than just Wayfair.com, Joss & Main, AllModern, Perigold, and Birch Lane are also owned by the company. Wayfair.com is the company’s main hub, where you can find everything from furniture to appliances that went viral. AllModern constitutes modern and chic furniture, whereas Joss & Main and Birch Lane are nearly identical and lean towards traditional furniture.

Perigold, the newest site, is high-end, but it appears to be designed specifically for someone who owns a mansion or a villa. The company refers to these sites as “lifestyle brands.” Beyond the “lifestyle brands,” the products are further subdivided into one of Wayfair’s 80 “house brands”, which are only available on Wayfair.com.

The Establishment of Wayfair

Wayfair, formerly known as CSN Stores, began with the website racksandstands.com, selling media stands and warehouse furniture. In 2003, Wayfair expanded to include patio and garden goods suppliers, three online stores, and more than a dozen employees and relocated its headquarters to Newbury Street in Boston. Over the next two years, the company expanded its offering to include home décor, institutional, office, kitchen and dining furniture and materials, as well as home improvement goods, luggage, and lighting, as well as bed and bath materials. The company made $100 million in sales in 2006. Within the next four years, the company expanded in both domestic and international markets.

Wayfair
Image Source: digital.hbs.edu

CSN Stores opened an office in London in 2008 and began exporting to Canada and selling in the United Kingdom. The company relocated its headquarters to 177 Huntington Avenue in 2010. The company launched Joss & Main, a members-only private sales online store, at the end of that year. CSN Stores had over 200 online stores by 2011. Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners, and Spark Capital provided $165 million in funding to the company in June 2011. Wayfair.com went live on September 1, 2011. Wayfair had incorporated all of its niche websites, with the exception of Joss & Main and AllModern, into Wayfair.com as of July 2012. 

Wayfair’s Response to an Emergency

Wayfair responds to crisis situations in the broader community where they have the resources and ability to assist on an emergency basis. The company worked with Habitat for Humanity International in February 2013 to directly assist the communities affected by Hurricane Sandy. Wayfair delivered over $50,000 in home furnishings to Habitat ReStore resale stores in Coastal New Jersey. Product sales funds directly supported disaster response efforts and home rebuilding in the region.

Wayfair responded to the terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon in April 2013 by donating $50,000 to Technology Underwriting Greater Good (TUGG) in collaboration with the company’s founders to directly assist victims of the bombing. Wayfair employees also raised $8,000 for One Fund Boston, which will be used to assist those most affected by the tragedy.

Stepping into the Future

Wayfair recently opened its first permanent store in Natick, Massachusetts, following a series of pop-ups over the years. The company provides hundreds of smaller items that customers can take home with them, as well as an in-person taste of what its digital services are like. Customers can collaborate with designers to design rooms and touch fabrics used in a furniture customization program.

The Founders

Niraj Shah co-founded Wayfair with Steve Conine in 2002, and the pair quickly expanded the company to become the largest online retailer of home furnishings, housewares, and home improvement products in the United States, with $15.3 billion in net sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. Wayfair employs over 16,200 employees and has large operations in the United States and Europe.

Niraj worked as the CEO and co-founder of Simplify Mobile, the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Greylock Partners, the COO and a member of the board of iXL, and the CEO and co-founder of Spinners, which was sold to iXL in 1998. Niraj is a member of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce boards of directors. Niraj graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in engineering and currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.

Ansys Inc.

Ansys Inc. – The Most Trustworthy Engineering Software Company In The World.

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Ansys Inc. is a Canonsburg-based American company. It develops and markets multiphysics simulation software to design, test, and operate products and provides its products and services to clients around the globe. Ansys picked up a large number of engineering design companies in the 2000s, which gained additional fluid dynamics, electronics, and other physical analysis technology.

Ansys software fits seamlessly with existing systems thanks to their open ecosystem of computer-aided design, manufacturing, and engineering providers. Engineers can use Ansys simulation to explore and predict how products will work in the real world. This simulation superpower also accelerates time-to-market, reduces production costs, increases efficiency, and reduces risk.

The Establishment of Ansys, Inc.

John Swanson invented the concept for Ansys at the time of his work at Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory in the 1960s. At that time, engineers conducted hand analyses of Finite Elements (FEA). Westinghouse dismissed Swanson’s concept of automating FEA by designing software for general purposes, so in 1969 Swanson left the company to develop the software by itself. The next year, he created Ansys in his farmhouse in Pittsburgh with the name Swanson Analysis Systems Inc. (SASI). Swanson created Ansys’ initial punch card program and leased a mainframe machine by the hour.

Ansys Inc.
Image Source: facebook.com

By 1991, SASI had 153 workers with an annual turnover of $29 million, which was a 10 percent market share for software analysis for finite elements. SASI purchased Compuflo in 1992, and the software for fluid dynamic analysis was commercialized and developed. In 1993, Mr. Swanson sold his majority stake in the firm to TA Associates, a capitalist firm. The following year Peter Smith was appointed CEO and the software, Ansys, was renamed SASI.

Ansys Products and Services

Ansys Discovery and accurately addresses important design questions early in the process. It eliminates long waits for simulation results to increase efficiency and performance. Engineers can now concentrate on creativity and product success thanks to Discovery. With Ansys SpaceClaim, you can reduce simulation prep time and easily build 3D models. By accelerating the geometry development process, these tools enable designers and analysts to concentrate on the simulation performance.

With Ansys VRXPERIENCE, you will enjoy an active sound quality and sound design solution. Recorded sound, CAE acoustics simulation effects, and Active Sound E-Motor noise, Aeroacoustics sources, Engine vibrations, and EV all have their own special tools.

Ansys Additive Prep optimizes component orientation by auto-detecting support regions and individually configuring them to construct different 3D printing support types. Ansys Additive Print takes the guesswork out of printing. Gain insight into how parts can behave during a build and take corrective actions to ensure that the parts are installed correctly the first time.

To accelerate embedded software development ventures, Ansys offers model-based embedded software development and simulation environment with a built-in certified automatic code generator. Ansys embedded software solutions provide a wide range of powerful capabilities to assist you in developing secure and stable software designs more quickly.

They offer the industry’s gold standard simulators for antenna, RF, microwave, PCB, package, IC design, and even electromechanical devices. These solutions assist you in resolving any electromagnetic, temperature, SI, PI, parasitic, cabling, and vibration issues that can arise in your designs.

Ajei Gopal, The President and CEO of The Company

Ajei Gopal has been the president and chief executive officer of Ansys since January 2017. Ajei worked as an operating partner at Silver Lake, a major private equity technology investor, from 2013 to 2016. During his time at Silver Lake, he was seconded as interim president and chief operating officer at Symantec Corporation. He was a senior vice president at Hewlett Packard from 2011 to 2013. From 2006 to 2011, Ajei served as executive vice president at CA Technologies. He was executive vice president and chief technology officer at Symantec Corporation from 2004 to 2006.

Ajei Gopal previously served as CEO and a member of the board of directors of ReefEdge Networks, a company he co-founded in 2000. From 1991 to 2000, he worked at IBM, first at IBM Research and then in IBM’s Software Group. Ajei is also a director on the board of Citrix Systems, Inc., a multinational software corporation.

CDW

CDW Corporation – A US-based company delivering IT services to government, schools, and non-profit organizations.

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Established in 1984, CDW Corporation is a provider of B2B IT services and products to the various entities of the US government and also state and federal government. The company also provides its IT services to various schools and organizations and non-profit health organizations. Apart from the United States, the company has its branches in Canada and the United Kingdom. Michael Krasny established the company as MPK Computing back in 1984. Today, CDW has approximately 10,000 employees and it has become a Fortune 500 company and member of the S&P 500 Index.

Founding Story of CDW Corporation

Michael Krasny, back when the company was a newborn, took a small ad in a free circulation newspaper because he wanted to sell his computer and printer. From this moment, he got the idea of renaming it as Computer Discount Warehouse which simply became CDW. The first national advertisement run by the company was in 1985 in PC World Magazine and after two years the company published its first catalog. In 1987, CDW started offering their first services and helping customers set up their computers. Eventually, the workforce expanded and they started hiring more technical expertise.

CDW Corporation
Image Source: upload.wikimedia.org

Within less than a decade of the company’s establishment, it completed its first IPO in 1993, and its sales summed up to $247million. CDW Corporation was hiring new employees at a high rate and by 1995 it had more than 500 employees which tripled after three years. In 1997, the company established headquarters in Vernon Hills, IL, and celebrated its $1billion sales mark. Next year, a new sector of CDW was founded called CDW G which aimed exclusively at helping government and educational customers. By the end of the late 90s, CDW’s sales reached $2billion.

CDW in the 21st Century

In 2001, John Edwardson became the new CEO and Chairman of the company. The company listed on number 435 in the Fortune 500 company this year and the sales rose to $3.96billion. After a couple of years, the company made a big investment as it bought Micro Warehouse Canada, an asset of Micro Warehouse. In the following years, the company opened Western Distribution Center in Las Vegas, launched CDW Healthcare, opened new data centers and offices in various states. In 2006, the company acquired Berbee Information Network which was a top-tier reseller of IBM, Cisco, and Microsoft products and services.

On 12th October 2007, Madison Dearborn Partners and Providence Equity Partners from Chicago acquired CDW for $7billion. But the company again went public in 2013 through an IPO in the NASDAQ market under the name CDW Corporation. CDW Finance Corporation and CDW LLC are wholly owned subsidiaries. CWD Canada which is the Canadian branch of CDW has received a lot of recognition and ranked 25th in the category of large and multinational companies.

In 2011, the company started a new campaign called People Who Get IT which focused on new technology that solves everyday business problems. In 2013, the company ranked 267 in the Fortune 500 list. CDW established a new partnership with Dell, acquired a UK-based company Kelway and recently acquired Scalar Decisions, a Canadian solution provider. In 2019, Christine Leahy became the new CEO of the company. 

Currently, CDW is selling a wide range of products starting from hardware equipment to providing IT solutions. Starting from computer accessories to ethernet cables and projectors, cameras, drones, microphones, smartwatches, CDW is selling every tech I can think of. The company also sells software for business applications, security purposes, communication, etc. It also provides ample of choices brand-wise.

Michael Krasny – Founder of CDW Corporation

Born in the early 1950s, Michael Krasny is a famous American billionaire hailing from Illinois. Krasny went to the University of Illinois Gies College of Business and graduated in 1975. His career started by working as a Toyota car salesman but he left his job in 1981 and started learning computer programming. But, Krasny was unable to find steady work so he was forced to sell his own computer. While selling his computer, he understood that computers are having great demand and this gave birth to his new and successful business idea. Under his leadership, the CDW Corporation flourished but he left the company after the deal with Madison Dearborn Partners became successful.

TSMC

TSMC – The World’s First and Most Valued Semiconductor Foundry.

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Taiwan Semiconductor is home to many world-famous technology companies, and several foreign companies have also established their manufacturing units in this small country. Along with that, Taiwan Semiconductor is also known for being the headquarters for the world’s largest dedicated independent (pure-play) semiconductor foundry, i.e. TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited).

TSMC is a semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It designs, manufactures, tests, and ships integrated circuits as well as other semiconductor devices to its worldwide customers. TSMC is one of the largest semiconductor companies in Taiwan, with its chips being used in almost every piece of electronic equipment, from smartphones, laptops, and video game consoles to data centres and F-35 fighter jets.

A Brief Introduction

TSMC is a Taiwanese company with its headquarter located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu. The company was founded in 1984 and has most of its shares owned by foreign investors. TSMC mainly deals in the manufacturing of Integrated circuits and related services and serves with the brand names CyberShuttle prototyping service, Open Innovation Platform, and eFoundry online services. WaferTech, TSMC PRC, and SSMC are some of its subsidiaries.

TSMC recorded net annual revenue of NT$1.07 trillion in 2019, with 51,297 employees working for it in its global offices. As per the 2020 records, the company can manufacture 13 million 300 mm equivalent wafers per year. Apple, Huawei, Sony, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and HiSilicon are some famous names that are the permanent clients of TSMC, and the list of clients for the company goes as long as 500 companies from across the world.

The Founding Story of TSMC

The late 70s and the beginning of the 80s was the time when semiconductor technology was emerging at a high pace. In 1985, the Taiwan government appointed Morris Chang, a Taiwanese businessman, having more than 25 years of experience in the field of the semiconductor industry, to help them bring the technology to Taiwan. After establishing the first non-profit research institute ITRI in 1986, the Taiwan government, along with Chang, established the world’s first dedicated semiconductor foundry named TSMC in 1987. TSMC was a joint venture between the Taiwan government with 21% shares, Dutch multinational electronics conglomerate Philips with 28% share, and other private investors owning the rest of the shares in the company.

TSMC
Image Source: openthenews.com

TSMC was founded at the time when companies like Intel, NEC, Fujitsu were already making their chips. But the business idea behind TSMC was to provide the other companies with the chips manufacturing service, saving lots of time and money for them. This idea attracted many customers for TSMC, not only from Taiwan but also the big-name companies from Silicon Valley.

When TSMC had just started its journey, IDMs was ruling the industry. But just in ten years in the business, TSMC was at the level of IDMs. In 1997, the company got listed on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the first Taiwanese company to do so. The years 2000 onwards have been the year of pure growth for the company, and it added clients like AMD, Apple Inc., Broadcom Inc., Marvell, MediaTek, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Xilinx, NXP, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments to its customer list.

By the year 2011, TSMC had increased its research works by 39%. The same year the company also started the trial production of A5 SoC and A6 SoCs for Apple’s iPad and iPhone devices. In 2013, it was among the 100 most valued companies in the world on the FT Global 500 list. In 2014, TSMC was producing A8 and A8X SoCs for Apple, and it became the exclusive producer of A9X. The company surpassed the market capitalization of Intel in 2017 and became the world’s 10th most valuable company in 2020.

Morris Chang, The Founder TSMC

Morris Chang is known as one of the famous businessmen and the founder of TSMC. He was born in Ningbo, Chekiang, on 10 July 1931 and was brought up in British Hong Kong due to the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1951, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and obtained a graduate and postgraduate degree in mechanical engineering.

TSMC Founder
Image Source: forbes.com

After completing his education, he joined Sylvania Electric Products, and after working for three years at the company, he joined Texas Instruments in 1958. The latter sponsored Chang’s doctorate, and he joined Stanford University in 1964 to complete a PhD in electrical engineering. Chang spent 25 years of his career at Texas Instruments and was leading the company as the group vice president of its worldwide semiconductor business in the later years. After leaving TI in 1984, he also worked as the COO and president of General Instrument Corporation for one year.

The Taiwanese government wanted to work in the field of semiconductor, so it called back Chang to Taiwan and appointed him as the chairman and president of the newly established Industrial Technology Research Institute in 1985. Under his leadership, TSMC has become the largest semiconductor foundry in the world. During his time at TSMC, he served the company at various ranks, including the chairman and the CEO of TSMC. He retired as the CEO on 5 June 2018 from TSMC.

NTT Corporation

NTT Corporation, One of the Largest Global Telecommunication Carriers.

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Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation offers telephone, telegraph, leased circuits, data communication, terminal equipment sales, and other telecommunications facilities. Within Japan, the company offers both local and long-distance telecommunications services.

NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) is one of the world’s largest telecommunications carriers, with nearly 310,000 people worldwide. It is selected by up to 88 percent of the top 100 firms in the Fortune Global Business Ranking “Fortune 500,” an annual business journal published in the United States. The corporation was formed in accordance with the NTT Law (Law Concerning Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Etc.).

A Small Backstory of NTT

NTT was established in 1952 as a public entity and Japan’s sole telecommunications company. NTT was a significant factor in Japan’s dominance in the computer microchip industry due to its need for increasingly advanced electronics equipment and its willingness to use large financial resources in support of technological research and development. The corporation was designing non-telephone linking technologies for electronic data systems and fiber-optic telecommunications services in the 1980s.

NTT Corporation
Image Source: cdn-japantimes.com

The Company’s Vision

Various social issues have arisen, such as global population growth and resource and water scarcity, as well as a falling birth rate and an aging population in Japan. To address these issues, it has become critical in all situations to advance digital development through the use of ICT (information and communication technology), as suggested in “Society 5.0.”

As “The Value Partner,” NTT Group will strive to address social challenges by advancing digital change through its business practices, using its various management tools and skills, such as research and development, ICT technology, and manpower, and partnering with its partners. NTT Group claims that resolving social problems can help to achieve a wise world through the use of ICT and the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The skills and programs of NTT Group for tackling social problems have already earned high acclaim in Japan and abroad. Furthermore, in terms of ensuring and running dependable ICT infrastructure, they have high-quality and dependable facilities, such as maintenance and protection dependent on strong networks.

The B2B2X Model

The promotion of the B2B2X model is one of the main pillars of NTT Group’s initiatives aimed at achieving a smart society. The B2B2X model is not a service that NTT Group offers directly to customers, but rather a model in which NTT Group assists service providers in delivering different value-added services to their customers by providing a range of ICT resources such as AI and IoT.

NTT Group has previously collaborated on the B2B2X platform with a number of member companies and local municipalities, but will now step up efforts to promote a model that makes use of digital services and data storage. The Company would increase the number of projects developed as B2B2X model enterprises from 13 in the current fiscal year to 100 by the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, by these types of initiatives.

NTT Personal Customer Services

The Company implement “personal solutions” customized to each particular customer, headed by NTT DOCOMO, and assist customers in making lifestyle improvements. Rate contracts have been substantially updated to include better value and easy rates, and the company wants to update electronic purchases and personal contents in terms of facilities. Furthermore, NTT wants to enhance connectivity with and individual customers by using AI and big data.

NTT Corporation
Image Source: mms.businesswire.com

The Company will be able to capture market prospects and minimize business risks by encouraging ESG management that is adequately attentive to “climate,” “social,” and “governance”-related issues, resulting in continued gains in the corporate value.

In terms of distributions, NTT’s simple strategy is to raise dividends steadily. Furthermore, in terms of equity buybacks, the company wants to continue to carry out buybacks in a flexible manner in order to increase resource productivity in the future.

Jun Sawada, The CEO of NTT

Jun Sawada was born on the 30th of July, 1955. He is a Japanese businessman who has served as president and CEO of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) since June 2018. Sawada joined NTT in April 1978 and has held a number of senior roles at the firm since then. In June 2018, he took over as CEO after Hiroo Unoura.

NTT Group’s Mission Before and After COVID-19:

The company anticipates two significant changes in our culture and lives. The first would be the institutionalization of remote communications for the purpose of psychological distancing. The second would be a shift in the nature of globalism, as retaining social distance restricts the flow of individuals, goods, and capital. These developments would fuel a movement toward shifting supply chains built on a regional basis around the world to more globally installed supply chains, resulting in a new approach to “glocalization.”

Philips

Philips – The Journey From Home Lighting to Healthcare.

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Philips started as a bulb manufacturing company and is still known as one, but there is more to it. The company has also emerged as one of the biggest healthcare technology companies. For its healthcare wing, the company works in three divisions, i.e., Personal Health, Connected Care, and Diagnosis & Treatment. For the past more than 120 years, the company has evolved as an innovative leader in the industry and is counted among the largest conglomerate. The company recorded annual revenue of €19.535 billion, with 81,592 employees working for it worldwide. 

A Brief Introduction

Philips is a multinational conglomerate mainly known for the production of audiovisual equipment and lighting. Gerard Philips and his father Frederik Philips founded the company on 15 May 1891 in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The company started as the manufacturer of the light bulb, but today its product list also includes a vast range of lighting products (including smart lights and home systems), audio products (wireless speakers, DJ mixers, Radio systems, hi-fi systems, headphones, etc.) as well as healthcare products (clinical informatics, imaging systems, diagnostic monitoring, etc.).

Philips
Image Source: channelnews.com.au

The Establishment of Philips

Gerard and his father Frederik started the Company in an empty factory building in Eindhoven in 1981, beginning with manufacturing the carbon-filament lamps and other electro-technical products. Though the two founders had high hopes with the company, they were unable to get a hold of the market. In 1895, Gerard’s younger brother, Anton, who was also an engineer, joined the company as a sales representative. The addition of Anton helped the company to get on the right track, and it started to grow.

By 1908, the Philips brothers had established the Philips Metaalgloeilampfabriek N.V. (Philips Metal Filament Lamp Factory Ltd.), and in four years, they founded Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken N.V. (Philips Lightbulb Factories Ltd.)., becoming a multinational company known as Philips Corporation.

In the 20s and 30s, the company experimented with the production of vacuum tubes, the first electric razor (Philishave) of the US, and radios (Chapel). The Philips razors are still a part of the Phillip product and quite popular among people.

In the late 30s, the company also experimented with the Stirling engine to promote the sales of its radios and developed an experimental engine capable of producing 16 W of shaft power. The generator became quite popular, and the company launched many versions of it. The ‘reversed Stirling engine’ cryocooler generator is the most popular among all the Philips Stirling engines.

Anticipating the danger of the Germans in the Netherlands during World War II in 1940, Anton Phillip with his other family members moved to the US, taking most of the Company’s capital. They established the North American Philips Company as part of Philips Corporation and moved the operations of the Eindhoven factory to Netherlands Antilles to keep the business running in the Netherlands. The company’s first factory in Eindhoven was destroyed during the war. As soon as the war ended the company headquarter was moved back to Eindhoven.

The Journey Afterwards

By the end of the 1940s, The company started to produce television sets and established a record label with the name Philips Records. In 1963, the company launched the audio Compact Audio Cassette tape and brought the first combination portable radio and a cassette recorder to the market. These recorders later became hugely popular as the boom box.

In 1972, the company launched the world’s first home video cassette recorder, and with time, enhanced its capabilities accordingly. The Company also introduced the first commercial LaserDisc standard and players and partnered with Sony to launch Compact Disc in 1982. The Company also tried its hands in the development of ICs and joined forces with ASM International in 1984, forming ASML.

At the beginning of the 90s, the company saw a financial loss. As an effect of that, it renamed N.V. Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken to Philips Electronics N.V. and established a new corporate division with the name Philips Electronics North America Corp in the US. In 1997, the company headquarters was also moved to Amsterdam. The company established a manufacturing unit for its semiconductor business in Silicon Valley in 1998.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the company entered into the healthcare technology business and acquired the Optiva Corporation renaming it Philips Oral Healthcare. The next year, the company completed the acquisition of Agilent Technologies’ Healthcare Solutions Group. The same year it also partnered with LG for a joint venture LG.Philips Displays. The company in order to expand in the healthcare business acquired Lifeline Systems (2006), Ximis, Inc. (2007), Respironics, Inc. (2007), and VISICU (2008).

In 2013, the company was renamed Royal Philips N.V., and in September 2014, the company split its operations into two major divisions, i.e., healthcare and consumer lifestyle. The company became more focused on healthcare and acquired companies like Volcano Corporation (2015) and Spectranetics Corp (2017). It also completed major investments in companies like Mytonomy (2017) and DEARhealth (2019). This led to the spinning off of Philips’ lighting division and the formation of an independent public company named Philips Lighting N.V., which later in 2018 was renamed Signify N.V.

The CEO: François Adrianus van Houten

Philips CEO
Image Source: ml-eu.globenewswire.com

François Adrianus van Houten is the current CEO of Royal Philips Electronics. Houten has an old connection with the company, as he is the son of one of the board of directors of the company. He was born on 26 April 1960 in the Netherlands and completed his graduation in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. As soon he completed his education, he joined Philips Data Systems, and since then he has been to different major positions in the company. In November 2014, he was appointed as the CEO of Philips Semiconductors, followed by holding the position of CEO at NXP in 2008. Finally, on 1 April 2011, he became the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Philips Electronics.