Abstract
Philips Presentation
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., well known as Philips, is one of the biggest groups of the world in terms of electronics, household, music edition and medical equipment. In 2004, its sales reached € 30.3 billion and employed 161 586 people in more than 60 countries all over the world.
Philips is composed by several divisions: consumer lifestyle, semiconductor, healthcare and lighting.
In 2005, as electronic chips manufacturer, Philips is the 9th most important manufacturers of semiconductors.
History
The company was founded in 1891 by the Gerard brothers (1858-1942) and Anton Philips (1874-1951) in Eindhoven, in Netherlands. Its first products were electric bulbs and other electrotechnical products. The first manufacture is used today as museum.
In the years 1920, the company started to manufacture other products, like the first shaver, Philishave, in 1939. In United States, the brand name is Norelco. At the beginning of the 70's, Philips launched the cassette with audio ribbon with a broad success, but failed with its standard for the cassettes video ribbon, V2000, in favor of betamax and especially of VHS, cassette DCC (DIGITAL Compact Cassette) launched in November 1992 in partnership with Matsushita (Panasonic, Technics).
During the Second World War, on May 9th, 1940, the leaders of Philips were informed of the German invasion of the Netherlands on the following day. Then they decided to join the United States, taking along with them a broad portion of the capital of the company. So they kept the company working during the war from United States, having made it move (on paper), in the Dutch West Indies. After the War, Philips came back to Eindhoven. Many research centres had been hidden or padlocked, so after the withdrawal of the Germans, Philips could quickly restart its activities.
Some people thought that Philips has, before and during the war, provided equipment to the Germans, which led some to believe that they had collaborated with the Nazis, like several other companies of the time. However, no proofs exist indicating that Philips or its leaders sympathized with the Nazis or their ideologies. In addition, Philips was not able to prevent the occupant from using his manufactures and putting its employees at the forced labor.
