Philips International history

The company's fortunes began to change with the appointment of Wisse Dekker as president and chairman of the board in January, 1982.

Philips did not start production of VHS players until 1984.

A third system using 0.3inch- (8-millimetre-) wide tape was introduced in early 1985.

1986: Philips introduces the optical disk and the compact disc; and Cornelis van der Klugt becomes the president.

Van der Klugt also made an effort to globalize the company's structure, improving profitability; in 1988 Philips's profits rose 29 percent.

Philips sold its Dutch defense electronics subsidiary, Hollandse Signaalapparaten (HSA) to Thomson S.A. of France at the end of 1989 and put other European defense subsidiaries (and interests) up for sale shortly thereafter.

The first specific actions under the program were the imposition of an additional 35,000 to 45,000 reduction of jobs and the withholding of dividend payments in 1990.

In 1991, the company's name was changed to Philips N.V. In July of that year, the company announced a plan to reduce working capital and the size of its property portfolio by several billions of guilders within several months.

In June 1992, Philips announced that both its second-quarter and full-year earnings would fall sharply.

By 1993, Philips' cost-cutting measures, the sale of its interest in Japan's Matsushita Electronic Industrial Co., the liquidation of its debt, and improvements in results in its Consumer Electronics and Consumer Products divisions produced an annual profit of Dfl 856 million.

Though such a strategy proved successful in numerous other ventures, Philips wrote off most of its $175 million investment in the failed Whittle venture in 1994.

Responding to new burgeoning applications for semiconductors, the company also beefed up its semiconductor research, signing a cooperative agreement with IBM in January 1995 to develop new semiconductors in a jointly owned facility in Germany, while forging ahead in DRAM process know-how.

Cor Boonstra assumed the chairmanship in October 1996.

Nevertheless the virtual meltdown of Asian financial markets and the consequent decline of Asian and Latin American demand for Philips products contributed to a 56 percent decline in operating income for 1998.

By 1999, the company's income had increased substantially.

In 2000, Philips bought Optiva Corporation, the maker of Sonicare electric toothbrushes.

To increase revenues, Philips launched a DVD recorder in 2001.

The company sold its 75 percent owned PolyGram unit and announced the closure of about a quarter of its worldwide factories by 2002.

In December 2005 Philips announced its intention to sell or demerge its semiconductor division.

On 21 August 2006, Bain Capital and Apax Partners announced that they had signed definitive commitments to join the acquiring consortium, a process which was completed on 1 October 2006.

On 21 February 2008 Philips completed the acquisition of VISICU Baltimore, Maryland through the merger of its indirect wholly owned subsidiary into VISICU. As a result of that merger, VISICU has become an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Philips.

In January 2011 Philips agreed to acquire the assets of Preethi, a leading India-based kitchen appliances company.

In March 2012 Philips announced its intention to sell, or demerge its television manufacturing operations to TPV Technology.

In April 2013, Philips announced a collaboration with Paradox Engineering for the realization and implementation of a “pilot project” on network-connected street-lighting management solutions.