Press information
License for using Osram´s know-how:
Strategic cooperation between Osram and Samsung Corning in flat lamps
Osram is granting Samsung Corning a licence to use Osram know-how in the development of flat lamps / main application: flat screens / Osram will be participating in high market growth in Asia.
Osram GmbH, Munich, one of the two largest lighting manufacturers in the world, today announced that it is granting Samsung Corning Co Ltd., Seoul, a subsidiary of the Korean Samsung Group a licence to manufacture and market flat lamps. This licence is based on Osram’s patents and know-how.
The main application for flat lamps is backlighting for flat screens for desktop monitors and televisions. Flat lamps are particularly important for LCD televisions with picture diagonals greater than 30 inches. iSuppli/Stanford Resources, the market research institute, expects demand to increase from around eight million units in 2004 to around 20 million units in 2006.
"For us, Samsung Corning is an ideal strategic partner for the mass application sector", said Dr. Wolf-Dieter Bopst, President and CEO of Osram. "We shall be participating in the high growth of the Asian market with a manageable financial outlay." The world’s largest manufacturers of flat screens are all based in Asia. "Osram will continue to operate independently in attractive specialist markets such as medical engineering, industrial applications and special-purpose luminaires", added Dr. Bopst. The production facilities in Herbrechtingen in Germany will concentrate on these special applications.
Background information
There are two product groups that are used for backlighting LCD flat screens for desktop monitors and televisions. The classic model is the mercury-based linear fluorescent lamp. The innovative model is the flat lamp. It has an extremely long life (up to 100,000 hours), is very flat (around eight millimetres thick) and provides homogeneous backlighting with a constant luminance.
About the companies
Osram is one of the two largest lighting manufacturers in the world. Sales in the year ending September 2003 totalled €4.2 billion, 88 percent of which outside Germany. Osram has developed from a classic light bulb manufacturer into a high-tech company in the lighting industry. Around 40 percent of sales comes from innovative products. This global player employs more than 35,000 people worldwide, supplies customers in some 140 countries and has 54 production facilities in 18 countries.
In 2003 fiscal year, Samsung Corning records sales $895 million from CRT glass, ceramics, ITO coating, and PDP filter business, most of which take first, second, and third position in worldwide market share. Currently, Samsung Corning operates 5 production bases in Korea, Malaysia, Germany, and China, and 3 regional offices, and total employs of 5500 people.
Press contact:
OSRAM
Reglindis Pfeiffer
Tel: +49-89-6213-2305
Fax: +49-89-6213-3457
Email: reglindis.pfeiffer@osram.de