Date: 04/11/2010

3 LED Lighting makers raise $800 million in two months, says Strategy Analytics

The LED industry appears poised for a new phase of growth, with three companies alone raising close to $800 million in the past two months, according to the Strategy Analytics report, "Has LED Lighting Reached a Tipping Point?" Strategy Analytics believes that the three public offerings indicate both the accelerated adoption of LED backlighting technology and some very early signs of the move toward solid-state lighting.

Strategy Analytics reported inside the space of one week, Aixtron and Veeco Instruments, the two key vendors of MOCVD equipment for volume LED production, raised a combined total of $360 million and cited strong backlogs in orders for MOCVD equipment. Those two offerings followed a similar move by leading LED chip manufacturer Cree, which raised net proceeds of $434 million and recently announced the decision to build a new facility in China.

"Strategy Analytics believes that this backlog represents orders for some 200 production reactors that can be expected to come on-line during 2010," said Asif Anwar, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductors Service. "Both Aixtron and Veeco will need to add production capacity, and will have to invest in technology development for subsequent demand cycles."

"LED-based backlighting has reached a tipping point where we expect to see significant acceleration of the market for LED-backlit LCD TVs from 2010 on," added Steve Entwistle, VP of Strategy Analytics' Strategic Technologies Practice. "The financial moves also indicate concrete plans for future growth phases of the LED market with solid-state lighting for general lighting applications."
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