December 15, 2021

The Most Notable Lighting Acquisitions of 2021 (so far)

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Big names and boutique brands were involved in a flurry of 2021 M&A activity.

The pandemic didn’t slow down acquisition activity in the North American lighting industry. We reported over 20 acquisition announcements this year, involving big companies, small brands, mainstream product portfolios, architectural specialty products and more.

Here are the lighting manufacturer acquisitions that were among our most popular stories of 2021. Stay tuned for our forthcoming feature story that highlights some of the M&A activity among lighting agents.

1. GE Current, a Daintree Company, to purchase Hubbell Lighting

With a closing date expected to occur in the next 2-3 months, Current's acquisition of Hubbell Lighting will likely be a 2022 acquisition, but it was clearly the biggest M&A announcement of the year.

Purchase price is $350M.
Hubbell Lighting's 2020 revenues were $515M. Read more…
inside.lighting published its over-analysis of the big news. Read more...

2. ams OSRAM sells two pieces of its Lighting Portfolio

Acuity Brands Acquires OSRAM Digital Systems: The addition of the OSRAM Digital Systems gives Acuity Brands a very large family of engineered lighting components including drivers, power supplies, LED light engines. This will enable Acuity to grow its portfolio of offerings through the OEM channel while also becoming more vertically integrated – consuming its own drivers and modules for its own luminaires. Read more...
inside.lighting broke the story about ams Osram’s Digital Lumens & Encelium brands being sold to a private equity firm, but also notable was ams Osram’s complete silence about the acquisition as the brands just disappeared from the ams Osram website one day in September. Read more…

3. Panasonic sells Universal Lighting Technologies (ULT) to a private equity firm

ULT and Douglas Lighting Controls were spun off from the Japanese electronics behemoth and purchased by a California based Private Equity firm.
The move reportedly shifts the working culture for ULT & Douglas employees – as being a small division of a $73 billion Asian company is a much different culture than being a more autonomous private equity portfolio asset.
Read more…

4. Current buys Forum Lighting

In 2020 Current made headlines for its unsuccessful bid to purchase architectural downlight brand, Edison Price Lighting.
In 2021, Current acquired Pennsylvania-based architectural lighting maker, Forum Lighting
The company has not been shy about indicating its desire to continue with strategic acquisitions. Our interviews with CEO Manish Bhandari and CRO Chip Taylor share more insights.
Read more...

5. Signify buys Telensa

UK-based Telensa is best known for being a leading connected streetlight platform.
While there haven’t yet been any noticeable North American reverberations from the July acquisition, we are curious to see how the strength of Signify and Cooper Lighting will eventually amplify the Telensa brand in the U.S. & Canada
Read more...

6. Luminii acquires two architectural lighting brands

inside.lighting once again broke the news of a lighting acquisition as Luminii acquired two British lighting brands, Precision Lighting and Remote Controlled Lighting.
Luminii executives Jeff Parker and Paul Crisp shared insights into the newly-acquired brands and the company’s acquisition strategy.
Read more...

7. Southwire acquires Topaz Lighting

Distributor-focused, stock-and-flow lighting brands took note when $5.5 billion Southwire, the U.S. leader in wire and cable category, adds a broad offering of general lighting products to its portfolio.
Read more...