During the past few years, Philips have struggled to compete in the TV market despite dominating in the old CRT market. One of the reasons for this failure is that the company like Hitachi and Fujitsu are known as being "Lousy marketers" up against powerful brands like Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba and Sony. This is despite the fact that Philips was one of the first to develop flat screen TVs in the early 1990s.
Last week the company was forced to sell down their shareholding in LG.Philips with many analysts now tipping that Philips will get out of the flat screen TV market to concentrate on lighting and the medical market.
Philips announced in October last year that it would reduce its shareholding in the LG.Philips business from 33 per cent to 19.9 per cent, however it has now been reported that the company is reducing its stake further to a measly 2-3%. The reduced stake will spare Philips about $3 billion – money that will probably be used toward proceedings to streamline the company's product offering.
