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A winner has emerged in the sweepstakes to buy troubled Internet of Things (IoT) lighting specialist Organic Response. Swedish lighting vendor Fagerhult Group has picked up the Australian company's intellectual property (IP) and some of its assets for an undisclosed sum. The impact of the deal could stretch to other significant players in the solid-state lighting (SSL) and IoT sectors.
Organic Response's sensor-equipped smart lighting technology resides inside luminaires and helps LED lighting systems double as data collection devices, enabling facilities managers to make better use of buildings by observing things like room use and occupancy. The company's technology also automates the process of commissioning indoor lights so that they know when to turn on, off, up or down and thus improve energy efficiency.
But the pioneering six-year-old Melbourne firm struggled financially and entered administration on Feb. 24, leading to speculation that one of its customers such as Fagerhult, Feilo Sylvania or GE might buy it. Other possible rescuers included energy utilities E.ON and Exelon Corp., who had both invested in the firm .
Fagerhult has now stepped forward.
"We have acquired the IPR (intellectual property rights) and assets of Organic Response due to the significant value and potential we see in their lighting control products and analytics technology for our Group businesses,” Fagerhult CEO Johan Hjertonsson said in a press release. “Lighting controls and data analytics is an increasingly important part of the lighting solutions space and Fagerhult looks forward to working on further developing the Organic Response technology platform and bringing new solutions to our end customers.”
The press release implied that Habo, Sweden-based Fagerhult is not buying all of Organic Response's assets. Rather, it said Fagerhult is acquiring “certain of the assets” which “relate to the lighting control and building analytics solution known under the Organic Response brand name.”
The company did not reveal the purchase price. Hjertonsson could not be immediately reached by LEDs Magazine for elaboration. A month ago he indicated that Fagerhult would consider both an acquisition and in-house development as a mean of expanding its IoT capabilities.
“It's quite a new thing to the industry with IoT and connectivity,” Hjertonsson told this reporter in an article in LEDs' sister publication Lux Review . “So it's not that easy to say exactly how it will play out. But it will have a large effect on the industry, that's for sure. Exactly what shape or form, it's too early to say. These are quite costly technologies to implement, and I think that size matters in terms of resources to handle that and invest in that.”
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