The divestment and realignment trend continues in the lighting sector as another market leader sells off its luminaries business and refocuses efforts on smarter technology. Munich-based OSRAM made a number of moves towards location based services and connectivity technology in the past few weeks and announced the sale of its lamps group Ledvance to a Chinese consortium at the beginning of March. Divestment has been a popular theme amongst the established lighting giants, with General Electric and Philips both undergoing significant restructuring in the past few years. While lighting remains central to their and OSRAM’s business, the moves point to a focus the information technology and data markets rather than pure illumination. For OSRAM, as it was for Philips, the sale was not as simple as, perhaps, it should have been. After being established as a separate entity in April last year, OSRAM agreed a $423 million (€400 million) sale of the division to IDG […]