Philips

Philips traces its origins to May 15, 1891, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, when engineer Gerard Philips and his banker father Frederik founded a small factory to manufacture carbon-filament light bulbs. In 1895, Gerard's younger brother Anton joined the growing business, bringing sharp commercial instincts that helped transform the family workshop into one of Europe's largest lighting manufacturers within just a few years — and Philips built a dedicated research laboratory, the "Light Tower," in Eindhoven in 1914 to keep pushing that innovation forward.

Over the following century, Philips became a genuine engine of consumer technology breakthroughs: pioneering radio and vacuum tube technology in the 1920s, launching the enormously successful Compact Cassette format, co-developing the Compact Disc with Sony, and introducing the Philishave electric razor in 1939. Alongside consumer audio and visual equipment, Philips built a parallel legacy in healthcare technology that would eventually become the company's primary focus.

Now headquartered in Amsterdam and known as Royal Philips, the company has evolved into a global leader in health technology while its licensed consumer electronics and audio products continue to carry the Philips name into homes worldwide — living up to the brand's own promise: Innovation and You.