Through the 20th century, it grew into one of the world's largest electronics conglomerates, with global market dominance in products ranging from kitchen appliances and electric shavers to light bulbs, televisions, cassettes, and compact discs (both of which were invented by Philips).

However, intense competition from primarily East Asian competitors throughout the 1990s and 2000s led to a period of downsizing, including the divestment of its lighting and consumer electronics divisions, and Philips' eventual reorganization into a healthcare-focused company.

Philips was instrumental in the revival of the Stirling engine when, in the early 1930s, the management decided that offering a low-power portable generator would assist in expanding sales of its radios into parts of the world where mains electricity was unavailable and the supply of batteries uncertain.

By the late 1940s, the "Type 10" was ready to be handed over to Philips' subsidiary Johan de Witt in Dordrecht to be produced and incorporated into a generator set as originally planned.

Production of an initial batch of 250 began in 1951, but it became clear that they could not be made at a competitive price, besides the advent of transistor radios with their much lower power requirements meant that the original rationale for the set was disappearing.

2 Group RAF undertook Operation Oyster, which heavily damaged the Philips Radio factory in Eindhoven with few casualties among the Dutch workers and civilians.

[21] Philips had developed a LaserDisc early on for selling movies, but delayed its commercial launch for fear of cannibalizing its video recorder sales.

Also in 1984, Philips split off its activities on the field of photolithographic integrated circuit production equipment, the so-called wafer steppers, into a joint venture with ASM International, located in Veldhoven under the name ASML.

In 2001, after growing the unit's Emerging Businesses group to nearly $1 billion in revenue, Scott A. McGregor was named the new president and CEO of Philips Semiconductors.

On 21 August 2006, Bain Capital and Apax Partners announced that they had signed definitive commitments to join the acquiring consortium, a process which was completed on 1 October 2006.

[citation needed] In 2006, Philips bought out the company Lifeline Systems headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, in a deal valued at $750 million, its biggest move yet to expand its consumer-health business (M).

[26] On 5 December 2012, the antitrust regulators of the European Union fined Philips and several other major companies for fixing prices of TV cathode-ray tubes in two cartels lasting nearly a decade.

[63] In April 2013, Philips announced a collaboration with Paradox Engineering for the realization and implementation of a "pilot project" on network-connected street-lighting management solutions.

The new brand positioning is cited by Philips to signify company's evolution and emphasize that innovation is only meaningful if it is based on an understanding of people's needs and desires.

[83] Past and present CEOs: CEOs lighting: Past and present CFOs (chief financial officer) Companies acquired by Philips through the years include ADAC Laboratories, Agilent Healthcare Solutions Group, Amperex, ATL Ultrasound, EKCO, Lifeline Systems, Magnavox, Marconi Medical Systems, Mullard, Optiva, Preethi, Pye, Respironics, Inc., Sectra Mamea AB, Signetics, Teletrol, VISICU, Volcano, VLSI, Ximis, portions of Westinghouse and the consumer electronics operations of Philco and Sylvania.

[91] On 18 December 2020, Philips and BioTelemetry, Inc., a leading US-based provider of remote cardiac diagnostics and monitoring, announced that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement.

In 2020, Philips introduced mobile ICUs in order to support clinicians to meet the rising demand of ICU beds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[109] Since 1972, its regional headquarters has been based in the central HDB town of Toa Payoh, which from the 1990s until the early 2010s consisted of four interconnected buildings housing offices and factory spaces.

[113][114][115][116] In 1998 Philips TV & Test Equipment was spun off as ProTeleVision Technologies A/S and sold to PANTA Electronics B.V. which was owned by a consortium of investors led by Advent International.

After the closure of the company's industrial operations, mainly manufacturing TVs in Monza and conventional light bulbs near Turin, Philips Italia exists for commercial activities only.

The company was a major supplier of defence electronics to the Swedish Armed Forces operating under the name Philips Elektronikindustrier AB with its final location in Järfälla, a suburb of Stockholm.

Production lines were added in the United States with employees working around the clock in factories producing ventilators, in Western Pennsylvania and California, for example.

In response to the ProPublica series, in August, the United States House of Representatives undertook a "congressional investigation" into the acquisition of the Philips ventilators.

Ignis,[citation needed] of Comerio, in the province of Varese, Italy, producing washing machines, dishwashers and microwave ovens, was one of the leading companies in the domestic appliance market, holding a 38% share in 1960.

[153] The Philips logo with the stars and waves was designed by Dutch architect Louis Kalff (1897–1976), who said that the emblem had been created as a coincidence as he did not know how a radio system worked.

From 1988 to 1993, Philips was the principal sponsor of the Australian rugby league team The Balmain Tigers and Indonesian football club side Persiba Balikpapan.

In June 2021, Philips announced a voluntary recall of several of its Respironics ventilators, BiPAP, and CPAP machines due to potential health risks.

Gradual degradation of foam in the devices, intended to reduce noise and vibrations during operation, could result in patients inhaling particulates or certain chemicals.

[156] The recall involved around 3 to 4 million machines which, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, contributed to a supply chain crisis impeding the availability of these devices to patients.

[165] In 2011, Philips won a $10 million cash prize from the US Department of Energy for winning its L-Prize competition, to produce a high-efficiency, long operating life replacement for a standard 60-W incandescent lightbulb.