I know I probably sound like an idiot right now, but what on earth is the difference between FEILO Sylvania, LEDVANCE (who markets SYLVANIA products under license) and OSRAM Sylvania.

I know about LEDVANCE being bought out by a Chinese consortium, but what about the other two???

Anybody have a detailed background about the three/how they wound up as three separate companies using the Sylvania name?

My understanding was the split occurred back in 1993 when General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) sold off the GTE Sylvania division in order to focus on their core telecom business. The split occurred due to laws prohibiting one of the major lampmakers from taking over the entire Sylvania division hence a arrangement was made where the North American operations of Sylvania was taken over by OSRAM GmbH of Germany and renamed to Osram Sylvania. The rights to the Sylvania trademark were also acquired and this part of Sylvania was referred to as Osram Sylvania. Osram kept ownership of this part of Sylvania until 2016 when they decided to spin off their lighting division (incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, HID, finished LED products etc) and focus on semiconductors. The lighting division was reorganized into LEDVance and subsequently sold off to a Chinese consortium, along it were the rights to use the Sylvania trademark in North America, creating the entity known as LEDVance Sylvania.

Felio Sylvania originated from the international assets of GTE Sylvania. This division was originally known as SLI (Sylvania Lighting International). SLI was originally a independent entity but was later acquired by Havells of India in 2007, which formed the entity known as Havells Sylvania. This lasted until 2016 when Havells sold off the majority of this part of Sylvania to Shanghai Feilo Acoustics Co. Ltd. of China and the entity known as Felio Sylvania was formed.   

  Wow, thanks for the great amount of detail.

I heard there was a lawsuit, Osram v. LEDVANCE for misuse of the Sylvania name?

Also, had the quality of either the Chinese consortium Sylvania or FEILO suffered from these buyouts?

@joseph_125: Interesting, thanks for sharing.

Never heard of the lawsuit, so that’s news to me. In regards to quality, Ledvance is a complete joke. Their products don’t deserve to carry the Sylvania trademark. For example their “germicidal” LED bulbs during covid. The quality (at least with their HIDs) went from exceptional under GTE, then presentable under Osram, to pathetic under Ledvance. As expected more jobs were sent to China with Ledvance, in addition to other cost-cutting measures. Buyouts can be hit or miss… I believe wether or not Ledvance took over, the quality would’ve likely still declined especially with the economy.

https://www.ledsmagazine.com/architectural-lighting/article/14188770/osram-sues-ledvance-for-alleged-sylvania-trademark-violations

Are LEDVance’s household A19 bulbs any better??

Also, more recently: https://inside.lighting/news/23-03/escos-dispute-ledvance-goes-jury-trial 

(…)

Are LEDVance’s household A19 bulbs any better??

Not really but I’ve heard the halogens are okay.

 

What brands HAVEN’T dropped their quality from the “good old days”?

Like, we’ve got Chinese-owned LEDVANCE, 3,500 hour GE, and seizuring Feits.

Is Philips still alright, or have they too suffered the same fate?

I mean, I’d really hope Philips is alright, as uh, they OWN the streetlight sector with their Signify brand. So if their quality is slipping, than so will their subsidiaries (ie Cooper).

Also, I have to ask: why have lamp qualities decreased so greatly over the last couple of years? I get companies want to make more of a profit, but what about those days where electricity was dirt cheap and light bulbs would last for 100,000+ hours? Why can’t manufacturers step up to the plate and make higher quality bulbs? Their revenue would drop in the short term, but they’d make much more as time would go on…

@obsessedstreetlight24: The most likely reason that the quality of legacy light sources is declining every year is because the demand for them is getting lower as time progresses. Since the introduction of the mainstream household LED lamp in 2011, people since then have been buying more and more LED products, which means manufacturers have turned their attention towards the demand for them. Therefore, the market is more focused on the higher demand (LED) rather than the lower demand (everything else). Why spend extra time, effort, and money producing a product that the majority of buyers don't want?

I guess you have a point: I mean, my parents DID purchase a set of A19 Feit LEDs back in 2011, and then a few more sets each subsequent year. So, demand for LEDs started back in 2011, and has just grown steadily as time has gone on.

I also have to ask though: if companies refuse to make quality non-LED lamps, then why are these household names ALSO pushing out hot LED garbage? (Case in point, GE with their 3,500 hour lifespan, Sylvania with their “Germicidal Lamp”, Feit with their superior unreliability, EcoSmart with tendency to seizure out for no good reason, Cree which is hit or miss (I feel like, again, that their older products were much higher quality than what is produced now), etc.

It’s almost all of the name brands that produce garbage. I guess Sylvania still knows how to make their A19 LEDs, as my entire house is filled with them, and have had only two “dimmings” over the last what, 7 years?

But where’s everyone else???