Barely four days after a leading analyst put out a warning saying Color Kinetics’ stock had reached its full value, the Boston LED lighting company yesterday announced it had agreed to be purchased by Philips for a hefty $791 million, driving its stock up higher.
The announcement bumped the stock up nearly four points to a new high of $33.65. The sale marks the end of an era for the 10-year-old Color Kinetics, whose technology, as the Boston Globe‘s Carolyn Y. Johnson poetically reported, “illuminates the ziggurat silhouette of the Hyatt hotel on the banks of the Charles…and the wheel in the Wheel of Fortune.” Johnson’s very nice piece includes a photo gallery of some of Color Kinetics’ projects.
Author: Robert Buderi
Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative.
Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.
View all posts by Robert Buderi