As Cree has released on its website, the company has reached an agreement to sell its lighting products business unit (“Cree Lighting”), which includes LED lighting fixtures, lamps and corporate lighting solutions business for commercial, industrial and consumer applications, to Ideal Industries Inc. for approximately USD 310 million.

As Cree stated, this agreement continues its strategy, announced in February 2018, to create a more focused, powerhouse semiconductor company. The funds raised by the sales of “Cree Lighting” provide growth capital for Cree’s company Wolfspeed which focuses on the power and RF business.

                      
The expansion of the semiconductor operations and additional global focus are further advantages related to the sales of the general lighting business. As Cree stated it, the company “… has made significant progress over the last 18 months in sharpening the focus of our business to become a semiconductor powerhouse in Silicon Carbide and GaN technologies.”  

Cree will further intend to position itself as a more focused semiconductor leader with technologies at the forefront of the automotive industry’s transition to zero emission electric vehicles, the telecommunications industry’s move to faster 5G networks and the continued ramp up of LEDs for specialty applications. The closing of the sales transaction is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019.sm