Hard drives and computers are so yesterday. Saving energy is so tomorrow.
After a year on the sidelines, Bill Watkins wants to build Bridgelux into a big company
This according to Bill Watkins, former CEO of Seagate Technology and, as of Tuesday, CEO of Bridgelux.
Watkins captained the ship at the world’s largest hard drive maker for five years before leaving last January. He says his goal is to now “scale up” Bridgelux into one of the dominant providers of energy saving LED lighting arrays.
“I want to make a big company,” he says. Computers and hard drives? “I’ve done that. This is about energy efficiency.”
Watkins sees sizeable opportunities for Bridgelux in the $100 billion general lighting market. LEDs will someday replace traditional incandescent bulbs and more energy conscious compact fluorescents, with the change over starting in the commercial and government markets and slowly coming to the residential business.
High prices that have constrained sales will steadily decline, he says. Bulbs that sold for $90 a year ago still cost a pricey $40. That will go to $10, says Watkins. And “it will happen very fast.”
An LED lighting array from Bridgelux. The company says an IPO is possible
He adds that Bridgelux has an enviable position in the market, even though it is a small company battling large competitors, such as Sharp and Toshiba, both of which will enter the market this spring.
The company has better technology, a broader spectrum of light in its bulbs and lower costs. It also offers a more complete product to lighting manufacturers. It is vertically integrated, combining an LED chip with optics, electronics and a substrate to create an array that can be easily assembled into a fixture.
So, will Watkins steer Bridgelux to an IPO? The answer is quite possibly yes. “Never go into a private company not thinking about an IPO,” he says. “We will look at this.”
But probably not right away. That’s because the company also Tuesday announced a more than $50 million round of venture funding that should close in two weeks. The round was over subscribed with more investors angling to get in than Bridgelux could invite.
The money should last the company for some time, says Watkins. At least long enough for this former computer era CEO to burnish his clean-tech image.
Posted by Mark Boslet 
After a couple weeks hiatus, hard disk drive prices are heading downwards again.
