By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) – These days the average researcher at Philips is more likely to be a software developer than an product engineer, reflecting a transformation at the former Dutch conglomerate that its chief executive says will gather pace. “It's a huge shift,” Frans van Houten told Reuters, noting that around 60 percent of the healthcare technology company's R&D staff are now focused on software. It will not go to 100 percent, because we will still make products, but you could easily see that the value-add comes more out of software than hardware.” Philips has repositioned itself as a health business after spinning off lighting, which has freed up capacity for acquisitions such as last year's $1.2 billion purchase of blood vessel imaging firm Volcano.
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From smart toothbrushes to cancer, Philips bets big on software