Royal Philips Electronics posted net income of €260 million ($368 million) in the fourth quarter of 2009, a strong showing – especially when compared to the $1.67 billion loss for the same period in 2008 – that was spurred in part by the company's healthcare products.

"Despite continuing weakness in the US market, our Healthcare sector managed to deliver another bumper quarter with sales broadly on par with the strong performance of last year and with significantly higher earnings," said Philips president and CEO Gerard Kleisterlee.

Despite the company's overall gains, its Philips Healthcare division did report a slight fourth quarter decline from last year, thanks to a difficult American market with providers hard-pressed to finance expensive acquisitions such as scanners and other imaging equipment.
 
Conversely, however, Philips reported robust growth for its home healthcare solutions and customer service products that "almost offset declines at imaging systems and healthcare informatics," according to HealthImaging.com.