Cree, the LED lighting company based in Durham, will host President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House announced today.

Obama will tour the company and make remarks to workers at Cree, again. Obama made a similar stop at Cree in May 2008 when the Democratic presidential candidate was stumping for votes in North Carolina.

During his visit to the Triangle on Monday, he's also scheduled to meet with his new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which he appointed this winter. The council is made up of private-sector industry leaders, including General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly and Intel CEO Paul Otellini.

Gov. Perdue is scheduled to make an economic development announcement today at the Research Triangle Park offices of LED maker Cree Inc.

The announcement is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Last week the Durham County commissioners approved a $2 million economic incentive package for Cree to manufacture a new generation of LED chips in Durham County.

The Durham company is also considering sites in China and Malaysia for a $392 million expansion that would create an estimated 244 local jobs and 86 contract positions, and produce $8 million in county revenue, Durham Chamber of Commerce CEO Casey Steinbacher said.

Deputy County Manager Carolyn Titus said $825,000 would be reserved for job-training Durham residents to work on the new chips.
 

Add the hallowed halls of Congress to the places Cree's LEDs are being installed.

Or least the cafeteria in Washington's Rayburn House Office Building. Think of it as illuminating a dining hall of power using less power.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C. took partial credit for the news. In a press release from her office, Hagan wrote that she sent a letter last fall to the Senate Rules Committee encouraging them to select Cree's LEDs for new, energy efficient lighting.

The light-emitting diodes made by Durham-based Cree are being adopted by cities, schools, retailers and other customers eager to embrace LEDs, which are more expensive than traditional lights, but last much longer and use much less power.

Cree stock shot up this morning after UBS upgraded the Durham company's stock from neutral to buy.

UBS analyst Ahmar Zaman also raised the target price from $60 to $92, citing increased demand for LED lighting.

Cree develops and makes LEDs.

After Zahman's report, the company's stock rose 8 percent to $76.29 in early trading.

Cree's lighting is about to get perhaps its biggest test: illuminating streets in the 'Land of the Midnight Sun.'

Valdez, Alaska, has signed on to be part of the Durham's company's LED
City program. The city is converting all of its 343 street lights to
use LEDs made by Cree.

LED maker Cree plans to announce a new jobs initiative Thursday.

The company said today that CEO Chuck Swoboda and Gov. Beverly Perdue intend to jointly announce "new green jobs" at a press conference at Cree's headquarters in Durham on Thursday afternoon.

Cree spokeswoman Michelle Murray declined to fill in the blanks.

But Swoboda may have foreshadowed the upcoming announcement in August, when the company reported its earnings for the fiscal fourth quarter that ended June 28. Swoboda disclosed then that Cree was increasing capacity at its plants in Durham and China and hiring additional workers in response to strong demand, but said the company hadn't yet set hiring targets.

Cree has about 3,500 full-time workers, including 1,500 in Durham.

The company hasn't been buffeted by the recession. Revenue for the latest quarter was $148.1 million, up 9 percent from a year ago, and the company projected that revenue in the current quarter would range from $160 million to $166 million.

When Cree announced a $300 million expansion and the creation of 300 new jobs at its Durham plant in 2004, the state promised it up to $5.1 million in incentives.

LED lighting company Cree intends to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for capital expenditures, among other purposes, by issuing 11 million shares of stock, according to a filing made today with the Security and Exchange Commission.

At Tuesday's closing price, such an offering would raise more than $400 million before underwriting and legal fees. The underwriters also have an option to purchase an additional 1.65 million shares.

Today's SEC filing by Durham-based Cree was made after the markets closed.

Cree shares closed today at $38.40, up 96 cents. Shares have tripled since hitting a 52-week low of $12.57 in December.

The underwriters for the stock offering include J.P. Morgan Securities, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray, Morgan Keegan, Oppenheimer and America's Growth Capital.

The company said it would use the proceeds from the offering for an anticipated $150 million in capital expenditures in 2010, among other uses.