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Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

nec corporation

NEC Corporation – Story of a Japanese IT and Electronics Company Previously Known as Nippon Electric Limited.

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Established in 1899, NEC Corporation has come a long way in the industrial venture and witnessed different phases of it. When the company was established by Kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda, it was named Nippon Electric Limited Partnership. The company rebranded itself as NEC Corporation in 1983. It is based in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and operates on a global basis with more than 100,000 employees. The main products of the company are telecommunications equipment, supercomputers, software, electronics, servers, etc. In 2017, the company was featured on the Fortune 500 list.

About NEC Corporation

When the company was established, it mainly focused on the manufacturing and sales of telephones and switches. But, in order to survive, evolution is of utmost importance. Hence today, NEC corporation is not only thriving in the electronics industry but also known for offering cloud computing and IoT platforms. The company was the biggest PC vendor in Japan in the 1980s and also became the fourth largest PC manufacturer in the world. In the 21st century, NEC Corporation has spun off its semiconductor division to Renesas Electronics and Elpida Memory. Last year, when the US banned Huawei’s 5G equipment in the country, NEC geared up to fill that void in both the US and UK.

NEC Corporation
Image source: www.industryglobalnews24.com

Establishment of Nippon Electric Limited

Kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda bought facilities from Miyoshi Electrical Manufacturing Company which helped them establish Nippon Electric. Western Electric, an American manufacturing company, and Nippon formed a joint-stock company in July 1899 which became Nippon Electric Company (NEC). This marked the first-ever joint venture of Japan with a foreign company. Initially, the company started out with the production and sales of telephones and switches and opened a plant at Mita Shikokumachi in 1901. The telephone subscribers started increasing in Japan in the early 1900s which increased the market potential for NEC. With the implementation of the telegraph treaty between Japan and China, NEC entered the Chinese market in 1908 followed by entering the Korean market as well.

Turmoils in the 20th Century

As the market started expanding for NEC, four of its factories were destroyed during the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. But, NEC got back on its feet very quickly and started the radio communications business in 1924. Western Electric was the prime supplier of broadcasting equipment for NEC. The company also established a radio research unit and by 1934 supplied China’s Xinjing station with a 100kW radio broadcasting system. NEC provided the Japanese Ministry of Communications with A-type switching systems and non-loaded line carrier equipment before World War II.

World War II marks the darkest days in history not only for NEC but for entire Japan. The company suffered heavy losses and some of its plants were completely damaged due to bomb attacks and foreign relations were also disrupted. By the end of 1944, the production of NEC reduced drastically. When the situation started getting back to normalcy, NEC re-opened the major plants in 1946. The company started investing significantly in R&D and won the Deming Prize for its excellent quality control. In 1954, computer research and development began in NEC and it designed Japan’s first crossbar switching system. NEC eventually expanded its market to North American and European territories as well.

Present Day NEC Corporation

The 21st century for NEC began with a joint venture with Samsung for manufacturing OLED displays. NEC also collaborated with the UK government and provided projectors for school students. In 2002, the electronics division of NEC became a separate entity rebranded as NEC Laboratories America Inc. NEC built the Earth Simulator which was the fastest supercomputer in the entire world for two years (2002-2004). Participating in the automobile industry marked a joint venture with Nissan in 2007 for producing lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. In 2012, a huge economic crisis struck NEC and it was forced to cut 10,000 jobs. Currently, the principal subsidiaries of NEC Corporation are NEC Corporation of America, Netcracker Technology, NEC Europe, KMD, Avaloq, and NEC Display Solutions (majority stake sold to Sharp Corporation).

Takashi Niino – CEO of NEC Corporation

Takashi Niino is the current CEO of NEC Corporation. He joined the company in 1977 and became the CEO and President in 2016. In this time spent in NEC, he was offered several roles like executive general manager and executive vice president. He completed his education at Kyoto University.

Sprint Corporation

Sprint Corporation – An American Telecommunication Company With its Root Back in the 19th Century.

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Sprint Corporation, in the past 122 years, has taken up various names and went through multiple mergers and acquisitions. Originally founded by Cleyson Brown and Jacob Brown, Sprint Corporation is currently a part of T-Mobile US as a result of the merger that took place in April 2020. The history of Sprint Corporation is related to two other companies, namely, Brown Telephone Company and Southern Pacific Railroad from where it originated. The main services of the company are mobile telephony, wireless communication, internet services, and broadband. The headquarters of the company is based in Kansas, US. After the merger of Sprint with T-Mobile US last year, Sprint has become a subsidiary of T-Mobile and the brand name has also been phased out.

The Parent Companies

In 1899, the Brown Telephone Company was established by Clayson Brown. The company was established to avail of telephone services for the first time in rural Kansas. In 1900, the Brown Telephone Company rolled out its first long-distance circuit and grew popular in no time. It gave a strong competition to Bell Telephone Company which was the most famous operator in those days. In 1911, Brown merged the company with other independent entities to form the United Telephone Company. The name of the company changed to United Utilities followed by United Communications in 1972.

The second parent company, Southern Pacific Railroad, was founded in the 1860s as a subsidiary of Southern Pacific Company (SPC). SPC formed a new division in the 1970s to leverage the power of existing communication technology for long-distance calling. This division was named Southern Pacific Communication Company. With the expanding business of SPC, it gave strong competition to AT&T and a strong rivalry existed between them. In the mid-1970s, SPC decided to change its name to SPRINT which is the acronym for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.

Sprint Corporation
Image source: moneyinc.com

Sprint Corporation in the 20th Century

In 1983, a company called GTE Group acquired SPRINT and the long-distance telephony of SPC. After three years, a merger took place between the GTE Group and United Telecommunications Inc. property, US Telecom which named the new company as US Sprint Communications. After a few years, United Telecom gained full control of the US Sprint and officially renamed the company Sprint Corporation. The next decade was followed by Sprint entering the Canadian market and forming an alliance with Call-Net Enterprises. In 1995, it established a new partnership with American Personal Communications for creating digital wireless networks. Sprint struck deals with another company called RadioShack for communication services and products across the US market.

Present Days

In 2004, a massive merger took place between the Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications. The new company was known as Sprint Nextel Corporation. When this merger took place, both the companies were two of the leading telecommunication companies in the US. In the next few years, Sprint Nextel acquired a series of companies including US Unwired, IWO Holdings, Gulf Coast Wireless, Alamosa Holdings, Enterprise Communications, and many more. This continuous series of acquisitions of both affiliates and non-affiliates took place till 2009.

After the merger, the company had two headquarters, one in Virgian and the other one in Kansas. Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint realized that it sent the wrong message to the public and hence made a single headquarters of the company in Kansas. In 2012, a renowned Japanese telecommunications company, SoftBank showed interest in buying a 70 percent stake at Sprint Nextel for $20.1 billion. The acquisition was completed after a year when the US Federal Communications Commission approved it. Last year, the company was acquired by T-Mobile US and the brand name of Sprint ceased to exist.

Founders of Sprint Corporation

Cleyson Brown is the main founder of the Brown Telephone Company which eventually became Sprint Corporation and is now a part of T-Mobile US. Jacob Brown, brother of Cleyson Brown helped him to found the Brown Telephone Company. Cleyson Brown is mainly famous for founding the Brown Telephone Company but he was also a famous innovator and a philanthropist. Before founding the telephone company, he established Abilene Electric Light Works for generating electricity.

STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics – A Multinational Company Which is the Largest Semiconductor Chip Maker in Europe.

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STMicroelectronics is the largest semiconductor chip maker in terms of revenue in Europe. The company uses the most advanced innovations intelligently and efficiently for making chips. STMicroelectronics company was established as a result of merging a French and an Italian company in 1987. The companies are, namely, Thomson Semiconducteurs (French) and SGS Microelettronica (Italian). STMicroelectronics is mostly famous as ST. The main headquarters of the company is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Since ST operates across the globe it has other headquarters in various regions including Texas, Singapore, Shanghai, and Tokyo. The company is currently led by Jean-Marc Chery (CEO and President).

About STMicroelectronics

The chips manufactured today are highly complex because of their multipurpose functions and high efficiency. In everyday life, we use devices that have several chips integrated into them. And, it is through these chips that ST is creating a big influence in our life. We are not even aware of how often we use products that have ST chips embedded in it. From factory machines to an electric toothbrush, ST has its advanced chips embedded everywhere. ST currently has 46,000 employees and more than 100,000 customers who have created a strong community. With extensive collaboration and advanced research labs, ST is very dedicated to R&D. Every year, 16 percent of the total revenue of the company is invested in R&D across the world. The company’s main target is to become carbon neutral and operate fully in renewable energy by 2027.

STMicroelectronics
Image source: www.eetasia.com

History of Company

In 1987, the merger of Thomson Semiconducteurs and SGS Microelettronica, two government-owned semiconductor companies marked the foundation of ST. After the merger, the new company was named SGS-THOMSON, and then it was renamed STMicroelectronics in 1998 as Thomson sold its shares. The company soon became one of the leading semiconductor manufacturers and ranked among the top 20 semiconductor suppliers. ST became a publicly-traded company in 1994 as it filed its first IPO both in Paris and New York Stock Exchange.

ST expanded its business in other continents as it started acquiring geographically diverse businesses from the late 1980s. It started off with the acquisition of Inmos, a British company in 1989 followed by the semiconductor division of Nortel, a Canadian company. In 2000, ST acquired WaterScale Integration Inc, a company based in California for flash memory-based chips. In 2002, ST acquired the microelectronics division of Alcatel which helped the company enter into the wireless-LAN market. ST also acquired a leading company in video processing technology called Genesis Microchip (a US-based company) in 2007. This company has design centers in Asian countries as well which strengthens the market of ST even more. ST also went into a joint partnership with Motorola and TSMC for designing a new tech. The company eventually became one of the top 5 companies from ranking in the top 20 list within a decade.

Present Day

ST’s strong passion to build more efficient products based on advanced tech led to another joint venture with Intel in 2007. This partnership started in the memory application called Numonyx and it led to the merger of ST and the activities of Intel Flash Memory. NXP is one of the leading semiconductor companies and in 2008 ST announced a joint venture with the company for their mobile activities. Another partnership started in 2009 which included Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless.

ST is currently working on three major fields, namely, Smart Mobility, Power & Energy, and IoT & 5G. The company has designed car electrification solutions that will help manufacturers build better electric vehicles at affordable rates. ST has always focused on better energy management and being an active participant in the green technology movement, the company is using wide bandgap materials like Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride for saving energy.

Jean-Marc Chery – CEO of STMicroelectronics

Jean Marc Chery, an engineer by profession, has been serving as the President and CEO of the company since 2018. Jean was a part of the Thomson Semiconducteurs before the merger and worked in various management positions, product planning, and manufacturing. He is also the President of the European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA), President of the European microelectronics R&D program AENEAS, etc.

atos

Atos – A French IT Company Formed By A Series Of Mergers In The Late 90s.

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Atos is a famous French multinational IT conglomerate. Though the company officially launched in 2000, the history of its origin dates back to the late 90s. The company’s headquarters is based in Bezons, France. The main products of the company are IT services and consulting which includes cloud platforms, cybersecurity services, big data, unified communications, etc. Atos provides services on a global scale to multiple industries like financial services and insurance, healthcare & life science, manufacturing, public sector and defense, telecommunication and media, logistics, etc. The founder of the company is Bernard Bourigeaud and the present CEO is Elie Girard.

The Founding Story of Atos

The story of Atos dates back to 1996 when a company called Origin B.V. was founded by the merger of two companies. The two companies are Philips Communication & Processing division and BSO, a Dutch company. In 1997, the company was established as a result of a merger between Axime and Sligos, both French companies. In 2000, another merger took place between Atos and Origin B.V., and together they formed Atos Origin.

Atos
Image source: wsj.net

Early Years, Acquisitions, and Spin-Offs

In 2001, the company sold one of its divisions (Nordic Operations) to WM-data. In the subsequent years, Atos made big acquisitions by acquiring KPMG Consulting (in the UK and Netherlands). In 2004, the company acquired SchlumbergerSema (IT division of Schlumberger) and Itellium (only the infrastructure division). In 2004, the company also created a new subsidiary called Atos Worldline and made the Atos Consulting division more pronounced. The part of the company that originated from the Philips C&P during the early merger was sold to Fujitsu. The company has business across various continents but in 2005 and 2006 the company sold its part of Nordic and the Middle East business.

Bernard Bourigeaud, after founding the company, also played the role of its CEO till 2007. He was replaced by Philippe Germond in that year but again in 2008, Philippe was replaced by Thierry Breton. After a couple of years, the company acquired Venture Infotek, an Indian payment company, and expanded its business into the Indian market. Later in 2010, the company acquired the IT Services subsidiary of Siemens for €850 million. In 2014, Atos bought a controlling stake in Bull SA and Xeros’s IT Outsourcing business. The latter acquisition tripled the size of the company in the North American market. Atos, in 2018, went into a partnership with Google Cloud to offer secure AI systems. In July 2021, the company announced the acquisition of Visual BI, a leading company that exclusively focuses on Cloud Data Analytics and Business Intelligence.

Atos in Fighting COVID-19

Atos gathered all its technology and innovation resources to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. It supported the scientific community with its computing power and helped in accelerating vaccine research. Last year, to help the local authorities contain the spread of the virus, Atos created EpiSYS. It is an epidemic management system (EMS) that was built to store and manage all patient data and give healthcare professionals a view of the present epidemiological situation on a real-time basis. Company high-performing supercomputers were also put at work to support the European research teams with large computing resources. The company is also involved in data science projects which is more like a challenge launched by the White House to answer questions regarding the COVID-19 using data science tools.

About the Founder

Bernard Bourigeaud has done more than just founding Atos. He is also the founder of Axime, one of the leading IT services and payment companies in the world. Bernard founded Atos seven years after founding Axime and stayed as the CEO of the former. When he stepped down from Atos Origin, the company generated annual revenue of more than $5 billion and operated in more than 50 countries. Before he became an entrepreneur, he worked at Deloitte and Haskins & Sells for many years. He studied economics and management and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

ASE Group

ASE Group – Story Of A Chinese Semiconductor Company Founded By Two Brothers.

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The ASE Group is also known as the Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. Jason Chang and Richard Chang founded the company in 1984. ASE Group is a publicly-traded company that mainly provides independent semiconductor assembling and testing services. The company’s headquarters is based in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and it operates on a global scale. The ASE Group and the Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) decided to form a new holding company in 2016. While the companies retained their legal entities, management, and staff there was a change in their operating models and independent operations.

About ASE Group

Being a leading provider of independent semiconductor manufacturing services, ASE Group offers turnkey solutions for front-end engineering tests, IC packaging, design of interconnect materials, etc. The entire process of semiconductor manufacturing consists of several steps, and among them, ASE is capable of a front-end engineering test, water probing, packaging, and final testing. ASE has a team of highly experienced and skilled engineers to strive to conduct rigorous research and develop the most advanced assembly technologies. To date, the company has 18 smart factories and 48,000 employees worldwide.

ASE Group
Image source: businesswire.com

A Brief History Of Tthe ASE Group

Jason Chang and his brother Richard Chang founded the ASE Group in 1984. They established their first plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Currently, Jason Chang serves as the Chairman of the company. The company had crossed several big marks in due time and became the world’s largest provider of independent semiconductor test manufacturing services and assembly. In 2018, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc became a part of the ASE Technology Holding Company Ltd and it is listed both on NYSE and Taiwan Stock Exchange.

Before the company went into a joint venture with SPIL, ASE Group’s market capitalization summed up to $8.77 billion. Last year, the company established its first 5G mmWave smart factory. ASE Group is very much focused on creating a sustainable environment and it has also won various awards for sustainability. A few months ago, the company achieved the 20 million tons mark of saving water with its water management strategy.

Advanced Technologies And Sustainability

ASE Group is the largest company on a global scale for independent semiconductor manufacturing tests and assembly. The company was able to reach the top with its leading advanced technology and volume production. ASE Group has developed advanced packaging technologies with the time that can be used for electronics packaging over a broad range of sectors from healthcare to smart homes. Some of these technologies are Fan Out Packaging, System-in-Package, 2.5D & 3D, etc.

Pledging towards developing a greener environment is becoming a common goal for every industry. ASE Group is continuously engaged in finding ways to optimize waste generation and minimize greenhouse gas emissions along with recycling as many resources as possible. Since 2012, ASE has been making improvements to its existing facilities and also constructing new manufacturing facilities maintaining the international Green Building Standards. ASE Group currently has 18 smart factories and one of them became the world’s first semiconductor packaging plant to get a certification of low carbon building. Five times in a row, ASE became the industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. Also, ASE continuously associates with various NGOs, academic institutions, government, and other stakeholders of the company for supporting social development.

About The Founders

Jason Chang is a Taiwanese/Singaporean billionaire according to the Forbes 2020 billionaires list ranked 836. Jason Chang is an electrical engineer who completed his education at National Taiwan University followed by the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is the recipient of the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International SEMI Award (2015).

Richard Chang is the Vice President of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering. His total worth is approximately $6 billion. He is also an investor who along with Jason Chang is investing in Sino Horizon (a Chinese real estate developer).

Airtel

Airtel – An Indian-based Company Operating Second Largest Mobile Network Across The Globe.

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Airtel is a telecommunication company that every Indian has heard of as well as people abroad. It is not only the second-largest telecom operator in India but also across the world. Sunil Bharti Mittal is the founder of the company. The company’s headquarters is based in New Delhi, India and it operates in 18 countries. The main services of Airtel are mobile services (2G, 4G LTE, 4G+), voice services, and fixed-line broadband. Airtel’s business strategy especially of outsourcing has made it successful in a few years. The IT support for the company is provided by Amdocs and it also made the partnership with Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers for the transmission network. Let’s have a better look at the history and operations of the company.

The Founding Story Of Airtel

Before the push-button phones were made in India, they were imported from Taiwan to replace the rotary phones. In 1984, Sunil Mittal started assembling the components of these push-button phones in India instead of importing them. To manufacture these phones, Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) tied up with Siemens AG (a German company) and eventually started production. Sunil Mittal bid for one of the four mobile phone network licenses that were auctioned in India and finally his plan was approved in 1994 and he launched the telecom services in Delhi.

Sunil Mittal was the first Indian entrepreneur who spotted the potential of telecom services in the Indian market and beyond and grasped it quickly. Within a few years of launch, Bharti crossed the 2 million subscriber mark and brought STD/ISD under the brand name “India one.” From 1999, Bharti Enterprises started acquiring other businesses spread across India. The company also launched an Airtel theme song which gained much popularity in India.

In 2008, Airtel was considering acquiring the MTN group which is a South African telecommunication company. The company is spread across 21 countries and it has several subsidiaries which would have been very advantageous for Airtel. But, the deal was not fixed as MTN tried to make Airtel one of its subsidiaries. The discussions went on for a long time but after one year, the idea was dismissed. In 2010, Airtel acquired Zain mobile networks in 15 African countries and this acquisition became the second-largest Indian overseas acquisition after Tata Steel. Gradually, Airtel expanded to several other countries and climbed the ladder to becoming one of the largest telecom networks in the world.

Airtel
Image source: indiatvnews.com

Expansion, Mergers, And Acquisitions

After the MTN Group acquisition plans fell off, Airtel succeeded in acquiring Zain which made Airtel the fifth-largest wireless carrier in the world in terms of subscribers. In 2010, the company acquired a 70.9 percent stake in Warid Telecom and the remaining was sold to Bharti Airtel Holdings in Singapore. The same year, the company planned to acquire Telecom Seychelles which operated in 19 countries. After two years, the company acquired a 49 percent stake in Wireless Business Services Private Limited and it gave the company a stronger 4G presence. The other companies that Airtel acquired are Augere Wireless which gave Airtel 4G presence in Central India (partially), Indian assets of Telenor, Tikona Digital Networks Pvt Ltd, Tigo Rwanda followed by Tata Teleservices and Tata Docomo.

As mentioned earlier, the presence of Airtel outside India is also very strong. In Bangladesh, it operates as Robi and in Sri Lanka as Airtel Sri Lanka. Airtel Africa includes 15 African countries under the network. Some of the countries are Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, etc. Airtel also has network operations in the Channel Islands which include Jersey and Guernsey.

About The Founder

Sunil Bharti Mittal is the founder and chairperson of Bharti Enterprises. He is an Indian billionaire, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He graduated from Punjab University in 1976 and started his first business by borrowing the capital from his father. After a few years, he started a trading company with his brothers. The trading business included importing various equipment from other countries and one of them was push-button phones from Taiwan. But, in 1981 the government of India suddenly banned the import of specific items which led him to assemble the push-button phone in India. This is how he took the first step towards building the emperor of Bharti Airtel. He is the recipient of Padma Bhushan.