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América Móvil

América Móvil – A Telecommunication Conglomerate founded by Mexico’s topmost billionaire.

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Founded in 1986, América Móvil is one of the largest telecommunication corporations in the world. The company is based in Mexico City and was founded by Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim. Through the last thirty-five years, América Móvil has successfully expanded its business through strategic plans and acquisitions. The company is one of the global leaders in wireless telecommunication, especially in Latin America. The company believes in providing better services and at the same time closely monitoring the company’s costs and expenses.

This Mexican company is based on the number of equity subscribers and is the largest Central American fixed-line operator. At the beginning of 2019, the company had more than 200 million wireless subscribers and around 84 million fixed revenue-generating units. The company receives half of its annual revenue from Mexico because of its Mexican subsidiary Telcel, the largest Mexican mobile operator. The América Móvil history dates back to the 1980s, so let’s have a look into it.

América Móvil before 2000

If speaking about the history of the company, it actually dates back to 1956 when Publicidad Turistica, an affiliate of Telmex was established. The company published telephone directories which in 1981 started installing and operating wireless telephone systems in Mexico. This company started working under the Telcel trademark in 1989. In the following years, Telcel started expanding as Telmex became a private company and its service quality dropped as well. In 1999, Telcel introduced a PCS system in Mexico and by the summer of 2000, the company had almost 9 out of 12 million cellular phone subscribers in the nation.

The Company in 21st century

While Telmex began acquiring new subsidiaries, the company decided to spin-off América Móvil as an independent company. During that time, América Móvil was Latin America’s largest mobile service provider. After América Móvil became an independent entity, the company was listed on stock exchanges in Mexico City, Madrid, and New York. Since Telcel was already booming, it formed the base of América Móvil. América Móvil eventually expanded its business and formed partnerships with Bell Canada International Inc. and SBC Communications Inc. They together formed a consortium called Telecom Americas Ltd.

América Móvil
Image Source: newsinamerica.com

This consortium was build to develop wireless communication and establish broadband in South America. In June 2002, Bell Canada International sold its 39 percent stake of the consortium to América Móvil. This time the business was booming in Brazil and also expanded to Venezuela, Argentina, and Columbia. The company had always focused on winning over mass customers by offering cheap fixed plans for a fixed number of minutes. The main idea of América Móvil was to get as many people as possible to have access to mobile phones. During this time the company’s expenses were ruthless but soon Slim’s lieutenants proceeded with a much better and strategic plan.

Acquisitions and Expansions

América Móvil eventually started making acquisitions and one of the biggest on the list was acquiring Brazilian BCP S.A. The acquisition was done for $643 million and after this América Móvil became the second-largest mobile phone operator in Brazil. In 2005, the company made a partnership with Ooredoo and in 2007 it acquired a Jamaican mobile operator, Oceanic Digital which was under the brand name MiPhone. The company operates under many brand names such as Straight Talk, Total Wireless, Telcel America, etc. This year, the company has decided to sell Tracfone to Verizon. América Móvil has nearly 2 lakh employees distributed across America and Europe.

Carlos Slim – The Founder

Born in 1940, Carlos Slim belonged to a family who was a part of a small yet prosperous Lebanese Christian community. Carlson’s father started investing in real estate and became a very rich man. Carlos was very interested in his father’s business and he took his father’s place in the company when he was only thirteen years old. Carlos studied civil engineering and worked as a stock trader in Mexico. With the money he earned as a stock trader he opened his own firm, Bursatil. In the early 1980s, during the peso crisis, Carlos bought a number of companies at depressed values and this turned his future.

Carlos Slim Founder of América Móvil
Image Source: nytimes.com

One of the companies he bought was América Móvil and under his leadership, the company made some strategic acquisitions and expanded in many other countries. Carlos says that it’s not his deep knowledge in telecommunication that made América Móvil a success but the strategy of reinvesting the profits into the business itself judiciously for growth.

Celestica International Inc.

Celestica International Inc.: Providers of End-to-end Product Life Cycle Solutions

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Some companies are not the mainstream ones, but without them, other mainstream companies may fail. Celestica International is an example of such a company that has been enabling the world’s best brands. The company equips its clients with the simplest solutions to their most challenging problems. It is a Canadian electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company with a huge client base across the world. Celestica provides its clients full-fledged services from the ideation of the product to full-scale production and renders its support even after the launch of the product.

Celestica International Inc.

Celestica International is a Canada-based EMS company. The company came into being as the branch office of IBM in Canada, but later it became an independent company. The company headquarter is located in Toronto, Ontario. The services of Celestica include design and engineering, hardware platform solutions, after-market services, precision machining, manufacturing services, logistics and fulfillment, supply chain services, etc.

Celestica International Inc.
Image Source: tangentia.com

Celestica International serves clients from different categories, i.e., enterprise, communications, consumer, aerospace, defense, industrial, alternative energy as well as healthcare across the globe. As of 2018, the company’s annual revenue was US$ 6.6 billion, and 28000 employees are serving the company worldwide.

History of the Company

The history of Celestica differs from most of the technology companies a bit. In the beginning, the current office of Celestica was the Canada branch of IBM. IBM used to manufacture the metal boxes for their mainframe computers at its Canada branch. Later, in the mid-90s, IBM was transitioning from a hardware manufacturing company to a software development and service company. This led to a spin-off of the Canada branch of IBM, and Celestica was formed in 1994.

Though IBM was still owning Celestica, it was unable to focus on the company entirely. So in 1996, IBM decided to sell Celestica and started to look for potential buyers. IBM held an auction between five companies, and with a bid of $750 million for a 69% share of the company, Onex Corporation acquired Celestica International.

Going into the hands of Onex Corporation, Celestica expanded as an independent company. The company in the very next year of its acquisition, in 1997, acquired the manufacturing unit of International Computers Limited, the Design to Distribution. The same year it went to buy a major share in the manufacturing lines of Hewlett-Packard followed by the acquisition of Ascent Power Technology.

In 1998, the company had its first IPO in the EMS field, where it rose $414 million. The very IPO is known to be one of the largest technology IPOs in Canadian history. The IPO made the company turn a revenue of around $3.2 billion annually. In 2005, Celestica became the first EMS provider to win the prestigious Shingo Prize for Lean Manufacturing award.

Acquisitions and Partnerships

Celestica, starting with International Manufacturing Services (IMS), made around eight acquisitions in 1998. In the year 2000, the company partnered with Motorola for the manufacturing of wireless telecom products. The next year, Celestica had another agreement with Lucent worth up to US$10 billion as an EMS provider. The company also made its largest acquisition in Asia by acquiring the Singapore-based EMS provider Omni Industries Limited. Celestica also announced its Global Design Operation in the same year.

With the acquisition of Manufacturers’ Services Limited (MSL) in 2004, Celestica was able to reach an even more expanded customer base. In 2005, the company acquired the flat-panel display repair services provider Displaytronix, followed by the acquisition of CoreSim, a leader in advanced design analysis and redesign services. In 2008 Celestica partnered with Microsoft to develop the BEE3 platform prototypes. In 2010, the company went on to take over the AlliedPanels and Invec Solutions, followed by the acquisition of Brooks Automation in 2011 and D+H Manufacturing in 2012.

The CEO: Robert A. Mionis

Robert A. Mionis is the president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Celestica. He was appointed as the CEO of the company in 2015. Before that, he was working as the President and CEO of StandardAero. Mionis started his career at General Electric (GE), followed by holding many powerful roles in companies like AlliedSignal, Axcelis Technologies, and Honeywell. Mionis has also been on the board of various companies working in different fields, including industrial, aerospace, healthcare, and automotive segments.

ASM International

ASM International: The Biggest contributors in the Growth of Semiconductor Technology

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The semiconductor chips or we simply call them the ICs, have transformed the world of information technology. The founding of the ICs has opened doors for many who wanted to try their hands on a new career through innovation. ASM is one such name that came into being during the time when the semiconductor industry started to pave its way. And today, the names ASM and semiconductor technology go hand-in-hand. The company started as a sales agent in semiconductor fabrication technology, and now, ASM is known as the pioneer of new semiconductor technologies like Photolithography, Epitaxy, Ion implantation, and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD).

ASM International

ASM has been functioning since 1968, the time when semiconductor technology was at its beginning too. The company has been working as a manufacturer of semiconductor wafer processing equipment for the fabrication of semiconductor devices.  The working of ASM includes designing, manufacturing, sales, and service of the semiconductor wafers. ASM International shines as one of the leaders in the industry and serves in various fields, including communications, entertainment, energy, transport, and medicine.

ASM International
Image Source: telegraaf.nl

The Origin of the Company

Arthur Del Prado founded AMS International as Advanced Semiconductor Materials in 1964 in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. He founded the company behind his house in a small shed, where he developed one of the first products of the company. In the very beginning, Advanced Semiconductor Materials was a sales office for semiconductor fabrication technology. In 1968, it registered as a private limited company.

In the next ten years, in 1970, ASM started its own designing and manufacturing unit for chemical vapor deposition equipment. With the hard work of Prado, ASM acquired a semiconductor molds manufacturing company Fico Toolings in 1974. The company also established its first international office in Hong Kong in 1975, which is known as ASM Pacific Technology today. In 1976, ASM had another office opened in Phoenix, Arizona.

In May 1981, ASM had its first IPO, and it was listed on Nasdaq. Del Prado believed in innovation and started to invest in new technologies like lithography, ion implantation, epitaxy, and wire bonding. This helped the company to grow at an even faster pace. The company then, in 1988, divested ASML Holding N.V. and ASM Ion Implant and ASM Fico to Berliner Electro Holding in 1993.

Different branches of ASM started to focus on diverse technologies to achieve faster results. The ASM Europe was working on the vertical low-pressure chemical vapor deposition furnaces, ASM Japan focused on plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and ASM America targetted the single wafer epitaxy.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the company was working on the 300-mm wafer technology and atomic layer deposition and introduced the latter in 2007. ASM was among the top ten global companies in the first Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Spectrum study, 2006. The 45nm node and the Pulsar ALD tool from ASM became the first system to be used in the high-volume manufacturing of devices using a new hafnium-based high-k dielectric material. In 2009, the company headquarters was shifted from Bilthoven to Almere, the Netherlands. Currently, the company is working on device geometries of 10nm and below.

The Founder: Arthur del Prado

Arthur del Prado is the name of the legend who has a great contribution to the field of the semiconductor industry. He was born on 17 November 1931 in Dutch East Indies. During the Second World War, he got separated from his family and was locked in a Japanese camp as a teenager. But fortunately, he met his family again after the war was over.

ASM International Founder
Image Source: asm.com

Del Prado joined the University of Twente and studied chemistry, and later, went to the University of Amsterdam to pursue a degree in economics. He also went for further studies at Harvard Business School in 1954. He came back to the Netherlands in 1958, and in 1964, he founded ASM International. Del Prado served ASM as the Chief Executive Officer until 2008 and as the Chairman until 2016. He passed away in September 2016 at the age of 85.

ASM Today

ASM International is known to be the biggest contributor to the growth of the semiconductor industry. The company is currently having its various branches in 16 different countries, and over 2337 employees are working for it. ASM is the major producer of the products in the Atomic Layer Deposition, Epitaxy, Chemical Vapor Deposition categories. Benjamin Loh is the current CEO of ASM International.

Telstra

Telstra: From a State-owned Enterprise to the Largest Privatized Company of Australia

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Telecommunication is one of the biggest industries in the world, despite that only a few names rule the said industry. One such name is Telstra, the largest telecommunication and internet service provider in Australia, that too serves several other countries and provides its services. The company deals in a wide range of network and communication products and services, including fixed-line and mobile telephony, internet, wholesale, retail internet, cable internet, ADSL internet, mobile broadband, satellite internet, dial-up internet, low-cost internet, subscription television, etc.

About The Company

With a history of more than 100 years, Telstra started as a government entity and turned to be one of the largest independent (public) telecommunication service providers in Australia. Apart from Australia, Telstra provides its services to other countries as well. It works in four separate units that include Telstra Consumer and Small Business, Telstra Enterprise (TE), Network and IT (N&IT), and Telstra Infraco. Telstra has its headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, and about 30,000 people are working for the company in its different offices across the world.

Telstra
Image Source: telstra.com

The Foundational Story of Telstra

It all started with the invention of the telephone and the telegraph. Australia got its first telegraph line in 1854, and in 1878, Australia tested its first long-distance call. The country then had started around 30,000 operating telephone services, but there were no authorities to handle the services. In 1901, the Postmaster-General’s Department (PMG) was appointed to control and maintain the telegraph and telephone services along with the postal services. By the year 1922, there were multiple trunk lines installed in the country, and PMG was still controlling the telephone service. In 1925, Australia got its first three-channel telephone carrier systems that enabled multiple calls on a single line.

In the next two decades, telephone communication was also established for international calling for some of the countries including Antarctica and Finland. In 1952, PMG adopted a new telephone system, i.e., automatic TRESS (Teleprinter Reperforator Exchange Switching System). In the next ten years, the introduction of coaxial cables revolutionalized the telecommunication field, such that these cables could handle thousands of calls simultaneously and could do TV retransmission.

In 1970, PMG had a spin-off, and the Australian Telecommunications Commission became a separate authority with the name Telecom. Telecom was offering international direct dialing (IDD) service for 13 countries in 1980, and by the next year, the demand for IDD increased by 800%. The company then introduced the first push-button telephone in 1978. Computerization was also becoming popular around the 80s, such that the first computerized exchange was established in Victoria in 1981.

In the coming ten years, the company was also working on providing mobile services to Australian consumers. In 1992, Telecom partnered with a foreign company named Telecommunications Corporation and formed Telstra. The newly built company introduced its internet services for personal and business clients with the name BigPond in 1996. It is now Australia’s largest cable internet service. In 1997, Telstra had its first IPO listing in ASX.

In the late 90s and the beginning of the 2000s, Telstra started to focus on mobile communication and internet services with BigPond. It also launched the BigPond Music and BigPond Movies services in 2007. Epitiro ranked Telstra as the top Australian ISP in 2009.

In the next two years, Telstra started its 4G services and even introduced pocket size 4G routers for its prepaid customers. In 2013, the company came up with the first-ever LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation network in the world that used the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum bands. In 2014, the company partnered with companies like Huawei and Ericsson to work on the LTE technology at advanced levels. As a result, Telstra launched the world’s first 450 Mbit/s LTE-A downlink with a Category 9 device. It also demonstrated the first live 5G trial in Australia partnering with Ericsson in 2016, followed by the launch of the world’s first Gigabit LTE-Advanced mobile network in 2017.

The CEO

Telstra CEO
Image Source: telstra.com

Andrew (Andy) Penn is the current CEO of Telstra. Penn joined Telstra in 2012 as the Chief Financial Officer, and later, in 2014, he was also appointed the Group Executive International. He was promoted to the position of the CEO of the company on 1st May 2015, and since then, he has been leading Telstra to get it at the top in the 5G technology. Before Telstra, Penn has worked in three different industries, i.e., telecommunications, financial services, and shipping, and has got over 40 years of working experience. 

ASML

ASML: The Semiconductor Industry Leader from the Netherlands

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Integrated circuits and semiconductors have not only reduced the size of computers but have also revolutionized the IT field. With time, the two got even more advanced technology, and still, there has been no other equipment found to replace them. There are few companies that are constantly engaged in making this equipment more and more advanced, but the top position is occupied by the Netherlands-based ASML. To be precise, ASML is the sole manufacturer of the most critical equipment that is used for chip-making for computers and other devices.

About The Company

ASML is the largest supplier of Photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry across the globe. The company’s headquarter is located in Veldhoven, Netherlands, and it was founded in 1984. ASML was a joint venture between two Dutch companies, i.e., the chip-machine manufacturer, Advanced Semiconductor Materials International (ASMI), and the electronics giant Philips. With its founding, the company got the name ASM Lithography, and now it trades with the name ASML. ASML is the manufacturers of photolithography machines for the production of integrated circuits. Photolithography is a process of drawing complex patterns in the smallest size on silicon substrate known as a wafer using ultra-high-performance lenses.  

ASML
Image Source: twitter.com

The Foundational Story of ASML

Though the company was founded in 1984, the R&D for the company had already begun 14 years before that. The ideation and R&D for ASML and its products started back in 1970. The two tech giants, ASMI and Phillips, founded ASML in a leaky shed near the Philips office in Eindhoven, Netherlands. ASML’s first product was the PAS 2000 stepper, launched in 1984. The success of its first product made ASML hire more than 100 employees within one year of its founding. It also moved to a new office in Veldhoven, the same place it has its headquarter located, in 1985.

In 1986, the company came up with another new product, PAS 2500, boasting the new alignment technology, the basis for many future innovations. By 1988, the company had started to work in foreign countries, having its first joint-venture foundry established in Taiwan. The company also began to expand in the USA, starting its first five offices in various locations, with more than 80 employees. Despite the expansion, the company was unable to make a mark in the rapidly growing competition and had to ask for financial help from Philips’ board member Henk Bodt.

Since ASML was continuously working on its R&D, the raised money was used well, and the company brought its pathbreaking product, the PAS 5500, in the early 90s. The launch of PAS 5500 provided ASML all the attention, and the biggest investors wanted to support the company financially. In 1995, ASML had its first IPO and went public on the Amsterdam and New York stock exchanges. With the IPO, Philips sold most of its shares in the company and slowly parted its way from ASML in the later years.

In 2001, ASML released its another revolutionary product, the TWINSCAN system, followed by the launch of TWINSCAN AT:1150i (first immersion machine) in 2003 and TWINSCAN XT:1700i (first volume production machine for immersion) in 2006. All these innovative launches by ASML helped the companies to reduce the size of the chip to an even smaller size. ASML then acquired the semiconductor and optimization solution manufacturing company BRION, such that now ASML independently could optimize the chip manufacturing process and apply real-time measurements and corrections to the chip.

In 2010, ASML introduced its first prototype Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tool, which could help to manufacture smaller but more powerful chips by making smaller chip features using the shorter wavelength light. To get better at EUV manufacturing and speed up the production, ASML then acquired the San Diego-based lithography light sources manufacturer, Cymer, in 2013. The company brought the NXE:3300 (second generation EUV) in the next year, and the NXE:3350 (third-generation EUV) came in 2015.

To solely rule the world of Photolithography systems, ASML then acquired the leading e-beam metrology tools supplier, Hermes Microvision (HMI), in 2016. In 2017, with this acquisition, ASML came up with the e-beam pattern fidelity metrology system (ePfm5).  According to 2019 data, ASML has registered more than 12000 patents to its name.

The CEO

ASML CEO
Image Source: asml.com

Peter Wennink is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ASML. He has been working with ASML since the year 1999. He started as the Executive Vice President and was appointed the CEO of the company in 2013. He is also a member of the Board of Management at ASML. Before ASML, Wennink has also worked with companies like Deloitte Accountants.

Ericsson

Ericsson: From Telephone Equipment Makers to the Biggest Player in Networking and Telecommunications

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The Generation after World War 2 and before the beginning of the new century has witnessed the biggest technology revolution in the history of technology. But few companies have been there from the beginning, and as a part of the revolution, they have contributed a lot than just watching things change. One such company, which has over 49000 patents in its name and has been adding its share to the development process for more than 150 years, is Ericsson. The company is one of the leaders in networking and telecommunications, constantly providing something to the ongoing technology revolution.

About the Company

Ericsson is a Sweden-based multinational telecommunication company. The company headquarters in Stockholm and has multiple offices in different countries. Ericsson is known for its contribution to the development of wireless technology and is also the founder of Bluetooth technology. It has 27% of share in the world’s 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, and currently, it is emerging as the biggest 5G technology provider. Ericsson also deals in software development and infrastructure development in ICT for telecommunications operators, development of equipment for traditional telecommunications, Internet Protocol (IP) networking, mobile and fixed broadband, cable TV, IPTV, video systems, etc.

The Foundational Story of Ericsson

The company’s history dates back to almost 150 years ago. It was founded in central Stockholm in 1876 by Lars Magnus Ericsson, who, before founding the company, worked for a telegraph equipment development company in Sweden. The idea behind opening Ericsson was quite simple, repairing the foreign-made telephones.

Only in two years of its founding, in 1978, Ericsson started to independently build and sell the telephone equipment. In the same year, the company bagged a contract from Stockholms Allmänna Telefonaktiebolag (the first telephone company in Sweden), where the company had to supply telephones and switchboards to them. This was a big step for Ericsson, and soon it was ready for its international expansion.

Ericsson
Image Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

In 1890, the company opened its first international factories in the UK, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand. In the next 20-30 years, the company was competing with its rivals in the US and China but continued to dominate the European telecommunication industry. With the major events taking place, including the World War, the Great Depression, etc., the company was losing its grip in the foreign as well as local markets. The company came under debt, leading to selling off its share to other companies.

In 1925, Karl Fredric Wincrantz acquired most of Ericsson’s shares. With this acquisition, they got rebranded as Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. Due to the first world war and other events taking place, the governments took the charge of the telecommunication operations. The government would grant the operations of the telecommunication operations on leases, and the company also managed to get some. This led the company to stabilize its condition in the telecommunication market.

Though the company was only providing the manual exchange design telephones, in 1956, it came up with the world’s first fully automatic mobile telephone system, MTA. This changed the conditions for the company, and again the company became one of the biggest suppliers of telephone equipment and crossbar switching. Ericsson crossbar switching was the most in-demand equipment that the telephone administrations in various countries had started to use. In 1983, Ericsson introduced the ERIPAX suite of network products and services.

By 1990, with the rise of the internet and mobile phones, Ericsson also started to build mobile phones and was dominating 40% of the world’s mobile market. During the same time, it was operating in 117 countries providing its telecommunication services. In 1996, the company was already operating tests on WCDMA and had partnered with DoCoMo. But the mobile revolution was moving too fast, and the company was unable to follow up. So in 2001, there was a spin-off of the mobile unit from Ericsson, and a joint venture of Ericsson mobile unit with Sony formed the Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. This spin-off led to multiple employees cut as well.

The spin-off proved to be a better decision, as the arrival of 3G has opened new doors for Ericsson. It was already working on WCDMA and continued to improve its workability with the changing trends. The improved version of WCDMA, High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), was out, and by 2006, Ericsson was officially providing its HSPA services in 59 countries. In 2012, Sony acquired all the share of Ericsson in Sony Ericsson, and Ericsson announced that it would solely work on the wireless technology and acquired BelAir Networks, a network technology company. This acquisition was followed by the acquisition of NKT Holding, Red Bee Media, Microsoft’s Mediaroom, some shares in Apcera for cloud policy compliance, Envivio, some operations in Ericpol, etc.

The Founder: Lars Magnus Ericsson

Ericsson founder
Image Source: mg.wikipedia.org

The beginning was quite rough for Lars Magnus Ericsson, the founder of the company. He was born in a small village of Värmland near Karlstad and Arvika. He lost his father at 12, so he had to go out and earn bread for his family. He worked in small workshops and various other places and arranged enough money to leave his village and moved to Stockholm. There he got work in a telegraph equipment-making factory. He learned the skills and was offered two state scholarships to study instrument-making abroad for three years. After completing the scholarship, Ericsson came back to Sweden, and with one of his friends, Carl Johan Andersson, he started a small workshop in a small kitchen that today is known as Ericsson. Ericsson retired from his company in 1900, at the age of 54 and sold all his shares in 1905.

Ericsson has gone through all up and downs, and still, it has emerged as the leader in the telecommunication industry. The company started by making telephone equipment, and today it is the largest wireless network provider. The current President and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Ericsson is Börje Ekholm and Ronnie Leten is the Chairman.