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Sybase inc

Sybase Inc – An Enterprise Software Company Acquired By SAP To Compete With Oracle.

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Sybase Inc was founded in 1984, 37 years from now. The company specialized in developing and delivering enterprise software. The company operated independently for 25 years after which it was acquired by SAP. SAP is a German multinational conglomerate based in the same sector of enterprise software. Being the largest non-American company by revenue, SAP gave a neck-to-neck competition to the other American companies. So, when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems to expand its business, SAP also made a move to acquire Sybase Inc. In 2010, the deal between Sybase and SAP was closed and since then the brand name of Sybase is not used.

About Sybase Inc

Four founders, namely, Robert Epstein, Mark Hoffman, Jane Doughty, and Tom Haggin founded Sybase Inc. The company was based in Berkeley, California until the acquisition. When the company was launched officially, Sybase was mainly known for selling database management systems (DBMS) and middleware products. Sybase Inc built the first enterprise DBMS for the Linux operating system. In the early 2000s, Sybase landed many huge clients like Airtel and Telstra which are telecommunication operators.

Sybase Before Acquisition By SAP

The founders set out to found Sybase in 1984 in Berkeley, California which was the hometown of Epstein. Initially, the name of the company was System Ware and they started their initial business from Epstein’s home. The main goal behind founding the company was to build an RDBMS that will organize all the information and will be available within a computer network. In the 1990s, the Japanese division of Sybase detected some inconsistency in profit, and turned out five executives of the same division inflated the profits. So, they were fired immediately. In the same year, John S. Chen became the new Chairman, President, and CEO of the company.

In 2007, Sybase started generating revenue in billions and it planned to expand its business by partnering with bigger companies. After two years, Sybase partnered with SAP to deliver the SAP Business Suite software to the users of iPhone, BlackBerry, etc. Sybase also partnered with Verizon to manage mobility services in enterprises on a global scale. This partnership used Verizon’s Managed Mobility Solutions and the device management platform of Sybase to provide mobility services to global customers. In 2010, SAP announced the acquisition of Sybase by the company for $5.8 billion (approx). Sybase became a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAP America in July 2010.

Sybase Inc
Image source: wikimedia.org

About SAP

SAP is one of the top three publicly traded software companies in terms of revenue. Being a German multinational conglomerate, it is the largest one in the country in terms of market capitalization. The founders of the company are Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther. The company was founded back in 1972 when businesses had a huge demand for RDBMS. So, these founders who were formerly IBM employees created SAP to build real-time software for data processing. Soon, SAP will complete five decades of its business and embrace the journey and success it has achieved. Currently, there are more than 100,000 employees in SAP who are delivering quality services to more than 400,000 customers worldwide. One of the cofounders, Hasso Plattner is serving as the Chairman of the company and the recent CEO of SAP is Christian Klein.

Founders Of Sybase Inc

Robert Epstein is an engineer and entrepreneur who has co-founded several other companies than Sybase Inc. Some of the companies are New Resource Bank, Colorado Microdisplay, GetActive Software, etc. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. He has also built a strong community for entrepreneurs who believe in preserving the environment while growing economically. Mark Hoffman passed out from United States Military Academy with a BS degree followed by an MBA from the University of Arizona. He served as the CEO of Sybase for 11 years followed by CommerceOne and Everdream. Currently, he is serving as the Director of Dacadoo. Jane Doughty wasn’t attached to the company for a long time. She studies chemistry and Mathematics but her career record shows that she worked as a software developer in multiple companies. She worked at IBM for more than two decades followed by other renowned companies like JPMC, AT&T, Nielsen. Tom Haggin is an angel investor who has not only co-founded Sybase but also Tilden Park Software.

Oki Electric Industry

Oki Electric Industry: The Leading Japanese Telecommunication Company.

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Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is a Japanese IT and telecommunication company, with its headquarters based in Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo. The company was founded in January 1881, and since then, it has been working towards innovation and excellence. Oki is credited for developing the first Japanese telephone, introduced in 1881. Though the company started from manufacturing telephones and its equipment, today it is also known for manufacturing information products like ATMs, printers, fax machines, etc. Oki has also tried its luck in the semiconductor business but sold the business to Rohm.

About the Oki Electric Industry

Oki is a 140 years old company founded by Kibataro Oki, a Japanese engineer. The company started in Japan, but today it is operational in more than 120 countries. Oki is into manufacturing telephones, its equipment, info-telecom systems, social infrastructure systems, ATMs, printers, multifunction devices, technology solutions, etc.
In the late 90s, the company also started to provide network services. Oki is also into sponsorships, and till now, it has sponsored English Premier League football club Portsmouth F.C., NRL team St. George Illawarra Dragons, 1.FC Kaiserslautern, and the French Ligue 1 team HSC Montpellier, etc.

Oki Electric Industry
Image Source: en.wikipedia.org

The Back Story of the company

Oki Electric is the result of the discovery of the telephone by Graham Bell. Kibataro Oki, who was an engineer by profession, founded Oki as Meikōsha in 1881. He worked at a Kobusho (Ministry of Industry) factory in Japan, which started to use reverse engineering to learn the technology behind Graham Bell’s telephone. Oki was one of the team members and was inspired to make telephones common for people. In January 1881, he built the prototype of the telephone under his company Meikōsha.
Along with the prototype, he also made a silver-award-winning lacquer-coated wire which he showcased at the International Inventions Exhibition in London in 1885. The company was quite focused on making telephones common in Japan and contributed to the Telephone Expansion program running in the country. It also became a great help in the establishment of automatic exchanges.
World War I brought a rise in the demand for telephone, especially the PBX (Private Branch Exchange), resulting in rapid growth for the company. During the same time, the company was also producing railroad-type printers, portable telephones, and electric wires for its new customers overseas. In the late 30s, due to the high demand, Oki established multiple manufacturing plants in the country. WWII also brought a lot of business to the company. Oki Electric Co., Ltd. went public on Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1951. This was the same time when Oki also started the mass production of “Type-4 telephone”, a symbol of Japan getting on its feet again after the WWII destruction.
In 1956, Oki became the first company to produce the 100-line Ericsson-type crossbar-switching systems for the general public. The 60s and the 70s were the time when Oki started to try its hands in other technologies like electronics, manufacturing products like teletypewriters, perforation typewriters, electric typewriters, general-purpose computers, electro-printers, dot printers as well as terminals for online deposits. This was the same time when the company expanded to other countries and contents too. It established offices and manufacturing plants in Asian, Middle East, Central, and South American countries.
Oki also established a subsidiary for its printer manufacturing business in Philadelphia, the Oki Data Corporation, in 1972. In 1975, the company partnered with Bell Labs and built the first automatic telephone system. It also worked on wireless technology with Bell Labs. In 1982, Oki introduced the first cash-recycling ATM in the world. During the 90s, Oki also started to offer network services, and in 2004, the company released its IP CONVERGENCE Server SS9100. The server was the first Microsoft. The net-compliant server of the industry.
Today, Oki is one of the leading IT and telecommunication companies. From telephone equipment to PC peripheral to network services, the company knows the way to success. Oki has its multiple offices established in various parts of the world, and over 20,000 people are working for it. Oki Data Corporation, Oki Data Americas, and Oki Electric are some of its subsidiaries.

The Founder: Oki Kibatarō

Oki Kibatarō is the founder of Oki Electric Industry. He was born and brought up in Japan and completed his education at Tokyo Imperial University. Before founding Oki he worked at the Japanese Ministry of Industry as an engineer and was a member of the team that was trying to learn about the first telephone developed by Graham Bell in 1877. Just after one year of the discovery of the telephone, he had started to work on developing a similar product through reverse engineering, which he successfully released in 1881.

ZTE Corporation

ZTE Corporation – One of the Largest Smartphone Manufacturing and Telecommunication Company.

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ZTE Corporation is a Chinese telecommunication company, with its headquarters located in South Shenzhen, Guangdong. It is a 36 years old company, which is partially owned by the Chinese government. The company is counted among one of the leading telecom companies in China and is actively working overseas to expand its boundaries.

Hou Weigui founded ZTE Corporation in 1985 as Zhongxing Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Today the company is known as the biggest manufactures of mobile phones, smartphones, tablets, computer hardware, etc. It is also a leading software service provider to global telecommunications service companies and enterprises. The company is operating worldwide, and over 68000 people are working for it. As of 2019, the company made revenues worth  CN¥90.740 billion/S $13.2 billion, and it owned assets worth CN¥141.202 billion. ZTE trades on the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

The Founding of ZTE Corporation

A group of investors, including Hou Weigui, from the Ministry of Aerospace Industry of the People’s Republic of China, started Corporation ZTE as Zhongxing Semiconductor Co., Ltd in 1985. The company name was changed to Zhongxing New Telecommunications Equipment Co. Ltd when it also started to build telecom equipment and had some of its shares owned by the government. ZTE had its first IPO  on the Shenzhen stock exchange in 1997.

ZTE Corporation
Image Source: en.wikipedia.org

Till 2004, ZTE was running within the country, but in December 2004, it stepped out of the state and traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange. In 2006, the company shipped 40% of its telecom equipment overseas, leading to a further international expansion. Canadian state telecommunications company Telus, UK’s Vodafone, Spain’s Telefónica, and the Australian Telstra are few of the first international customers of ZTE. With its new customers, the company also entered into a Wi-Fi Alliance in the same year. By 2008, the company had engaged with customers in 140 countries for its CDMA equipment.

In 2009, ZTE was the third-largest GSM telecom equipment seller in the world. The company is also credited to manufacture the world’s first smartphone with dual GPS/GLONASS navigation. The smartphone was called MTS 945. As of 2011, the company held 7% of the major LTE patents. As of 2012 and 2013, ZTE was the fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. In 2014, the company partnered with Microsoft to launch Windows smartphones in Spain.

ZTE along with having multiple manufacturing units has its 13 R&D centers located in various countries, including the USA, Sweden, and Korea. The company carries out the R&D work in partnership with companies like IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Qualcomm.

Products and Services

ZTE is one of the largest smartphone manufacturers (4th largest as of 2012 and 2013). The company also manufactures Tablets and computer hardware. Recently it launched a two-screen smartphone named Axon M, which could run two applications separately on both screens at the same time. Apart from smartphones, the company also develop Hotspot equipment, network operator equipment, network nodes, and network elements, etc. GGSN, PGW, PDSN, ZTE ZXR10-Series, MPLS, and legacy WAP are some of the core routing and core networking equipment made by ZTE. ZTE is also active as a software as well as a telecommunications service provider in China and other countries.

ZTE Corporation Subsidiaries

ZTE is operational in countries like the US, India, Korea, Spain, Germany, Australia, Singapore, etc. The company has not only opened offices in those countries, but it has also made some acquisitions and held subsidiaries there. ZTESoft, Nubia Technology, Zonergy, Netaş Telekomünikasyon A.Ş are the names of some of its international subsidiaries.

ZTE Corporation
Image Source: upload.wikimedia.org

The Chairman at ZTE Corporation

Yin Yimin is the Chairman at ZTE, who replaced Zhao Xianming in 2017. Before becoming the Chairman of ZTE, Yimin was serving the company as the President. Yimin has been with ZTE for the past 30 years. He joined the company in 1991, and since then, he has been appointed to different prime positions in ZTE. He has worked as an executive director for the company for 20 years. He was also the leader of ZTE Corporation for its product development and marketing between 2004 and 2010. He is also responsible for setting up the Shenzhen ZTE Venture Capital Fund Management Co., Ltd in 2010.

Orange SA

Orange SA – The 10th Largest Telecom Service in the World

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Known as the world’s tenth-largest telecommunication company, Orange SA, does not need any introduction. It has been in the telecom industry for past over hundred years, as first the company was owned by the France government and worked under the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. In 1998, the company became private and was recognized as a separate entity. The reason behind the success of Orange SA is that it stayed consistent and adapted to all the changes the telecom technology was following. Since telecom is the field Orange works in, mobile, landline, internet, and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) are the major services it provides to its worldwide customers.

A Brief Introduction About Orange SA

Orange SA is a 33 years old company but has its roots related to the times when telegraphs were used as the main communication tool. The company headquarter is based in the 15th arrondissement, Paris, France, and it is the fourth-largest telecom provider in Europe. The company deals in Fixed line telephone, Mobile phone, Broadband, IPTV, and internet services. It is a public company and trades at Euronext (ORA), NYSE (ORA), BIT (ORA), and CAC 40. As per the 2019 records, the company earned annual revenue of €1.238 billion and owns assets worth €106.303 billion.

Orange SA
Image Source: telepolis.pl

Orange SA is a multinational, and around 59,000 works for Orange in its global offices, with 266 million customers worldwide. Orange Marine, Orange Business Services Partner Communications Company, Wanadoo, Deezer, Orange Labs, Dailymotion, Telkom Kenya, Orange UK, Sonatel, Jazztel, Globecast, Cloudwatt, Telekom Romania are some of Orange SA’s major subsidiaries.

The Founding of Orange SA

In the very beginning, the France government started the telegraph service under the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs in 1878, and later, the department also introduced the telephone service in 1923. After the introduction of the telephone, the Department of Posts and Telegraph was nationalized, and in 1941, the department created another branch for the telephone service with the name General Direction of Telecommunications, which remained the major telephone service in France until 1988, when the division was renamed to France Télécom.

After the formation of France Télécom, the French government wanted to open the doors for public services in telecommunication, so on 1 January 1998, it privatized the France Télécom, the government still holding the 27% stake in the company. This privatization also led to the acquisition of multiple international firms as France Télécom wanted to expand internationally. The acquisitions by France Télécom included GlobalOne, Equant, Internet Telecom, Freeserve, EresMas, NTL, Mobilcom.

Side by side, in 1991, Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa acquired the major shares in Microtel Communications Ltd of the UK and renamed it to Microtel to Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd. The acquisition was made to set up the owner company’s hold on the UK’s telecom industry. Hutchison Whampoa launched Orange as a separate brand in the UK in April 1994. The company went public in 1996 on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ and later was acquired by German conglomerate Mannesmann AG in 1999.

Vodafone saw the success of Orange, so it acquired Mannesmann for US$183 billion and obtained the Orange shares along with that. But in August 2000, Vodafone sold Orange to France Télécom for a sum of €39.7 bn. The acquisition of these many international telecom companies helped France Télécom to become the fourth biggest global telecom operator, and France Télécom transformed into a new group named Orange SA

In 2008, Orange also entered the digital streaming industry and acquired the exclusive rights from Warner Bros as well as rights to broadcast Saturday evening Ligue 1 football matches from the French Football Federation. The company also obtained the rights of selling iPhones in various countries from Apple, like Austria, Belgium, Egypt, Jordan, etc. In 2018, Orange partnered with Google to install a transatlantic undersea cable, Dunant, to share fast-speed data between the United States and France. The company also started a satellite-based home broadband service in July 2020, utilizing the Eutelsat Konnect satellite.

The CEO: Stéphane Richard

Stéphane Richard is a French-born businessman and the residing CEO of Orange SA He was born on 24 August 1961 in Caudéran, France. He is an alumns of HEC Paris and École nationale d’administration, Strasbourg. Richard has vast experience in the field of telecom. He held some major roles at companies like Compagnie Générale des Eaux, Compagnie Immobilière Phénix and CGIS.

Richard joined Veolia as Deputy Managing Director of Veolia Environnement and CEO of Veolia Transport in 2003. In 2007, he accepted the post of director of Orange SA, and in 2009, he became the Chief of Staff to the French Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment. In 2011 on March 1st, Richard was appointed as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orange SA.

Altice Europe

Altice Europe – The Journey of the Famous French Cable and Telecommunication Company.

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Altice Europe is a France-based telecommunication company with a market capitalization of $4.8B. The company is the second-largest telecommunication and mass media company in France after Orange. A French-Israeli billionaire named Patrick Drahi founded Altice in 2001 as a cable television company. Today, apart from the TV service, Altice is a leader in internet and telephone subscription service.

The major countries of services for Altice include Western Europe, Israel, and the Caribbean. The company has also been providing its services in the US as one of the most used telephone and cable services. But in 2019, the company discontinued its operations in the US as a result of the spinning off of the company via an IPO in 2019.

A Brief Introduction

The company headquarters of Altice Europe lies in Woerden, Netherlands, and was founded in 2001 by Patrick Drahi. Cable television, Direct-broadcast satellite, broadcasting, broadband and telephony services, mass media are some of the fields Altice excels in and has its branches in several parts of the world. As of the records from 2017, the company is generating around €2,54 billion annual revenues and has over 47000 people working for it. Altice Dominicana S.A., Altice Portugal, Altice France (SFR), and Hot are some of its subsidiary companies. In the past 20 years, the company has seen many ups and downs, but still stands as one of the largest telecom networks in the world.

Altice Europe
Image Source: altice.net

The Founding Story of Altice Europe

The founder of Altice Europe, Patrick Drahi, was already working in the field of cable television. He left his position from his earlier cable TV business and sold his share in the UPC for approximately 40 million Euros. He then started another cable company with the name Altice ATCE.AS in Amsterdam. The company started its operation by buying several European cable companies. In the years between 2002 to 2007, he was able to merge multiple regional companies into one and established Numericable.

By 2009, Altice was also expanding to other countries by acquiring their regional cable companies, Hot from Israel being one of them. The company also acquired the operations of Orange Dominicana of Orange for $1.4 billion in 2013. The next year, Altice went on to overtake the subsidiary company of Vivendi, SFR. During the same time, Numericable also bought the operations of Virgin Mobile France.

Altice also acquired the 70% stakes in Suddenlink Communications that helped Altice to grow in the US, and in Portugal, the company bought Portugal Telecom. In March 2017, Altice also acquired Teads, a video ad-tech firm. The same year, Altice also rebranded the company logo, and the slogan, for both Altice Europe and Altice USA to unify the telecommunication operations of Altice under one name. The slogan was “Together Has No Limits”.

In June 2019, Altice had an IPO and spun off the USA division of the Altice group to become a self-governing entity. The resultant company has the same logo and is also chaired by Patrick Drahi but operates as an independent company.

The Founder: Patrick Drahi

Patrick Drahi was born on 20 August 1963 in Casablanca, Morocco. He belonged to a Jewish family, which moved to Montpellier, France, when Drahi was 15 years old. After completing his high school education, Drahi joined the École Polytechnique University in Paris, where he received an engineering degree and a post-graduate degree in optics and electronics.

Altice Europe Founder
Image Source: capacitymedia.com

Drahi started his career by establishing a cable business in France in collaboration with an American company. After selling his post at the company, he then founded Altice Europe in 2001.

Other than Altice, Drahi founded Numericable as well as an international news channel, named i24news which operates in French, Arabic, and English languages. He also owns the Israeli cable television company HOT. Drahi has been named the third-richest person in France by Forbes in 2015, and till 2016, he was the richest person in Israel. In 2021, he was at the 248th rank on the Billionaires 2020 list of Forbes.

swisscom

Swisscom, One of the most efficient Telecommunications providers in Switzerland.

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Swisscom is Switzerland’s leading provider of communication, information technology, and entertainment. Swisscom employs over 19,000 people and is one of Switzerland’s most innovative and sustainable companies. Operating the simplest mobile network and largest fiber-optic network in Switzerland, Swisscom offers maximum bandwidths nationwide. The Company network is fast, sustainable, secure, and prepared for anything.

The Backstory of Swisscom

At the beginning of 1852, Switzerland started the first telecommunications service between St. Gallen and Zurich. Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone in 1876 gave the field new impetus. In 1917, Zurich-Gottingen started the operation of the first half-automatic telephone switchboard. By 1959, Switzerland’s telephone system became the world’s first completely automated network, there were 1 million subscribers. In 1962, Telstar was launched in space, the first telecommunications satellite. The first exchange to allow direct international dialing was unveiled at the Expo 1964 in Lausanne.

Swisscom
Image Source: web24.news

In 1974, in the canton of Wallis, the Earth satellite station of Leuk was operational. In 1975, PTT-Betreibe (Postal and Telecommunications Services of Switzerland) decided to introduce a mobile telephone network for vehicles (NATEL). The first NATO A network, followed by NATEL B in 1983 and NATEL C in 1987, was established three years later. Between Berne and Neuchâtel the first fiber optic cable was placed in 1985. The first Swiss digital telecommunications network Telecom PTT was introduced in 1988.

In 1992, under the name NATEL D, the mobile phone network was digitized. In 1996, the internet portal “Blue Windows” of Telecom PTT became the market leader soon. Telecom PTT was converted to Swisscom on 1 October 1997. Swisscom Ltd was bought on the stock exchange on 5 October 1998. Swisscom became a part of the television industry in 2007 and led the digital television market with 791,000 subscribers by the end of 2012. In 2009, the fiber-optic network expansion in Switzerland was pushed forward by Swisscom.

Products And Services:

For Residential Customers:-

Surf with Internet Security more safely. The company’s security and anti-viruses protect your devices against viruses, hackers, and spyware. Since 2002 Swisscom has offered free internet access to all Swiss schools. It is in the interests of more than 6000 schools. In Swiss education systems, they are much more concerned with sustainable and efficient ICT.

For Businesses:-

Double Robotics is a modern telepresence system, and an entirely different step towards interactions with staff, customers and business partners. For companies with multiple locations and/or operating internationally, Double Robotics is ideal. Double robotics is also suited for companies offering flexible working models to their employees. It allows you to move around the room in freedom, unlike classic video conferencing in which you can only see a screen. The totally mobile Double allows physical presence from around the world in the workplace.

Digital signing is legally and securely possible with electronic signatures. It is therefore a core digitization element and enables any type of contract to be concluded. No printing, no letter sending, no scanning – with an electronic signature everything is completely digital. Client Hardware Service provides you with access to advanced, efficient devices, ideal for flexibility and environmental impact reduction.

Conextrade helps you throughout the entire digital process chain whether with e-procurement or e-invoicing. Swisscom managed services link companies and suppliers with all the current technologies and support the entire procurement-to-paid and order-to-cash process from e-invoicing. CuraMED is the web-based information system for the next-generation medical practice for electronic documentation and process optimization. Configured to the highest security standards, this software-as-a-service solution features an extensive and modern medical information system that is suited to your individual needs.

Urs Schaeppi, The Genius behind Swisscom

Since 2013, Urs Schaeppi has served as Head of Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd and Chief Executive Officer of Swisscom. He graduated from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich with a degree in engineering and the University of St. Gallen with a degree in business administration. His professional career began in R&D at Iveco, followed by marketing at Ascom. In addition, he was promoted to Operations Manager at Papierfabrik Biberist.

In 1998, he joined the Mobile division as Head of Commercial Business after the formation of Swisscom. He was appointed CEO of Swisscom Solutions in 2006 and soon after became Head of the Enterprise Customers division. He sits on the boards of several economic and educational organizations.