Posten (Norway)

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Posten Norge AS
Image:Norwegian postal flag.gif Norwegian postal carrier flag
Type	Government enterprise
Founded	1647
Headquarters	Norway
Products	Mail
Revenue	19,995 billion NOK (2005)
Employees	20.500
Website	www.posten.no

Posten is the name of the Norwegian postal service. The word "posten" means "the post" or "the mail" in Norwegian.

Posten was founded in 1647 under the name "Postvesenet" by Henrik Morian. It was established as a private company, and the Dano-Norwegian king Christian IV gave his blessing to the founding of the company. Postvesenet was privately run until 1719, when the Dano-Norwegian state took over. From that point on, national postal service was a state monopoly. The local city postal services remained private, but in 1888 a new postal law was introduced, which expanded the monopoly to the entire country.

In 1933, Postvesenet was renamed to "Postverket". In 1996, Posten Norge BA was established as a state-owned company wherein the Norwegian state had limited responsibility. In 2002 Posten changed its corporate structure into a stock company, as a process of preparing the company to an expected liberalization of the Norwegian postal market. Today (2005) Posten Norge AS is still completely owned by the Norwegian state and the liberalization process has been postponed by the government.

Posten Norway is divided into four division; Posten Communication, Posten Distribution Network, Posten Logistics and Posten Consumer. In addition Posten also has total ownership of the IT company ErgoGroup; a company specializing in electronic services and outsourcing.

[edit] Nationalisation of CityMail

In 2002 the nationalisation of the private Swedish postal company CityMail was announced. Posten acquired 57% of the shares in 2002 and the remaining 43% in the first quarter of 2006.