| Type | Government-owned corporation Public HKEX: 0418 HKEX: 0618 |
|---|---|
| Industry | IT, pharmaceuticals |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Headquarters | Beijing, China |
| Area served | Worldwide[1] |
| Products | IT Manufacturing IT Service Data Operation Healthcare & Pharmaceutical[2] |
| Employees | 30,000 |
| Subsidiaries | Founder Technology |
| Website | founder.com |
Founder Group (方正集团) is a major Chinese technology conglomerate that deals with information technology and pharmaceuticals. Its subsidiary Founder Technology Group is the second-largest personal computer vendor in China. Its motto is "世界在变 创新不变"(shì jiè zài biàn, chuàng xīn bu biàn), which translates roughly to "The world is changing; innovation isn't". The company is currently moving to establish itself as a computer chip designer.
Founder Group was created by Peking University in 1986, and has grown to become one of China's most innovative and influential high-tech companies. Founder Group has 5 public companies listed in stock exchanges of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Malaysia and Hong Kong, and over 20 sole funded enterprises and joint ventures. Altogether, Founder Group has nearly 30,000 employees. The total sales revenue of the Group reached 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2008.
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In February 1980, Jiang Zemin, as part of the Import & Export Management Committee, wrote a letter to leaders of the Council about the development of the Beida Chinese Laser Typesetting System; July 27, 1979, the principal part of the project for Chinese Laser Typesetting System was completed, with a negative plate of newspaper in octavo format successfully outputted from the laser Typesetter.
In October 1995, Founder computers and monitors were released 1998, the Founder Group acquired Yanzhong Industrial, which was then renamed Founder Technologies, invested with high-quality assets such as Founder Computer, thus promoting the migration toward hi-tech businesses;
December 1995, the Founder (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. was listed on the Hong Kong stock market as a red chip stock; 1994, Founder began its expedition into the area of system integration 1992, the first overseas branch, the Founder (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. was established and Founder began tapping into the international market;
1992, Founder began researches in radio & TV areas and developed full-line products associated with radio & TV workflows, used in dozens of domestic and overseas TV stations; December 12, 1992, the Beida Founder Group was incorporated;
1988, the Beijing Science and New Technologies Inc. joined the Beita Sci-Tech Service to form the Beida New Technologies Inc. (predecessor of the Founder Group) and production and operations of the Chinese Laser Typesetting System began; 1987, the Beita Sci-Tech Service was established, mainly operating in the information industry;
August 2000, Founder worked with Yahoo! and other operators to acquired the Hong Kong listed Rongwen Technologies (holding) Co., Ltd. At the end of the year, the Rongwen Technologies (holding) Co., Ltd. was renamed the Founder Digital (holding) Co., Ltd.;[3]
September 2001, Founder Technologies completed the largest domestic PC production line, with an annual capacity of 3 million sets In early 2001, Founder entered broadband areas, engaged in broadband network access, operation, content provision and technological applications;[4]
April 8, 2002, Founder-Malaysia was listed on the local Growth Enterprise Market, becoming the first China-funded hi-tech enterprise to be listed locally;
June 2002, the Beida Founder College of Software Technology was formally established, indicating that Founder was involved in the software education area with accumulated software training experience to incubate high-quality domestic software talents;
August 2002, the Founder Group successfully acquired Zhejiang Securities(Renamed as Founder Securities in August 2003), a significant move in implementing its new development strategy;
December December 31, 2002, the Shiyan Lake Beida Founder Science and Technology Park in Shenzhen was formally put into operation;[5]
In January, Founder Jiangsu IT Manufacturing Base, with a capacity for building 6,000,000 computers per year was officially launched.
The total sales revenue of Founder Group reached 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2008. Founder Group earned 24.5 billion RMB (2.96 bn USD) in 2005.
Meanwhile, Founder entered into the PC manufacturing field and has stood firmly in the 2nd place for 6 consecutive years. Faced with the fierce competition, Founder has moved quickly towards more value-added upstream links and stepped into the fields of breadboard and chips production.
Of the Project 748, a key national scientific and technological research project, Professor Wang Xuan invented a "laser typesetting technology". After the successful transformation and industrialization of this invention, Founder Group put an end to the era of lead and fire in the Chinese printing industry. So far, Founder’s laser typesetting technology has occupied over 85 percent of the domestic market share. The related products have exported to the overseas, covering more than 30 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and America, and the oversea market share is growing steadily.
From June 2004, relying on the medical resources of Peking University, Founder began to penetrate into the medical field by means of a medical management company. By building giant hospitals with international capital and reorganizing the Southwest Synthetic Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Founder has been working hard to make a medical and pharmaceutical platform.