| Type | Joint venture |
|---|---|
| Industry | Wireless Semiconductors |
| Founded | 10 February 2009 |
| Headquarters | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Key people | Didier Lamouche (President and CEO) |
| Revenue | $2.7 billion pro forma USD (2009)[1] |
| Employees | 7,700 (as of Feb 2009) |
| Parent | STMicroelectronics (50%) Ericsson (50%) |
| Website | www.stericsson.com |
ST-Ericsson is a global wireless platform and semiconductor supplier to four of the top five mobile handset manufacturers.[2] ST-Ericsson is a 50/50 joint venture of Ericsson and STMicroelectronics established on February 3, 2009. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, it is a fabless company, meaning that it does not do the actual manufacturing of semiconductors.
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ST-Ericsson was formed on February 3, 2009 when STMicroelectronics and Ericsson completed the merger of Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless into a 50/50 joint venture.
On August 20, 2008, STMicroelectronics and Ericsson announced their intention to merge their wireless semiconductor businesses with the goal of creating the industry's strongest product offering in semiconductors and platforms for mobile applications. ST contributed its multimedia and connectivity solutions as well as a complete 2G/EDGE platform and 3G offering. Ericsson contributed its 3G and 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) platform technology. The merger, which built on an existing strategic co-operation between Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless, was also designed to generate significant scale and synergies.[3]
ST-NXP Wireless, a joint venture made up of the wireless operations of STMicroelectronics and NXP Semiconductors, began operations on August 2, 2008. NXP and STMicroelectronics announced on April 10, 2008 that they would combine their wireless operations to generate more scale and better meet their customers’ needs in 2G, 2.5G, 3G, multimedia, connectivity and future wireless technologies. The combined venture was created from businesses that together owned thousands of communication and multimedia patents.
Formerly a division of Royal Philips Electronics with more than 50 years experience in semiconductors, NXP was established as an independent company in 2006. STMicroelectronics was formed in June 1987 by the merger of semiconductor companies SGS Microelettronica of Italy and Thomson Semiconductors, the semiconductor arm of France's Thomson.
Ericsson established Ericsson Mobile Platforms in September 2001. It was based on the research and development (R&D) group that developed the core technology for Ericsson’s mobile phones throughout the 1990s. Their main development centers were situated in Lund, Sweden and with other three large developments centers in Basingstoke (UK) and RTP, North Carolina (US), and Nuremberg (Germany). In addition, it had R&D, sales and customer support teams in Tokyo (Japan), Shanghai (China), Taipei (Taiwan), Seoul (South Korea), Grimstad (Norway) and Nuremberg (Germany). It provided mobile terminal technology to customers who wanted to develop and produce mobile phones for the GPRS, EDGE and WCDMA mobile standards. EMP and, Ericsson as a whole, dedicated considerable resources to standardization bodies such as 3GPP, OMA, JCP and OMTP. Ericsson was founded in 1876 and has a comprehensive intellectual property portfolios containing over 25,000 patents.
ST-Ericsson serves all market segments, from entry-level handsets,to smartphones and connected devices. ST-Ericsson delivers complete platforms for mobile devices, integrating both multimedia and connectivity with a broad range of cellular access technologies covering GSM, EDGE, WCDMA, HSPA, as well as TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE and LTE. The company’s smartphone platforms support major open operating systems (OS) such as Android (operating system), Symbian and Windows Phone. It also provides connectivity and broadcast solutions for Bluetooth, FM, GPS, WLAN and USB. The company is a supplier to four of the top five handset manufacturers, which together represent about 80 percent of global handset shipments, as well as to other industry leaders, including both mobile operators and device manufacturers. Almost 4,5 billion phones have been built using ST-Ericsson’s products and technologies, and more than a billion phones have been built on the company’s complete platform solutions.
ST-Ericsson’s Chinese subsidiary, T3G was acquired in December 2008 and has been actively developing platforms for the TD-SCDMA mobile standard since 2003.
Incorporated in Switzerland and headquartered in Geneva, ST-Ericsson employs around 7,700 people worldwide, more than 85 per cent of whom work in R&D.
ST-Ericsson’s operations are spread around the world, with main centers in France, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, UK, India (Bangalore and Greater Noida), Singapore, China, Japan and Korea.
Both Ericsson and STMicroelectronics appoint four directors to the board with Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson, serving as the Chairman of the Board and Carlo Bozotti, President and CEO of STMicroelectronics, as the Vice Chairman.