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lumen technologies

Lumen Technologies – Story of a Fortune 500 Company Which is a Leading Brand in the Telecommunication Sector.

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Lumen Technologies is a famous American telecommunication company with headquarters in Monroe, Louisiana, US. The history of the company dates back to 1930 when Oak Ridge Telephone Company was founded. In due course of time and change in ownerships and several mergers, Lumen Technologies today is one of the Fortune 500 companies. It is also a member of the S & P 500 index. The main services provided by the company are cloud security, multi-cloud management, SaaS app, big data as a service, network, and many more. Lumen serves both national and international clients from North and Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.

Oak Ridge Telephone Company

Tracing back the history of Lumen Technologies leads us to its predecessor Oak Ridge Telephone Company. In 1930, the owner of the company, F. E. Hogan sold the company to William Clarke and Marie Williams. The acquisition was closed for $500. In 1946, the ownership of the company was passed down to Clarke McRae Williams as a wedding gift. After one year, Clarke William purchased the Marion Telephone Company and it became the foundation of the company followed by several other acquisitions. As the ownership was passed on to William’s son, it remained a family-operated business until 1968.

As the company started expanding, in 1967 Oak Ridge provided 10,000 access lines in 3 states. In the same year, the company was incorporated as Central Telephone and Electronics to which Clarke M. Williams became the President. In the early 1970s, the company eventually moved its headquarters to Monroe. A lot of changes took place in the next two decades including renaming the company Century Telephone Enterprises Inc. In 1978, the company started trading publicly under the symbol CTL. During the early recession in the 1980s, the company suffered losses and the stock value declined to half. It recovered again in early 1985 and eventually started making a profit. In 1999, the company again changed its name to CenturyTel Inc.

lumen technologies
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Lumen Technologies in the 21st century

CenturyTel started acquiring a series of companies in 2000. Some of them include GTE lines in Arkansas and Missouri by partnering with Spectra Communications. It also acquired several lines from Verizon and partnered with Telephone USA of Wisconsin. The company acquired CSW Net in 2001, Digital Teleport, and SkyComm International (acquired half of the company) in 2003. CenturyTel also established several partnerships with leading companies in the communication sector like EchoStar Communications Corporation and Cingular Wireless.

With acquisitions of several lines and operating in 23 states, CenturyTel acquired Embarq in 2008 which made it the third-largest landline provider in Pennsylvania. The deal was closed for $6 billion. Embarq, when acquired, already operated in 18 states including Ohio, Nevada, Florida, and North Carolina. The newly merged company was named Century Link and the CEO of CenturyTel retained the position in the new company till 2018. In 2010, CenturyLink became a part of another big merger as it acquired Qwest in a stock-for-stock transaction. After acquiring Qwest, CenturyLink became the third largest telecommunication company in the US.

Acquisitions

After the two big mergers, respectively with Embarq and Qwest, the company also acquired many other businesses in the past few years. In 2011, it acquired Savvis which is an IT company and a global provider of cloud infrastructure. After this acquisition, CenturyLink rolled out an integrated cloud services suite called Savvisdirect. In 2012, the company acquired the ITO division of Ciber followed by AppFog, a Platform as a Service in 2013. CenturyLink also acquired a company called Tier 3 that mainly provided infrastructure as a service. Some of the other companies acquired by CenturyLink are DataGardens, Cognilytics, netAura, Edison, Streamroot, etc. Last year, the company announced that it is once again rebranding its name and this time it was Lumen Technologies.

Jeff Storey – CEO of Lumen Technologies

Jeff Storey has rich career experience in the telecommunication sector. He studied at Northeastern State University followed by Southern Methodist University where he got his master’s in the telecommunication system. He started working at Cox Communications followed by serving as the President and CEO of WilTel Communications. Jeff became the CEO of Lumen Technologies in 2018.

Secureworks

Secureworks – An American-based Cybersecurity Company Providing Services To Enterprises.

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With the increasing usage and application of the internet, cybercrimes have also risen drastically. Every year we witness that some of the other large enterprises have been compromised by hackers. So, to develop a more secure system for companies to protect client’s data and any sensitive information, the demand for cybersecurity has increased. Secureworks is one such cybersecurity company that provides a wide range of products and services for large and medium-sized enterprises. Michael Pearson and Joan Wilbanks founded the company in 1998 and it is based in Atlanta, Georgia, US.

About Secureworks

Secureworks provides a cloud-native security analytics platform that was built more than 20 years ago. Unlike any other IT company of the digital era, Secureworks is exclusively focussing only on cybersecurity and combat real-world cyber threats. The company has clients that belong to the Fortune 100 list as well as medium-sized organizations. Privacy and data are crucial irrespective of the size of a company. So, Secureworks builds solutions that can be compatible for use in various types of organizations. Currently, the company is led by Michael R. Cote and it approximately has 4,000 employees across 50 countries.

Secureworks
Image source: chiefit.me

History of Secureworks

Michael Pearson and Joal Wilbanks founded Secureworks in 1998. It was established as a private company and in 2002 Michael R. Cote came on board as the President and CEO of the company. Only after a few years that it started operating, Secureworks was featured both in Inc 500 and Inc 5000 as well as Deloitte’s Fast 500. To expand the customer base of Secureworks, the company merged with LURHQ Corporation in 2006. LURHQ was a security services company based in Myrtle Beach, SC. After this merger, the new company operated under the name of Secureworks. It helped Secureworks to leverage LURHQ’s portal, Sherlock, and combine the customers onto a single security platform.

In 2009, Secureworks crossed 500 employees worldwide after acquiring Managed Security Services (MSS) from VeriSign Inc. With the help of this acquisition, the total clients of Secureworks rose to 2,600 spread across 50 different nations. Some of the countries include Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Mexico, UK, Finland, Spain, and Brazil. This acquisition was followed by buying another company called DNS limited which expanded Secureworks’ operation such that it opened additional offices in London and Edinburgh.

After a couple of years, Dell showed interest in buying Secureworks and the deal was successfully closed in February 2011. The company became a subsidiary of Dell and it was named Dell Secureworks. After this acquisition, the newly formed subsidiary expanded to New Zealand and Australia in 2013. To operate in the Australian market, the company opened a new office in Sydney. Some of the highly demanded operations here included forensic investigation, Penetration Testing, and continuous monitoring of the environment for attacks.

Recent years

Secureworks from acting as an independent private company to becoming a subsidiary of Dell created an impressive customer base and expanded very quickly. So, in 2015 the company decided to file its IPO and announced it a year later with a price of $14 a share. In the year 2016, this became the first tech IPO in the US. In the following years, the company conducted rigorous research to roll out advanced security products for threat detection and combating. This led to the release of Red Cloak Threat Detection and Response. Red Cloak is a powerful cloud-based threat detection service that reduces the time of threat detection and gets it out of the way at the earliest. This year, the company changed its business model from a direct go-to-market model to a channel focussed business model.

Michael R. Cote – CEO of Secureworks

Michael R. Cote has been serving as the CEO of Secureworks since 2002. Even after it became a subsidiary of Dell, Michael continued to serve in this position. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the company. When he joined the company at a very early stage, Secureworks barely made an annual revenue of $1 million. It was under his guidance that the company secured its IPO and generated annual revenue of $553 million last year on a GAAP basis. Michael is an alumnus of Boston College.

Saudi Telecom Company

Saudi Telecom Company – Story of a Saudi Arabia-Based Telecommunication Company.

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Established in 1998, Saudi Telecom Company offers several products and services in the telecommunication sector. The main products include telecommunication services, enterprise digital solutions, internet services, computer networks, cybersecurity, and other digital solutions. Saudi Telecom Company (STC) serves in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait. STC’s headquarters are based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The company currently has approximately 17,000 employees and is led by Olayan M. Alwetaid. Let’s know more about this company which once had a monopoly on mobile phones services and fixed telephone services.

Past Events of Saudi Telecom Company

When the company was born in 1998, the company had a monopoly on various businesses in the areas it served. But, eventually, other companies came up and the competition became tough in the telecommunication and digital sector. The company generates the majority portion of its revenue from the subscriber service. Out of the total subscribers of STC, 81 percent are mobile service subscribers. And, these subscribers contribute to 73 percent of the total company’s revenue. In the past two decades, India and the middle east countries have witnessed how rapidly mobile phone users have increased in these nations. STC grabbed this market initially and successfully generated revenue in billions.

By the end of 2007, the total subscribers for the services of STC summed up to 17.3 million. 19 percent of the total company’s subscribers were the fixed-line subscribers who contributed to generating 27 percent of the total annual revenue. This number accounted for 61 percent of the total mobile phone users in Saudi Arabia in 2007. With its business flourishing in Saudi Arabia, the company decided to expand beyond its borders.

The first taken by STC towards expanding internationally was the 25 percent acquisition of the Axis Group- Malaysia. The company is known for working in the telecommunication sector and it was worth $3.04 billion. It was a very strategic move by STC as the Axis Group operated many mobile phone networks in Malaysia and Indonesia. Along with the acquisition of the Axis Group partly, STC acquired 51 percent of the Ntarend Co Pte (a subsidiary of the Axis Group) and also grabbed 26 percent of the third mobile license in Kuwait. After these three details, the net worth of STC became $924.6 million.

Saudi Telecom Company
Image source: eyeofriyadh.com

Strategic Moves by STC

With the acquisition of a part of Axis Group and its subsidiary, the company also became a 35 percent shareholder at Oger Telecom in 2008. When STC acquired some stakes at Oger Telecom, it ran a huge network of businesses which also included investment. The company apart from Saudi Arabia also has business in the Persian Gulf, Africa, and Asia. So, becoming a stakeholder in this company helped STC to diversify geographically. After acquiring stakes in Oger Telecom, STC also partly bought many local and regional companies. This helped STC stay in the business after it lost the monopoly on two of its services in the primary areas. STC is also entering the field of satellite and internet via companies excelling in these fields in the Middle East. In March 2021, STC introduced its largest digital operations centers not only in its homeland but also in North Africa. This data center is established as a part of its cybersecurity business.

CEO – Olayan Alwetaid

Olayan Alwetaid has been appointed the CEO of STC in March 2021. Before becoming the CEO, he led the Consumer Business Unit of STC focusing on digital and other non-core services. Olayan also served as the CEO of STC Bahrain previously in his career. He has more than 20 years of rich experience in the telecom, media, and technology sector. Olayan graduated from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals with an Electrical Engineering degree.

renesas electronics

Renesas Electronics – A Japanese Semiconductor Company That Merged With NEC Electronics In The Last Decade.

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Renesas Electronics was originally known as Renesas Technology when the company was established in 2002. The company is one of the leading suppliers of semiconductor equipment across the globe. In the early 2000s, Renesas was the sixth-largest semiconductor company in the entire world. There are many semiconductor companies that were established in the past 100 years that either ended up merging with other companies or spinning off some of their divisions. Renesas Electronics was also a product of the merger between the semiconductor units of Hitachi and Mitsubishi. The business of dynamic random access memory was kept separated in the case of both companies.

About Renesas Electronics

Renesas Electronics Corporation is based in Tokyo, Japan. The company started operating as Renesas Electronics in 2010 after it integrated with NEC Electronics. Renesas is currently a global leader as a provider of complete semiconductor solutions which include microcontrollers, power, SoC products, and analog. The products developed by Renesas are extensively used in home electronics, industrial equipment, the automotive industry, etc. The main four growth segments of the company are automotive, industrial, infrastructure, and IoT so that they can intelligently deliver solutions people use in their day-to-day lives.

renesas electronics
Image source: businesswire.com

History Of The Company

Renesas Technology became official in April 2003 as the non-DRAM joint venture of Hitachi and Mitsubishi. Hitachi owned 55 percent of the joint company while Mitshubhi owned the rest of it. In 2010, when NEC Electronics merged with Renesas Technology, the DRAM business was kept separate. And, the non-DRAM chip business of these three companies became a part of Elpida Memory which came under the acquisition of Micron Technology. In 2010, when Renesas Technology merged with NEC Electronics, the joint entity became the fourth largest semiconductor company in the world in terms of revenue generated.

After Renesas Technology became Renesas Electronics, the same year Renesas Mobile Corporation was formed. This new unit was created by merging the Mobile Multimedia Business Unit of Renesas and the Nokia Wireless Modem Business Unit (which was acquired by Renesas). Only after a year of new mergers and a big acquisition, the company suffered heavily in 2011 due to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and flooding in Thailand.

After the calamity, in 2012 Renesas decided to restructure the entire organization from manufacturing to sales in all 20 countries. The aim was to create an optimized business structure and increase profit. Renesas received investment from INCJ and other key clients of the company. By 2013, the company was able to raise $130 billion in capital and used it for several developmental purposes from plant improvements to making acquisitions.

Operations And Acquisitions

In 2013, a major part of the Renesas Mobile Communication was acquired by Broadcom and after the allotment of third-party shares, INCJ became the largest shareholder of the company. The company focussed exclusively on company restructuring soon after Renesas Electronics was formed. So, in the first three years, there was more or less no profit in the business. In 2014, the company recorded its first-ever profit and started operating as Renesas Electronics Corporation. The same year, the company decided to withdraw from the 4G wireless business which resulted in the consolidation of Renesas Mobile Communication.

Soon, the company also sold its display driver unit to Synaptics. In 2016, Renesas made a huge acquisition for $3.2 billion and the name of the company is Intersil. The deal was successfully closed in 2017. Renesas eventually entered the market of the self-driving car concept as it is one of the most demanding technologies in the 21st century. In 2018, Renesas acquired Integrated Device Technology for $6.5 billion and its latest acquisition is Dialog Semiconductor.

Hidetoshi Shibata – CEO of Renesas Electronics

Hidetoshi Shibata is the current CEO and President of Renesas Electronics. He completed his education from the University of Tokyo followed by Harvard Business School. His career started with a job in Central Japan Railway and he was also the executive managing director at INCJ. Hidetoshi joined Renesas in 2013 as the executive vice president and CFO of the company.

nec corporation

NEC Corporation – Story of a Japanese IT and Electronics Company Previously Known as Nippon Electric Limited.

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Established in 1899, NEC Corporation has come a long way in the industrial venture and witnessed different phases of it. When the company was established by Kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda, it was named Nippon Electric Limited Partnership. The company rebranded itself as NEC Corporation in 1983. It is based in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and operates on a global basis with more than 100,000 employees. The main products of the company are telecommunications equipment, supercomputers, software, electronics, servers, etc. In 2017, the company was featured on the Fortune 500 list.

About NEC Corporation

When the company was established, it mainly focused on the manufacturing and sales of telephones and switches. But, in order to survive, evolution is of utmost importance. Hence today, NEC corporation is not only thriving in the electronics industry but also known for offering cloud computing and IoT platforms. The company was the biggest PC vendor in Japan in the 1980s and also became the fourth largest PC manufacturer in the world. In the 21st century, NEC Corporation has spun off its semiconductor division to Renesas Electronics and Elpida Memory. Last year, when the US banned Huawei’s 5G equipment in the country, NEC geared up to fill that void in both the US and UK.

NEC Corporation
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Establishment of Nippon Electric Limited

Kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda bought facilities from Miyoshi Electrical Manufacturing Company which helped them establish Nippon Electric. Western Electric, an American manufacturing company, and Nippon formed a joint-stock company in July 1899 which became Nippon Electric Company (NEC). This marked the first-ever joint venture of Japan with a foreign company. Initially, the company started out with the production and sales of telephones and switches and opened a plant at Mita Shikokumachi in 1901. The telephone subscribers started increasing in Japan in the early 1900s which increased the market potential for NEC. With the implementation of the telegraph treaty between Japan and China, NEC entered the Chinese market in 1908 followed by entering the Korean market as well.

Turmoils in the 20th Century

As the market started expanding for NEC, four of its factories were destroyed during the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. But, NEC got back on its feet very quickly and started the radio communications business in 1924. Western Electric was the prime supplier of broadcasting equipment for NEC. The company also established a radio research unit and by 1934 supplied China’s Xinjing station with a 100kW radio broadcasting system. NEC provided the Japanese Ministry of Communications with A-type switching systems and non-loaded line carrier equipment before World War II.

World War II marks the darkest days in history not only for NEC but for entire Japan. The company suffered heavy losses and some of its plants were completely damaged due to bomb attacks and foreign relations were also disrupted. By the end of 1944, the production of NEC reduced drastically. When the situation started getting back to normalcy, NEC re-opened the major plants in 1946. The company started investing significantly in R&D and won the Deming Prize for its excellent quality control. In 1954, computer research and development began in NEC and it designed Japan’s first crossbar switching system. NEC eventually expanded its market to North American and European territories as well.

Present Day NEC Corporation

The 21st century for NEC began with a joint venture with Samsung for manufacturing OLED displays. NEC also collaborated with the UK government and provided projectors for school students. In 2002, the electronics division of NEC became a separate entity rebranded as NEC Laboratories America Inc. NEC built the Earth Simulator which was the fastest supercomputer in the entire world for two years (2002-2004). Participating in the automobile industry marked a joint venture with Nissan in 2007 for producing lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. In 2012, a huge economic crisis struck NEC and it was forced to cut 10,000 jobs. Currently, the principal subsidiaries of NEC Corporation are NEC Corporation of America, Netcracker Technology, NEC Europe, KMD, Avaloq, and NEC Display Solutions (majority stake sold to Sharp Corporation).

Takashi Niino – CEO of NEC Corporation

Takashi Niino is the current CEO of NEC Corporation. He joined the company in 1977 and became the CEO and President in 2016. In this time spent in NEC, he was offered several roles like executive general manager and executive vice president. He completed his education at Kyoto University.

Sprint Corporation

Sprint Corporation – An American Telecommunication Company With its Root Back in the 19th Century.

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Sprint Corporation, in the past 122 years, has taken up various names and went through multiple mergers and acquisitions. Originally founded by Cleyson Brown and Jacob Brown, Sprint Corporation is currently a part of T-Mobile US as a result of the merger that took place in April 2020. The history of Sprint Corporation is related to two other companies, namely, Brown Telephone Company and Southern Pacific Railroad from where it originated. The main services of the company are mobile telephony, wireless communication, internet services, and broadband. The headquarters of the company is based in Kansas, US. After the merger of Sprint with T-Mobile US last year, Sprint has become a subsidiary of T-Mobile and the brand name has also been phased out.

The Parent Companies

In 1899, the Brown Telephone Company was established by Clayson Brown. The company was established to avail of telephone services for the first time in rural Kansas. In 1900, the Brown Telephone Company rolled out its first long-distance circuit and grew popular in no time. It gave a strong competition to Bell Telephone Company which was the most famous operator in those days. In 1911, Brown merged the company with other independent entities to form the United Telephone Company. The name of the company changed to United Utilities followed by United Communications in 1972.

The second parent company, Southern Pacific Railroad, was founded in the 1860s as a subsidiary of Southern Pacific Company (SPC). SPC formed a new division in the 1970s to leverage the power of existing communication technology for long-distance calling. This division was named Southern Pacific Communication Company. With the expanding business of SPC, it gave strong competition to AT&T and a strong rivalry existed between them. In the mid-1970s, SPC decided to change its name to SPRINT which is the acronym for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.

Sprint Corporation
Image source: moneyinc.com

Sprint Corporation in the 20th Century

In 1983, a company called GTE Group acquired SPRINT and the long-distance telephony of SPC. After three years, a merger took place between the GTE Group and United Telecommunications Inc. property, US Telecom which named the new company as US Sprint Communications. After a few years, United Telecom gained full control of the US Sprint and officially renamed the company Sprint Corporation. The next decade was followed by Sprint entering the Canadian market and forming an alliance with Call-Net Enterprises. In 1995, it established a new partnership with American Personal Communications for creating digital wireless networks. Sprint struck deals with another company called RadioShack for communication services and products across the US market.

Present Days

In 2004, a massive merger took place between the Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications. The new company was known as Sprint Nextel Corporation. When this merger took place, both the companies were two of the leading telecommunication companies in the US. In the next few years, Sprint Nextel acquired a series of companies including US Unwired, IWO Holdings, Gulf Coast Wireless, Alamosa Holdings, Enterprise Communications, and many more. This continuous series of acquisitions of both affiliates and non-affiliates took place till 2009.

After the merger, the company had two headquarters, one in Virgian and the other one in Kansas. Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint realized that it sent the wrong message to the public and hence made a single headquarters of the company in Kansas. In 2012, a renowned Japanese telecommunications company, SoftBank showed interest in buying a 70 percent stake at Sprint Nextel for $20.1 billion. The acquisition was completed after a year when the US Federal Communications Commission approved it. Last year, the company was acquired by T-Mobile US and the brand name of Sprint ceased to exist.

Founders of Sprint Corporation

Cleyson Brown is the main founder of the Brown Telephone Company which eventually became Sprint Corporation and is now a part of T-Mobile US. Jacob Brown, brother of Cleyson Brown helped him to found the Brown Telephone Company. Cleyson Brown is mainly famous for founding the Brown Telephone Company but he was also a famous innovator and a philanthropist. Before founding the telephone company, he established Abilene Electric Light Works for generating electricity.