Your Tech Story

Tech Story

STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics – A Multinational Company Which is the Largest Semiconductor Chip Maker in Europe.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By

STMicroelectronics is the largest semiconductor chip maker in terms of revenue in Europe. The company uses the most advanced innovations intelligently and efficiently for making chips. STMicroelectronics company was established as a result of merging a French and an Italian company in 1987. The companies are, namely, Thomson Semiconducteurs (French) and SGS Microelettronica (Italian). STMicroelectronics is mostly famous as ST. The main headquarters of the company is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Since ST operates across the globe it has other headquarters in various regions including Texas, Singapore, Shanghai, and Tokyo. The company is currently led by Jean-Marc Chery (CEO and President).

About STMicroelectronics

The chips manufactured today are highly complex because of their multipurpose functions and high efficiency. In everyday life, we use devices that have several chips integrated into them. And, it is through these chips that ST is creating a big influence in our life. We are not even aware of how often we use products that have ST chips embedded in it. From factory machines to an electric toothbrush, ST has its advanced chips embedded everywhere. ST currently has 46,000 employees and more than 100,000 customers who have created a strong community. With extensive collaboration and advanced research labs, ST is very dedicated to R&D. Every year, 16 percent of the total revenue of the company is invested in R&D across the world. The company’s main target is to become carbon neutral and operate fully in renewable energy by 2027.

STMicroelectronics
Image source: www.eetasia.com

History of Company

In 1987, the merger of Thomson Semiconducteurs and SGS Microelettronica, two government-owned semiconductor companies marked the foundation of ST. After the merger, the new company was named SGS-THOMSON, and then it was renamed STMicroelectronics in 1998 as Thomson sold its shares. The company soon became one of the leading semiconductor manufacturers and ranked among the top 20 semiconductor suppliers. ST became a publicly-traded company in 1994 as it filed its first IPO both in Paris and New York Stock Exchange.

ST expanded its business in other continents as it started acquiring geographically diverse businesses from the late 1980s. It started off with the acquisition of Inmos, a British company in 1989 followed by the semiconductor division of Nortel, a Canadian company. In 2000, ST acquired WaterScale Integration Inc, a company based in California for flash memory-based chips. In 2002, ST acquired the microelectronics division of Alcatel which helped the company enter into the wireless-LAN market. ST also acquired a leading company in video processing technology called Genesis Microchip (a US-based company) in 2007. This company has design centers in Asian countries as well which strengthens the market of ST even more. ST also went into a joint partnership with Motorola and TSMC for designing a new tech. The company eventually became one of the top 5 companies from ranking in the top 20 list within a decade.

Present Day

ST’s strong passion to build more efficient products based on advanced tech led to another joint venture with Intel in 2007. This partnership started in the memory application called Numonyx and it led to the merger of ST and the activities of Intel Flash Memory. NXP is one of the leading semiconductor companies and in 2008 ST announced a joint venture with the company for their mobile activities. Another partnership started in 2009 which included Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless.

ST is currently working on three major fields, namely, Smart Mobility, Power & Energy, and IoT & 5G. The company has designed car electrification solutions that will help manufacturers build better electric vehicles at affordable rates. ST has always focused on better energy management and being an active participant in the green technology movement, the company is using wide bandgap materials like Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride for saving energy.

Jean-Marc Chery – CEO of STMicroelectronics

Jean Marc Chery, an engineer by profession, has been serving as the President and CEO of the company since 2018. Jean was a part of the Thomson Semiconducteurs before the merger and worked in various management positions, product planning, and manufacturing. He is also the President of the European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA), President of the European microelectronics R&D program AENEAS, etc.

atos

Atos – A French IT Company Formed By A Series Of Mergers In The Late 90s.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By

Atos is a famous French multinational IT conglomerate. Though the company officially launched in 2000, the history of its origin dates back to the late 90s. The company’s headquarters is based in Bezons, France. The main products of the company are IT services and consulting which includes cloud platforms, cybersecurity services, big data, unified communications, etc. Atos provides services on a global scale to multiple industries like financial services and insurance, healthcare & life science, manufacturing, public sector and defense, telecommunication and media, logistics, etc. The founder of the company is Bernard Bourigeaud and the present CEO is Elie Girard.

The Founding Story of Atos

The story of Atos dates back to 1996 when a company called Origin B.V. was founded by the merger of two companies. The two companies are Philips Communication & Processing division and BSO, a Dutch company. In 1997, the company was established as a result of a merger between Axime and Sligos, both French companies. In 2000, another merger took place between Atos and Origin B.V., and together they formed Atos Origin.

Atos
Image source: wsj.net

Early Years, Acquisitions, and Spin-Offs

In 2001, the company sold one of its divisions (Nordic Operations) to WM-data. In the subsequent years, Atos made big acquisitions by acquiring KPMG Consulting (in the UK and Netherlands). In 2004, the company acquired SchlumbergerSema (IT division of Schlumberger) and Itellium (only the infrastructure division). In 2004, the company also created a new subsidiary called Atos Worldline and made the Atos Consulting division more pronounced. The part of the company that originated from the Philips C&P during the early merger was sold to Fujitsu. The company has business across various continents but in 2005 and 2006 the company sold its part of Nordic and the Middle East business.

Bernard Bourigeaud, after founding the company, also played the role of its CEO till 2007. He was replaced by Philippe Germond in that year but again in 2008, Philippe was replaced by Thierry Breton. After a couple of years, the company acquired Venture Infotek, an Indian payment company, and expanded its business into the Indian market. Later in 2010, the company acquired the IT Services subsidiary of Siemens for €850 million. In 2014, Atos bought a controlling stake in Bull SA and Xeros’s IT Outsourcing business. The latter acquisition tripled the size of the company in the North American market. Atos, in 2018, went into a partnership with Google Cloud to offer secure AI systems. In July 2021, the company announced the acquisition of Visual BI, a leading company that exclusively focuses on Cloud Data Analytics and Business Intelligence.

Atos in Fighting COVID-19

Atos gathered all its technology and innovation resources to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. It supported the scientific community with its computing power and helped in accelerating vaccine research. Last year, to help the local authorities contain the spread of the virus, Atos created EpiSYS. It is an epidemic management system (EMS) that was built to store and manage all patient data and give healthcare professionals a view of the present epidemiological situation on a real-time basis. Company high-performing supercomputers were also put at work to support the European research teams with large computing resources. The company is also involved in data science projects which is more like a challenge launched by the White House to answer questions regarding the COVID-19 using data science tools.

About the Founder

Bernard Bourigeaud has done more than just founding Atos. He is also the founder of Axime, one of the leading IT services and payment companies in the world. Bernard founded Atos seven years after founding Axime and stayed as the CEO of the former. When he stepped down from Atos Origin, the company generated annual revenue of more than $5 billion and operated in more than 50 countries. Before he became an entrepreneur, he worked at Deloitte and Haskins & Sells for many years. He studied economics and management and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

ASE Group

ASE Group – Story Of A Chinese Semiconductor Company Founded By Two Brothers.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By

The ASE Group is also known as the Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. Jason Chang and Richard Chang founded the company in 1984. ASE Group is a publicly-traded company that mainly provides independent semiconductor assembling and testing services. The company’s headquarters is based in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and it operates on a global scale. The ASE Group and the Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) decided to form a new holding company in 2016. While the companies retained their legal entities, management, and staff there was a change in their operating models and independent operations.

About ASE Group

Being a leading provider of independent semiconductor manufacturing services, ASE Group offers turnkey solutions for front-end engineering tests, IC packaging, design of interconnect materials, etc. The entire process of semiconductor manufacturing consists of several steps, and among them, ASE is capable of a front-end engineering test, water probing, packaging, and final testing. ASE has a team of highly experienced and skilled engineers to strive to conduct rigorous research and develop the most advanced assembly technologies. To date, the company has 18 smart factories and 48,000 employees worldwide.

ASE Group
Image source: businesswire.com

A Brief History Of Tthe ASE Group

Jason Chang and his brother Richard Chang founded the ASE Group in 1984. They established their first plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Currently, Jason Chang serves as the Chairman of the company. The company had crossed several big marks in due time and became the world’s largest provider of independent semiconductor test manufacturing services and assembly. In 2018, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc became a part of the ASE Technology Holding Company Ltd and it is listed both on NYSE and Taiwan Stock Exchange.

Before the company went into a joint venture with SPIL, ASE Group’s market capitalization summed up to $8.77 billion. Last year, the company established its first 5G mmWave smart factory. ASE Group is very much focused on creating a sustainable environment and it has also won various awards for sustainability. A few months ago, the company achieved the 20 million tons mark of saving water with its water management strategy.

Advanced Technologies And Sustainability

ASE Group is the largest company on a global scale for independent semiconductor manufacturing tests and assembly. The company was able to reach the top with its leading advanced technology and volume production. ASE Group has developed advanced packaging technologies with the time that can be used for electronics packaging over a broad range of sectors from healthcare to smart homes. Some of these technologies are Fan Out Packaging, System-in-Package, 2.5D & 3D, etc.

Pledging towards developing a greener environment is becoming a common goal for every industry. ASE Group is continuously engaged in finding ways to optimize waste generation and minimize greenhouse gas emissions along with recycling as many resources as possible. Since 2012, ASE has been making improvements to its existing facilities and also constructing new manufacturing facilities maintaining the international Green Building Standards. ASE Group currently has 18 smart factories and one of them became the world’s first semiconductor packaging plant to get a certification of low carbon building. Five times in a row, ASE became the industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. Also, ASE continuously associates with various NGOs, academic institutions, government, and other stakeholders of the company for supporting social development.

About The Founders

Jason Chang is a Taiwanese/Singaporean billionaire according to the Forbes 2020 billionaires list ranked 836. Jason Chang is an electrical engineer who completed his education at National Taiwan University followed by the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is the recipient of the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International SEMI Award (2015).

Richard Chang is the Vice President of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering. His total worth is approximately $6 billion. He is also an investor who along with Jason Chang is investing in Sino Horizon (a Chinese real estate developer).

Airtel

Airtel – An Indian-based Company Operating Second Largest Mobile Network Across The Globe.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By

Airtel is a telecommunication company that every Indian has heard of as well as people abroad. It is not only the second-largest telecom operator in India but also across the world. Sunil Bharti Mittal is the founder of the company. The company’s headquarters is based in New Delhi, India and it operates in 18 countries. The main services of Airtel are mobile services (2G, 4G LTE, 4G+), voice services, and fixed-line broadband. Airtel’s business strategy especially of outsourcing has made it successful in a few years. The IT support for the company is provided by Amdocs and it also made the partnership with Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers for the transmission network. Let’s have a better look at the history and operations of the company.

The Founding Story Of Airtel

Before the push-button phones were made in India, they were imported from Taiwan to replace the rotary phones. In 1984, Sunil Mittal started assembling the components of these push-button phones in India instead of importing them. To manufacture these phones, Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) tied up with Siemens AG (a German company) and eventually started production. Sunil Mittal bid for one of the four mobile phone network licenses that were auctioned in India and finally his plan was approved in 1994 and he launched the telecom services in Delhi.

Sunil Mittal was the first Indian entrepreneur who spotted the potential of telecom services in the Indian market and beyond and grasped it quickly. Within a few years of launch, Bharti crossed the 2 million subscriber mark and brought STD/ISD under the brand name “India one.” From 1999, Bharti Enterprises started acquiring other businesses spread across India. The company also launched an Airtel theme song which gained much popularity in India.

In 2008, Airtel was considering acquiring the MTN group which is a South African telecommunication company. The company is spread across 21 countries and it has several subsidiaries which would have been very advantageous for Airtel. But, the deal was not fixed as MTN tried to make Airtel one of its subsidiaries. The discussions went on for a long time but after one year, the idea was dismissed. In 2010, Airtel acquired Zain mobile networks in 15 African countries and this acquisition became the second-largest Indian overseas acquisition after Tata Steel. Gradually, Airtel expanded to several other countries and climbed the ladder to becoming one of the largest telecom networks in the world.

Airtel
Image source: indiatvnews.com

Expansion, Mergers, And Acquisitions

After the MTN Group acquisition plans fell off, Airtel succeeded in acquiring Zain which made Airtel the fifth-largest wireless carrier in the world in terms of subscribers. In 2010, the company acquired a 70.9 percent stake in Warid Telecom and the remaining was sold to Bharti Airtel Holdings in Singapore. The same year, the company planned to acquire Telecom Seychelles which operated in 19 countries. After two years, the company acquired a 49 percent stake in Wireless Business Services Private Limited and it gave the company a stronger 4G presence. The other companies that Airtel acquired are Augere Wireless which gave Airtel 4G presence in Central India (partially), Indian assets of Telenor, Tikona Digital Networks Pvt Ltd, Tigo Rwanda followed by Tata Teleservices and Tata Docomo.

As mentioned earlier, the presence of Airtel outside India is also very strong. In Bangladesh, it operates as Robi and in Sri Lanka as Airtel Sri Lanka. Airtel Africa includes 15 African countries under the network. Some of the countries are Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, etc. Airtel also has network operations in the Channel Islands which include Jersey and Guernsey.

About The Founder

Sunil Bharti Mittal is the founder and chairperson of Bharti Enterprises. He is an Indian billionaire, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He graduated from Punjab University in 1976 and started his first business by borrowing the capital from his father. After a few years, he started a trading company with his brothers. The trading business included importing various equipment from other countries and one of them was push-button phones from Taiwan. But, in 1981 the government of India suddenly banned the import of specific items which led him to assemble the push-button phone in India. This is how he took the first step towards building the emperor of Bharti Airtel. He is the recipient of Padma Bhushan.

Sybase inc

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

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By

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.

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems – A famous American IT Company Currently Operating Under Oracle Corporation.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By

Sun Microsystems is an American IT company that was established in 1982 and is based in California, US. The company became very famous over a short time because it created Java (programming language) whose applications are very wide in today’s IT sector. The company mainly sold computer components, IT services, software but set itself apart by rolling out products like Java, ZFS, SPARC microprocessors, VirtualBox, etc. Sun Microsystems offers a wide range of software products like the Java platform, operating system, Office Suite, database management system, etc. It also offers storage as one of its primary products as well.

About Sun Microsystems

The founders of Sun Microsystems are Scott McNealy, Vinod Khosla, Andy Bechtolsheim, and Bill Joy. Sun Microsystems is a company that has always supported open systems like Unix and contributed to open-source software. In 2008, the company acquired MySQL for $1 billion. After a year, Oracle Corporation announced that it would acquire Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion. The company made plenty of acquisitions and expanded to Newark, Oregon, Scotland, Hillsboro, and many other places before it became a part of Oracle Corporation.

Sun Microsystems
Image source: zimbio.com

History Of The Company And The Dot-Com Bubble

The first Unix workstation of Sun Microsystem, Sun1 is the original idea of Andy Bechtolsheim. When he was a graduate student at Stanford University, he started working on the designs of the workstation for his communications project. He designed it using the Motorola 68000 processors and an advanced memory management unit. His first design was completely built out of what he got from his college’s computer science department and Silicon Valley supply houses. As the design of the workstation became a success, two other graduate students, Scott McNealy and Vinod Khosla from the same university joined in and founded Sun Microsystems. Bill Joy worked at Berkeley Software Division and joined the company soon.

In the first year of its establishment, Sun Microsystems turned out to be profitable. After four years, the company filed its first IPO under the stock symbol SUNW. This symbol was changed to JAVA in 2007 as the company became more famous as the creator of the Java platform. Soon, the situation of the dot-com bubble made an impact on every Silicon Valley business. Sun Microsystem’s business rose dramatically and the share prices as well. The company started hiring more employees and building the company until the bubble burst in 2000. None of the companies were prepared for this and thus it was followed by layoffs and cost-cutting. Sun tried its best to get to the pre-cash scenario as early as possible but had to shut down their Newark, California facility.

Post-Crash Scenario

After the bubble burst, there were changes in the strategies of Sun Microsystems. The company started focusing more on processor optimization for multi-threading and multiprocessing. In 2004, the company collaborated with Fujitsu, a Japanese business, to use their processor chips and Sun servers. Eventually, Sun Microsystems stabilized itself and in 2005 gained a net profit of $19 million. The year before it was acquired by Oracle, the value of Sun Microsystems fell from 2007 to 2008 and its valuation came down to $3 billion.

Acquisitions

Sun Microsystems has a big list of acquisitions from the year 1987 to 2009, just before Oracle acquired it. In the 1980s it acquired Transept Systems, Sitka Corp, Centrum System West, and Folio Inc. The company acquired a lot of businesses in the late 1990s. Some of them are Lighthouse Design, Encore Computer, LongView Technologies, etc. Out of all the companies it acquired, MySQL was the biggest acquisition in the company’s history. Q-Layer was the last company that it acquired before Oracle bought it off.

About The Founders

Scott McNealy is an alumni of Harvard and Stanford University. Mostly famous as co-founding Sun Microsystems, he also founded Curriki which is a free e-learning service. He founded Wayin in 2011 and served as its CEO for quite some time. In 2018, he joined the Advisory Board of Redis Labs.

Vinod Khosla is an Indian American businessman who graduated from IIT Delhi. He also went to Carnegie Mellon University followed by Stanford. Apart from Sun Microsystems, he founded Khosla Ventures. Last year, he was featured on the Forbes 400 list.

Apart from being an investor and an entrepreneur, Andy’s career started as an electrical engineer. He was very talented as a student as he graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with the help of the Fulbright Scholarship. Later, he went to Stanford to complete his Ph.D. He is also a Google investor. Before co-founding Sun Microsystems, Bill Joy worked at Fabry’s Computer Systems Research Group. He is an electrical engineer and also acquired a degree in computer science.