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Ready, Player One: How MSI Defined the Gaming Industry

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Taiwanese technology giant Micro-Star International has a pan Asia influence and is a IT multinational headquartered in Taipei City. The company deals in the development and production of computer hardware, and related products such as desktops, motherboards, servers and graphics cards. The company is listed on the Taiwanese Stock Exchange. Founded in 1986 by five entrepreneurs, the company has since grown to command considerable market share both within and outside Taiwan.

Humble Beginnings

The founding members of the company are Joseph Hsu, Jeans Huang, Frank Lin, Kenny Yu and Henry Lu. MSI’s five founders worked for Sony before quitting and founding MSI. Sony’s downsizing in 1985 brought the group together, and they pooled in their engineering experience to create MSI in August of 1986. The company opened its first plant in Jung-He city in 1997 and three years later opened another one in Jung-He city. In a bid to raise money for expansion, MSI went public in 1998 on the Taiwanese Stock Exchange. The company found subsidiaries MSI Computer in 2000, and MSI Electronics a year later. They followed this up by opening their logistics center in Netherlands.

Early Days and Products

The company built a name for itself by developing state-of-the-art motherboards and graphic cards. FUNTORO, which is a subsidiary to MSI took shape in 2008 as a wing of the company focusing on vehicle infotainment system. That wing now manufactures multimedia peripherals, vehicle infotainment systems and even Autonomous Mobility Robots. During their early years, MSI mainly focused on the design of motherboards and auxiliary cards. That same year, they hit the market with the world’s first over-clockable 286 motherboard.

Three years later, they introduced their 486 motherboard; following it up four years later with a 586 and then a Dual Pentium motherboard. In 1997, MSI launched their Pentium II-based motherboard and MMX, their first graphics card. They upgraded to a Bluetooth and WLAN motherboard in 2002. In 2002, they came out with a set-top box, in 2003, a Pen Tablet and a year later launched a Notebook. They followed this up with an Ultra Slim Notebook and All-in-One PC in 2009.

Aggressive Expansion

The founding five began operations in New Taipei before expanding to Mainland China. The first step of the expansion came in 2000, in the form of setting up a factory in Shenzhen. The company then established a Research and Development facility in Kunshan the next year. Since then, MSI has expanded and now provides services in North America, Central and South America, Europe and Australia.

The company also famously hosts the international gaming event called MSI Masters Gaming Arena or MSI Beat IT. The event began way back in 2010, culminating with Evil Geniuses winning the trophy. The company is headquartered in Zhonghe District, while most of the manufacturing takes place in factories spread all over Taiwan. As a part of their aggressive expansion, the company also owns offices in Europe, Australia and South Africa. They now boast of having a presence in more than 120 countries, across both the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa.

Entering the Gaming Industry

However, the biggest change came in 2008, when they entered the PC gaming market by launching and sponsoring Fnatic. Their gaming series featured desktops, graphic cards and gaming peripherals which quickly captured the market. They partnered with Tobii in 2015 to design and develop eye-tracking gaming laptops. A year later, they collaborated with HTC to create Virtual Reality experiences. They got into the field of Content Creation in 2018 by launching creator-centric laptops.

Achievements and Further Growth of MSI

MSI ended 2008 within the top 20 of the best Taiwanese Global Brands and followed it up three years later by coming in at number one. By 2013, MSI had been awarded the honour of Taiwan Excellence for fifteen straight years. They were also ranked four on a global list of the best laptops in the world in 2015. Thanks to all these achievements their global market share increased rapidly, and by 2016, they had become the largest gaming laptop supplier.

Softtek

Blanca Trevino- President of Softtek who help to grow the IT sector in Latin America

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Mexican IT firm, Softtek is well-known for application software development. Additionally, it offers services in testing, security as well as IT infrastructure management. In fact, it was one of the largest private IT vendors in Latin America. Also, Softtek is known for its female CEO and president Blanca Trevino. Under her headship Softtek rise as Latin America’s largest IT service provider. Softtek has thirty offices in different areas of Asia, Europe, and America. As well as, more than 12,000 employees work for a company.

Softtek

Softtek is a well-known IT company in several regions of Latin and North America, Asia, and Europe. In fact, as of 2010, Softtek was the biggest Information Technology(IT) vendor in Latin America. Softtek’s headquarter is set up in Monterrey, Mexico.

However, it has more than 15k associates in Mexico and abroad. It is famous for its services in software development, security, support, and testing. Also, it provides services to more than 400 corporations in more than twenty countries. 

Blanca Trevino – Softtek’s CEO and President

Blanca Trevino was one of the founding members of the Softtek in 1982. Presently, she is the president and Softtek’s CEO. In fact, she appreciates at an international level as a promoter of the Information Technology industry.

Blanca Trevino
Image Source: Google Images

Also, to grow the IT field in Latin America, she has teamed up with several government administrations. Under her leadership, Softtek achieved recognition by CNN expansion as a super company for launching young careers. Let’s overlook how she managed to become a powerful business tycoon.s 

Educational Background

In1981, Blanca Trevino completed a bachelor’s degree in computer systems administration at the Monterrey Campus. During her education, she was intimidated at first. Because all her classmates were boys. But her father supported and encouraged her to complete the graduation. Thankfully, Blanca stuck with it and earned her degree.

Softtek Foundation backstory

She started her career with a part-time job at one of the biggest companies in Monterrey, known as Alfa. This company downsized and laid her off. That time, she determines to start her own company. Finally, she successfully co-founded Softtek in 1982. She became one of the nine partners of the company, who were dreaming of established global enterprise.

In fact, she invested 10,000 dollars for the foundation of the company. Today, the firm has thirty offices in different areas of Asia, Europe, and America. Also, more than 12,000 employees work for Softtek. In fact, Blanca’s initiative known as “Near Shore” explores the area of the company in the United States.

Blanca’s leadership at Softtek

In August 2000, she took the position of CEO and president of the company. Her policies and business strategies made Softtek a global leader in the IT industry. In fact, Softtek became the only non-Indian IT provider for the U.S. market.

Other Associations of Blanca’s

Apart from Softtek, she plays various roles for many associations. She is a Mexican business council’s vice president. Also, Blanca is one of Walmart Mexico’s members. In addition, she is a board member of many other associations. Includes, Mexican stock exchange, Grupo Lala, etc.

Triumph of Blanca Trevino

Blanca named in CNN expansion magazine’s list of most powerful women in Mexico. In fact, she ranked fourth in 2009. Her dedication and powerful management for Softtek rise the company as well-known IT company in America. Blanca was the first women, who included into the Outsourcing Hall of fame.

In the year of 2011, she received attention from Endeavor organization to encourage entrepreneurship. Also, she honored with Consejo Mexican de Hombres de Negocios in 2014. In fact, she was the first woman to achieve this.

Apart from business, she served for many social clauses. In 2018, she honored with Education leadership award. It was for her contribution to promote an improvement in education in Mexico. Further, she was inducted into the Women technology hall of Fame.

F5-Networks

Dominating The Technical Industry F5 Networks Acquired Nginx For $670 Million

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I think a major part of success depends on the time you start it. For example, when the internet was gradually grasping our world, then start-ups are now a part of the unicorn club. Similarly, the businesses which started growing just before the dot-com boom mostly vanished in no time. So, time is a major factor.

But, exceptions always happen in the business world. Everything is uncertain here. F5 Networks is a technology company that was founded in 1996. Jeff Hussey founded the company and then John McAdam joined him shortly. Both stepped down after serving the company for a long time. F5 Networks is a Seattle based company.

What is F5 Networks?

The term “technical” is a very wide domain. So, what are the specific products of F5 Networks? The company is mainly thriving in the networking area since the beginning. F5 Networks mainly provides ADN (application delivery networking).

ADN uses a series of technologies which when incorporated together secures the network, provides visibility and acceleration. Initially, the company was focused on load-balancing products (distributed network). But, Jeff modified and expanded the company with time. It also includes services like DDoS defense.

About the Founder

Jeff Hussey has a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Seattle Pacific University. He also went to the University of Washington for acquiring his MBA degree. After he graduated in 1991, he joined Pacific Comlink in 1993. He served as the President of the company for a couple of years and then he shifted to Alexander Hutton.

Jeff Hussey
Image Source : Google

In 1996, Jeff founded F5 Networks and served as the CEO of the company for six years. But, this wasn’t the end of his passion. In 2012, Jeff started another start-up in the same area. And, he founded the company, Tempered Networks in August 2014.

John McAdam

John McAdam joined the company in 2012 as the President and CEO. He left the company in 2015. Under John’s leadership, the company expanded and made big acquisitions.

John went to the University of Glasgow and studied Computer Science. He served as the Board Member of Apptio and Tableau Software before joining F5 Networks. From 2015, John is a Board Member at Nutanix as well. Even after John resigned from the company in 2015, he still serves as the Board Member of F5.

Initial Stage of F5 Networks

When Jeff thought of starting a tech start-up, he was more inclined towards the economic part than the part where technology was implemented. Well, his main motive was to invest in something that would become a billion-dollar company someday.

In the meantime, some developers in Seattle started working on virtual reality. This idea was much ahead of the time and unfortunately, the serves didn’t support it. But, they didn’t give up and rather came up with an algorithm for load balancing. Jeff saw potential in this product and bought it from them.

This is how Jeff founded F5 Networks in 1996 and launched its first product in 1997 using that algorithm.

Picking up the momentum

After a couple of years, when the dot-com burst hit the market, it didn’t seem to affect F5 much. Because of the uniqueness of F5 was much advanced and it helped the company to survive the big crisis. In 1999, F5 Networks was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

It was around 2000 when Jeff decided to hire an experienced tech geek for the company. And, John was perfect for the job. F5 Networks offered him the position of the President when he working for IBM. After he joined the company, John predicted the loss it might suffer due to the boom. So, next year he along with his tech team wrote a whole new algorithm for a new market.

Success and Acquisitions

Eventually, F5 Networks started provided security services as well. And, after the next couple of years, it started making huge profits. In 2003, the company acquired uRoam for $25 million. In 2007, the company made one of the biggest acquisitions in its history for $210 million.

For two consecutive years, the company’s name came under the section of Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies. The headquarters of F5 Networks was shifted to the F5 Tower in 2017. The latest news F5 is discussing about is the acquisition of Shape Security. F5 Networks has more than 4,000 employees.

Manta 5

Founding of Manta5 : Here’s how this Man Drives on Water

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Most of use cars to get from Point A to Point B, and some of us even rely on two-wheeler for our daily commute. Whenever we have to cross a water-body, we wait patiently for a boat, load our vehicles onto it, cross the body and then drive off to our destination. But what if there is another way to travel on water? If someone told you a decade ago to drive on water, you would have called them crazy! Well, that day seems to have arrived and it’s all thanks to Guy Howard Willis, maker of the first hydrofoil bike. These bikes make use of the hydrofoil technology used by America’s Cup yachts, enabling riders to reach up to 20 km/hr. on water. Famously, the crown Prince of Dubai was so impressed with the design, that he pre-ordered three pieces for himself! So how did entrepreneur from New Zealand make such a splash? Read on to find out the secret behind the success of Manta5.

About the Founder Howard-Willis

Howard-Willis kept moving around in his childhood as he was part of a military family. He starting his education in Germany, attended an agricultural school in Kent and even worked on ferries for over a decade. In 1975, he shifted to New Zealand, and thus began his love for all things related to the sea. He initially set up a furniture business, before moving on to build hospital beds for the handicapped. He then established adventure gear store Torpedo7, and run it successfully.

Howard-Willis
Image Source : Google Images

While growing up in England, Willis took parts from garbage dumps to build his own bike with friends. He grew up thinking why we couldn’t do everything we did on land on water. This lack of options bothered him for years, till he finally decided to do something about it himself! He convinced professional bicycle designer Roland Alonzo to help him with his project.

This wasn’t the easiest of tasks as Alonzo is afraid of water and hence doesn’t know how to swim! Funded by Torpedo7, the pair worked for two years, until prototype three launched in a local swimming pool. Six years later, he unveiled the Manta5 Hydrofoil XE-1, which is the world’s first water-bike. The design, thanks to its uniqueness and flamboyance is making waves across the world!

Early Success

Since launching the company Manta5 in 2011, the bikes have gained quite a fan following, leading to over 12,000 pre-orders. Most of this interest comes from the US, followed closely by Europe, and Dubai. First deliveries will hit the market early this year, and Wills predicts that these bikes will change the way we view water-sports.

Willis envisions his product to lead to the birth of a new sport, making the Hydrofoil bike a Kiwi icon. The pair faced numerous difficulties early on as designing such a complex machine was no easy feat. Balancing maximum lift and thrust, especially at low speeds proved to be a difficult task.

However, relentless commitment from both pioneers led to a successful proof-of-concept and launch, which led to the company’s formation. In the 2017 Best Awards, their prototype won the Gold medal in the Concept Category, shooting them to super-stardom. Their video submission for the contest went viral, racking up over 350 million views on Facebook alone. Over a million people visited their official website, and thousands expressed their interest to buy the product.

Growth and Future Plans

In 2016, Greg Johnston joined the team as general manager, followed by marketing manager Louis Wilk, supply chain assistant Samaria Mason and Jeanna Sayson. It is interesting to note that all these people are graduates of the Waikato institute. Rounding up the team is a pair of electrical engineers, Daniel Dredge and Harrisson Jull.

Due to their innate presence, prototyping work for the bike happened after hours at the University’s Aquatic Centre. In 2015, their research centre shifted to Cambridge, with testing happening on Lake Karapiro. The company is also working closely with Callaghan Innovation and Export NZ to learn more about other business leaders from NZ.

Wills hopes that these bikes will go beyond just being a leisure product, and instead grow to symbolize New Zealand. One day, he even dreams that it becomes a sporting accessory worthy of becoming a part of the Olympic Games.

Verizon Wireless

Verizon – How Mergers Helped this Company Become the Largest Wireless Service Provider in America

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Headquartered in New York, Verizon Communications Inc. is a multinational company that delivers broadband and wireless communications services. They are a global leader in the field of communications and operates America’s largest wireless network, with over 107 million connections. They have also branched into other areas and now provides services in information and entertainment sectors, working with a fiber-optic network.

Not only do they have a strong presence in the US, they also operate worldwide with customers in over 150 countries. Notably, they provide services to all of the companies listed in the Fortune 500. Verizon is a Dow 30 company, making more than $106.6 billion in revenues with over 195,000 employees. Here’s a look at their success story and what makes them so special.

About the Company

Bell Atlantic Corp and GTE Corp merged in 2000 to form Verizon, which is incorporated in Delaware. The company turned public and started trading on the New York Stock Exchange as VZ in July of the same year. Ten years later, the company switched to NASDAQ under the same ticker name VZ.

The symbols signify speed and the word, veritas meaning reliability, credited to being the origin of the company name. Though Verizon is a 21st-century company, the companies, and mergers that made its formation possible go back many years.

Their roots may be traced to the early beginnings of the telephone industry in the late 19th century. The telephone industry was given more definition with the signing of the Telecommunications Act in 1996, making it a competitive marketplace.

Merging and Surging Ahead

Some of the largest mergers in US business history created Verizon, with the first one being the joining of Bell Atlantic and GTE in 1998. This move led to their headquarters being shifted from Stamford to Texas. Both these companies had grown side by side, expanding, growing and acquiring other companies.

Each of them commanded substantial market share and were successful in their own right. Before the merger, GTE was one of the largest communications company in the world, ending 1999 with an annual turnover exceeding $25 billion. They had built over 35 million access lines throughout the US, Dominican Republic, and Canada. GTE also had a foothold in the wireless industry, with over 7.1 million customers and 72.5 million potential customers.

In comparison, Bell Atlantic was an even larger company with revenues crossing $33 billion. They served 43 million access lines, along with 22 million houses and over 2 million businesses. They managed the world’s most successful wireless communication companies, with over 7.7 million customers and customers in Latin America and Europe.

Furthermore, they were the world’s largest directory publisher. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the merger came in at over $52 billion. The two companies decided to merge to create a company that would become the telecommunication industry’s giants. It took two years to close, following reviews and approvals from both sides and the Federal Communications Commission.

Starting Verizon Wireless

Around the same time, Bell Atlantic and Vodafone started a new wireless business combining both their wireless assets. The joint venture received approval in six months and the new brand launched in 2000, followed by Verizon Wireless in April. Verizon held the majority share of 55% in Verizon Wireless, thereby controlling it. 

During the beginning, leaders from both Bell and GTE shared management responsibility with GTE CEO Charles Lee becoming Verizon’s co-CEO, along with Ivan Seidenberg. Two years later, in 2002, Lee stepped down, while Seidenberg hung his boots in 2011, being succeeded by Lowell C. McAdam. Lowell served as Verizon’s President and Verizon Wireless’s CEO before becoming CEO.

After acquiring Alltel in 2009, Verizon Wireless turned into the largest wireless company in the U.S. Wireless revenue alone is over $92 billion as of 2016, making them the most successful wireless service provider in the US. Then, in 2014, Verizon made its largest investment by acquiring Vodafone’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion. This transaction gave them full ownership over the American wireless industry, making them a global leader. With over 177,700 employees and an annual turnover exceeding $132 billion, the company looks all set to have a bright future.

Toppr Logo

Toppr-Evolution of Indian Education System With E-Learning

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The Indian education system does honestly not impress the world or Indian students itself. High competition among students especially after the 12th standard has opened a source of business for private tutors. This is the biggest reason why offline education is so costly in India.

But, we know the major population of our country cannot afford proper education. So, it has a negative impact mostly on the students appearing for a joint entrance examination or a medical examination. To overcome this urgent crisis suffered by mediocre students of our nation, Zishaan Hayath came up with Toppr.

Toppr is an e-learning platform launched in 2013. It assists a student in gaining proper knowledge about the competitive exams who can also watch videos and solve questions. Zishaan along with his ex-classmate Hemanth Goteti launched this innovative and helpful website. Since then a massive amount of students have signed in and made brilliant outcomes.

About the founders of Toppr

Zishaan Hayath went to IIT Bombay and graduated in 2005. His first step into the corporate world was with ITC Limited where he joined as an Assistant Manager. In April 2006, he joined Opera Solutions as an Assistant Consultant. He co-founded Chaupaati Bazaar, a phone-commerce start-up in 2008.

Futurebazaar.com acquired Chaupaati Bazaar and Zishaan became the VP Product of Futurebazaar eventually. In April 2013, he co-founded Toppr with Hemanth.

Hemanth studied Aerospace Engineering in IIT Bombay. He worked in many companies before co-founding Toppr. Hemanth also worked at Futurebazaar.com as Head of Engineering.

How did it start?

Zishaan knew Hemanth from college and working together before co-founding Toppr made a good understanding between them. Both of them were tech geeks and their idea was to use technology into a sector with a massive audience. In India, most of the youngsters are highly devoted to gaining proper education. So, what could be better than implementing high tech in the educational system?

This led the co-founders to come with Toppr. Toppr received its initial funding from Kasyap Deorah and Abhisekh Jain. Within one year of launching Toppr, 8000 students signed up for the preparation courses of JEE, medical exams, and foundation courses.

At this time, many websites like this already came in the market but Toppr clearly steered the right direction.

The Positive Side

The middle-aged children’s population seeking education has outnumbered even China. This opened a huge potential for the platforms of e-learning. And, now that the age of the internet has come everyone prefers learning from websites. Because going to coaching classes is both expensive and time-consuming.

Moreover, different cities have different quality of education. For example, we all know Rajasthan has the best coaching facilities for JEE and medical entrance exams. But, with the help of a mobile app, every student at every corner of India received the same quality education.

Currently, there are around 8 million users that pay for their courses in Toppr. And, for a start-up, it is a pretty impressive number of paid users. The revenue keeps increasing thrice every year for the last three years.

The Expansion

In May 2014, Toppr raised a funding of $2 million from SAIF Partners and Helion Ventures. Zishaan announced that all the funds raised will be invested to improve the existing modules. In April 2015, Toppr acquired EasyPrep, a platform that served the same purpose as Toppr.

Within a year, the team of Toppr comprised of 100 members and served more than 150,000 students. The rate of success also increased every year since the study materials were made by freelancers from IITs. The Mumbai-based start-up also acquired Manch in 2015. Zishaan announced that the main reason behind the acquisitions is making education more affordable.

In 2017, Toppr raised $450 million from SAIF Partners, Helion Ventures and FIL Capital Management. And, it raised another $155 million from Alteria Capital. In the last three years, Toppr received a massive amount of funding from the existing investors and also $35 million from Kaizen Private Equity. This was the latest round of funding.

The Success

The company so far has reached out to students from twenty-five different cities. By 2020, their target is to reach thirty cities and also to thrice its annual revenue. The app approximately has seven million total downloads to date. The subscription charge of Toppr is also very affordable which adds a big plus point in its list.