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BenQ Corporation: One of the Leading IT and Electronics Company in Taiwan.

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BenQ Corporation is a Taiwan-based electronics and IT company offering solutions to its customers globally. The company has been in the field of computing and technology for the past 37 years. Basically, it started as a part of Acer Communication & Multimedia, but in 2001, the company spun off from the latter to form a separate brand. BenQ Corporation deals in developing and selling technology products, electronics, computing, and communications devices. It uses BenQ as its trading name. It is a subsidiary company of Qisda Corporation and has its headquarter based in Taipei, Taiwan.

The Formation of BenQ Corporation

The name BenQ has a meaningful abbreviation which is also the company slogan, i.e., Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to Life. The company tries to fulfill all its operations based on the said slogan. The company was founded in 1984 as a part of Acer Peripherals Inc. In 1991, the latter had a name change to Acer & Multimedia. This was the same time when Acer began to expand its operations in different fields, and as a result, the company established Acer Display Technologies Inc. in 1996. Acer also built its manufacturing units in Taiwan and China at the same time.
Acer established BenQGuru (Guru Systems), another subsidiary company, an e-business solutions provider, to enter the Asian market in 1998, employing about 350 people. But in 2001, BenQ was spun off from Acer to form a separate company, with its headquarters established in Taiwan.
Though the company was built to serve the Asian consumers, after the separation from Acer, it started to expand overseas and has now established offices in Europe and America as well.

BenQ Corporation
Image Source: www.dptechgroup.com

The Growth

BenQ started its journey as an independent company in 2001, and since then, it has been only growing. Started with 350 people, it now employs over 4000 people globally. It has also established multiple sales offices in the Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America, Europe, and China. As a brand, BenQ is operational in over 100 countries. Though the company started as a consultancy and management service provider, it has now grown to become an IT and electronics company, and today is one of the leading suppliers of TFT LCD monitors, digital projectors, digital cameras, and mobile computing devices, etc.
BenQ has also brought a series of smartphones under its name, M775C being the first smartphone that the company launched in the year 2003. The interest of BenQ in the smartphone business made it acquire the mobile devices division of Germany’s Siemens AG in 2005, forming a separate division for smartphone development named BenQ Mobile trading with the name, BenQ-Siemens. BenQ also separated its contract manufacturing and own-brand divisions in 2006.
BenQ mobile had to shut down due to the losses in 2007. But the parent company of BenQ, Qisda Corporation, still manufactured mobiles for Dell. The company launched a few of the first Windows smartphones for Dell in 2012. The next year, BenQ restarted the manufacturing of smartphones under its brand name. In 2015, the company partnered with UK mobile telecoms provider EE to launch another series of smartphones. The same year, it also acquired ZOWIE GEAR and established a new gaming division, developing mice, mousepads, sound cards, monitors, and other gaming accessories.

Products and Services

BenQ manufactures and distributes its products in three main divisions; computing (TV-sets, joy books, keyboards, storage, monitors, etc.), consumer electronics (camera, projectors, displays), and communications (mobile and smartphones). Currently, the company is focused on being ready for the future and is working on Human Technology, Design Technology, and Entertainment Technology. BenQ also develops products for the healthcare industry. It has also developed software and energy management solutions for its customers.

The CEO at BenQ

Conway Lee is the current President and the CEO of BenQ Corporation. He has got an MBA degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, USA. Lee has been working with BenQ before it was even formed. He joined the Acer group in 1989 and worked with the company for over ten years. When BenQ spun off from Acer, Lee joined the company as the General Manager of the Digital Media Business Group of the company. He was also the in-charge of BenQ Europe for some time.

Realtek

Realtek – A Taiwanese Semiconductor Company Focused on Developing Low-Cost Electronic Devices.

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Realtek is a leading cutting edge semiconductor company founded in 1987. Realtek has expanded its primary products and solutions throughout the following years. The company took a big leap when it acquired Avance Logic in 1995 and improved its audio technology solutions. Avance was an independent subsidiary till 2002 and then it was integrated into Realtek’s Audio Solutions. Currently, the company is operating with approximately 5,000 employees and its headquarters is based in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The company invests significantly in research and development facilities and 78 percent of the total employees exclusively work for the same as well.

The Early Days of Realtek

Founded in 1987, Realtek made a breakthrough when it invented Realtek’s RTG3108 High-Performance Window Accelerator Chipset. The product received appreciation and was awarded the Innovative Product Award from Hsinchu Science Park Administration. In 1995, the company got certified as an ISO9001 registered company and after a couple of years rolled out Realtek Single-Chip Fast Ethernet Controller. Realtek received a New Product Development Award for this new controller and the company was also approved for the Taiwan Over-The-Counter Securities Exchange list. Next year, Company made it into the list of companies approved for the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

Realtek
Image source: www.lifewire.com

Realtek in 21st Century

Realtek brought some major new innovations into the semiconductor market as it started focusing on its R&D department. In 2000, the company received a huge R&D grant from the Hsinchu Science Park Administration for building a very fast ethernet transceiver. The same year, Realtek became the recipient of MOEA’s Most Outstanding Award for Industrial Technology Advancement. In 2001, Realtek rolled out a Multi-mode Single-Chip 10/100M Fast Ethernet Controller which also received Component Design Award by EDN Asia Magazine.

In 2002, the company received another round for an R & D fund and this time it was for a media access controller and a high-performing multifunction peripheral controller. The company received a lot of fame this year as it was featured in Taiwan’s Microelectronics Magazine as one of the top ten global electronic component providers. the company also made it into the Forbes list in 2003 as it became Global 200 Best Small Companies. The innovations kept on brewing in the R&D sector of Realtek and every year it came up with more than one impressive product. This led to the opening of a new building of the company in 2005. In 2009, the company won’t the prestigious National Invention and Creation Award. In the following years, the company started making progress in digital media and also enhanced on designing sustainable products.

Company in Present Day

Realtek’s contribution to creating a better environment through designing more green products was awarded by the country. It received Taiwan Green Classics Award in 2011 Industrial Sustainable Excellence Award and Superior Enterprise Innovation Award all in the same year. In recent years, Company has proven to be one of the best companies with significant contributions in IoT applications, mobiles, and wearables, car electronics, IC & Components, etc.

The demand for the company’s chips has also increased especially during the pandemic as the consumer base for smart devices and gadgets have splurged unexpectedly. This is one of the biggest reasons why not only Realtek but every semiconductor business, in general, faced an increase in demand for chips from the last year. In 2021, the company also launched a new gaming network total solution that bagged Computex D&I Awards of this year. Realtek designs products on a very wide range of semiconductor components. But, some of their signature products that have contributed to their global presence are BlueTooth TWS with ANC solution, Low-Power AI IP Camera, 8K Video Decoder and Processing IC, etc.

Sun-Chien Chiu – General Manager

Chiu completed his education at National Taiwan University and has been a part of Realtek Semiconductor Corp since 1999. Apart from serving as the President of Realtek, he is also the board member of Wionics Technologies Inc.

TietoEVRY

TietoEVRY: One of the Leading Digital Services and Software Company.

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TietoEVRY Oyj aka Tieto is a Finland-based IT and software service company with its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. The company is over fifty years old, having a company named EVRY added to it in 2019 with a EUR 1.2 Bn deal, hence becoming TietoEVRY. TietoEVRY is a conglomerate and provides services in the field of healthcare, industrial and consumer services, finance, etc. According to the company, it creates a digital advantage for businesses and society.

About The TietoEVRY

TietoEVRY has a history of over 50 years, and with multiple acquisitions, it has reached heights of success. The company is not only a leading software service provider in its home country but has expanded to over 20 other countries on all the continents. Finland, Norway and Sweden are the main markets where TietoEVRY is doing its business. Except that, it has established its offices in Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, Netherlands, Malaysia, India, China, and Poland, etc. Being a software company, it offers services to the banking industry, the insurance industry, telecom industry, automotive, media as well as the healthcare industry.
TietoEVRY trades on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki and Stockholm and has employed over 24000 people globally. As of 2020, the company made revenues worth €2.786 billion.

TietoEVRY
Image source: jobsnet.in

The Back Story

TietoEVRY started its operations as an IT systems development and maintenance company in 1968 in n Espoo, Finland, and went by the name Tietotehdas Oy. The company worked as the provider of computer services and software for the mainframe computers, Union Bank of Finland is one of its first customers. The company despite being a newbie started to grow at a rapid rate in its beginning years. The arrival of minicomputers helped the company grow to a great extent. In the late 70s and early 80s, the company added many customers from different industries.
The decade of the 90s was when TietoEVRY started to make acquisitions and was involved in multiple mergers and partnerships, resulting in even faster growth. In the mid of 90s, TietoEVRY had a name change to TT Tieto, and later in 1998, the company name was again changed to Tieto. This was the same time when the company also started to try new things and entered the Telecom business by acquiring Avancer.

The Growth Years

In 1999, Tieto merged its operations with the Swedish Enator corporation and formed TietoEnator. The partnership went on for about ten years, and in 2008, through a restructuring process, the company became Tieto Corporation, establishing its headquarters in Helsinki. With the all-new revamping of the company, it started to expand overseas, too.
In 2015, Tieto made some of the major acquisitions, to expand its business in the field of digital Customer Experience Management and to support, including Smilehous, one of the biggest Finnish consultants and service providers, Imano AB, and Software Innovation. These acquisitions have helped the company to grow in the field of digital Customer Experience Management, consulting, and digitalization services in paper and forestry industries as well as enterprise content management. In 2019, the company merged the operations of another IT company named Evry and formed TietoEVRY, the current trading name for the company.
DaWinci is one of the most popular management software from TietoEVRY, used by big-name companies from various industries for planning, transportation management, personnel logistics, asset management and reporting, etc. The company serves its customers from the field of banking, insurance, telecom, automotive and media, healthcare, forest, manufacturing, retail, and logistics, public; ICT operation management, etc. Tieto Norway AS (Norway) and Tieto Sweden AB (Sweden) are the major subsidieary of the TietoEVRY.

The CEO at TietoEVRY

Kimmo Alkio is the current CEO and the President of TietoEVRY. He is a native of Finland and was born on 25 October 1963 in Helsinki, Finland. He has got a bachelor’s degree in business from Texas A&M University, USA, and an Executive MBA degree from the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.
Alkio is a renowned Finnish businessman. He is also a former professional Tennis Player and has won doubles titles in Helsinki in the period between 1981 to 1987. In his corporate career, Alkio has worked at companies like Nokia, F-Secure Corporation, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Compaq Computer in various management positions. Alkio joined TietoEVRY in 2011 as the CEO and the President.

Total System Services

Total System Services – A Leading Provider of Payment Processing Solutions Since 1983.

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Born in 1983, Total System Services (TSYS) primarily provides payment processing services to financial companies and retailers across the globe. TSYS is the provider of secure and innovative payment solutions to clients spread over 80 different countries. The company has around 200 active clients and the company strives to unleash every related payment possibility for them and their business. TSYS is headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, and operates with approximately 12,800 employees. The parent company of TSYS is Global Payments which is a relatively young company. TSYS is running under the leadership of M. Troy Woods since 2014.

The Founding Story of Total System Services

The story of every successful company begins with finding a solution to a problem faced in daily life. If a person is vigilant enough to understand the pain points of commoners, one will get multiple business ideas to eradicate these problems. Something similar happened almost 133 years ago that led to the foundation of TSYS. One of the biggest foundational strengths of TSYS is that it always puts the needs of people first and finds various ways to solve their problems.

Total System Services
Image source: www.tsys.com

The history of TSYS traces back to the events of 1888 when a manager of a textile mill saw that his employees didn’t have a safe place to save their money. This got him thinking about how he could solve the problem for one of his employees and ended up building her a bank which became a striking trailblazer. This was a very innovative solution and in 1959 this bank operated as a part of Columbus Bank and Trust. In 1974, it started processing one of Georgia’s first credit cards for other banks. The company eventually emerged as Total System Services Inc in 1983 and became a public company.

Partnerships and Acquisitions

In 1983, after TSYS became a publicly-traded company it started making many acquisitions and expanding its presence. The company after filing its first IPO still operated under Columbus Bank and Trust (now known as Synovus) and was finally spun off in 2007. In the meantime, TSYS acquired a company called Clarity Payment Solutions in 2004 for $53 million. TSYS also signed a partnership with Visa Inc which was back in 1995 to merge its merchant processing services with those of Visa. In 2004, TSYS also started processing credit cards issued by JPMC, another well-known American investment bank.

In the last ten years, the company made a handful of acquisitions starting from acquiring a 51 percent stake in the merchant acquisition business of First National Bank of Omaha. After the acquisition, the business was renamed TSYS Merchant Solutions and the company acquired the rest 49 percent in 2011. The company acquired another business called TermNet in 2011. In 2012, the company entered into a joint partnership with Central Payment Co. LLC. In the same year, the company also acquired ProPay, a Utah-based company. TSYS made a big acquisition in July 2013 as it acquired Netspend for $1.4 billion. Some of the other companies that TSYS acquired in recent years are TransFit, Cayan, and iMobile3. In 2019, TSYS came under the acquisition of Global Payments, an American company providing financial technology services.

About Global Payments

Born in 2000, Global Payments is a leading financial service provider based in Atlanta. Jefferey. Sloan is the CEO of the company and M. Troy Woods (CEO of TSYS) is the Chairman of the Boards. The stock of Global Payments is a component of the S & P 500 stock market index as is publicly traded in the NYSE as GPN. Global Payments is also a Fortune 1000 company and its biggest market is in North America followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. Global Payments have made plenty of acquisitions since 2000 but the merger with TSYS is the biggest acquisition in its history till now. In May 2019, Global Payments announced the merger with TSYS for $21.5 billion.

M. Troy Woods – CEO of Total System Services

M. Troy Woods is the CEO and President of TSYS who has significantly contributed to the company’s diversification strategies. Woods completed his undergraduate degree from Columbus State University and he also went to several banking schools including The Wharton School. Woods was a part of the Columbus Bank and Trust from 1970 to 1977 and again rejoined TSYS in 1987. Under the leadership of Woods, TSYS has become more of a people-centric company with a belief that payment should revolve around people and not the other way around.

SMIC

SMIC – The Largest Semiconductor Foundry Company in Mainland China.

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SMIC is famous as a leading semiconductor foundry company across the globe for its advanced technology and comprehensive semiconductor manufacturing services. SMIC was born in 2000 in the Cayman Islands and is currently headquartered at Shanghai, China. Richard Chang Ru-gin is the founder of the company and Haijun Zhao is the latest CEO. SMIC Group primarily focuses on providing integrated circuit (IC) foundry and technology services related to it on a specific range of process nodes (350 nm to 14 nm). SMIC is well known in international markets including Europe, Japan, Taiwan, and the US.

Founding History of SMIC

SMIC was founded out of strong desires of Richard Chang to invest in the Chinese market as he believed that a booming economy will reestablish harmony in the nation. Twenty years ago, the semiconductor industry in mainland China wasn’t superior in the market and didn’t have any international standards. Before Richard established SMIC, his main target was to make mainland China a superpower which advanced tech in manufacturing semiconductors so that it can match up to the nations who are leading in it.

SMIC
Image source: www.mobileworldlive.com

Richard had big plans for his nation and this zeal drove him to finally establish SMIC in 2001 at Shanghai’s High-tech Zhangjiang Park located in Pudong New Area. SMIC became the first successful leading company from mainland China in the semiconductor industry to expand its market even in international grounds. And with the contributions made by Richard Chang he is known as the “father of the Chinese semiconductors.”

Uncertain Times

Initially, when company was established it became a limited liability company in the Cayman Islands. SMIC operated in a way that it was not responsible for the capital costs and the municipal government took care of it. When the company was eventually growing in the Chinese market, the Taiwanese were threatened by a potential emerging semiconductor superpower. They tried in several unethical ways to bring down the reputation of both SMIC and Richard Chang.

Only two years after founding the company, TSMC (world’s largest semiconductor foundry) filed a lawsuit against SMIC accusing it of obtaining TSMC’s trade secret and other infringement. But, Richard on the other hand worshipped the Chinese semiconductor sector and no matter what he wasn’t ready to give up. Chang’s determination is one of the reasons why China can compete with big nations like the US in the semiconductor market.

Growth and Expansion of SMIC

SMIC started making significant progress from the last decade starting with embarking on a joint venture in 2013. Next year, SilTech Shanghai, a wholly owned subsidiary of SMIC along with JCET, and China IC Fund signed a co-investment agreement for forming a consortium. This was formed for the proposed acquisition of a very valuable acquisition of STATS ChipPAC, a Singapore-based company. In 2015, SMIC entered into another joint venture with Huawei, Qualcomm, and IMEC International to form SMIC Advanced Technology Research & Development Corporation. SMIC built a very advanced R&D facility which aimed at designing China’s most advanced integrated circuit (IC). The partnership of company with other three companies mainly focused on developing 14 nm logic technology.

In 2016, company acquired 70% of the corporate capital of LFoundry S.r.l. €49 million. SMIC throughout the following years have focussed on establishing and maintaining strong relationships with other semiconductor corporations especially the ones based in China. The very idea behind founding SMIC was to strengthen China wholly as a superior semiconductor entity and it will continue if the companies remain united. In 2018, SMIC was investing 16 percent of sales in R&D and the company started building China’s first ever plant which aimed to use 14 nm production technology. Last year, China National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund and the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund made an investment of $2 billion in the company as a part of the Made in China 2025 Program.

About Richard Chang Ru-gin

Richard Chang is a famous person who is single handedly responsible for uplifting the semiconductor industry in China. At a very young age, Richard moved from Shanghai to Taiwan and later went to the US and acquired his PhD in electrical engineering from Texas. In 1977, Richard joined Texas Instruments ton emrak on his chipmaker career and was involved in the operations of the company in several nations. After entering the chip industry, his one and only goal was to make China catch up with the rest of the world in terms of cutting edge tech. So, in 1997 he came back to Taiwan and a few years later he established SMIC and created an empire for mainland China to embrace forever.

Pegatron Corporation

Pegatron Corporation – A Taiwanese-Based Electronics Manufacturing Company Generating Revenue in Trillions.

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Pegatron is one of the leading Taiwanese companies in the sector of electronics manufacturing selling a wide range of products. The market of Pegatron is spread worldwide and currently its headquarters is based in Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan. Pegatron Corporation was established fourteen years ago as a spin-off entity of AsusTek Computer Inc and today it has emerged as a very successful company. The company is under the leadership of T.H. Tung who is the Chairman of Pegatron.

Pegatron’s main products include notebooks, desktop computers, game consoles, netbook computers, motherboards, LCD TVs, etc. The company is also involved in the manufacturing of broadband communication products such as cable modems, set-top boxes, smartphones, etc. In recent years, the company has also started manufacturing smart home devices and wearable smart products as it is important for the companies to evolve with time and technology. Pegatron also invests significantly in research and development to offer high-end products to its customers.

History of Pegatron Corporation

Pegatron Corporation started off as an individual entity from 27th June 2007. This incident took place as AsusTek decided to go through a major restructuring of the company and was splitted into three individual corporations. The three corporations are namely, Asus, Pegatron Corporation, and Unihan Corporation. Among these three companies, Pegatron in particular focussed on oEM manufacturing of motherboards and components. But with time the goal and structure of Pegatron evolved as well. While the restructuring of operations started back in 2007, Asus finally spun off Pegatron on 1st June 2010. Since then Pegatron has strived to build its unique identity and a strong team.

Pegatron Corporation
Image source: behance.net

Apart from Taiwan, Pegatron has expanded its business to other nations as well including China, Czech Republic, Mexico, Japan, and the United States. The company started expanding very fast and thus more employees were hired. In 2010, the company was operating with approximately 97,000 employees which after ten years has turned to 172,000. After AsusTek split the parent company into three independent companies in 2007, the next year was followed by the acquisition of Unihan Corporation by Pegatron. Today, Unihan Corporation operates as the subsidiary of Pegatron and its acquisition helped the company to expand its product base.

Products and Services

Pegatron is the manufacturing of a wide variety of products ranging from personal computing to car electronics. In computer products, Pegatron is a manufacturer of personal computing, rugged computers, and servers. Rugged computers are mainly designed for its usage in extreme environmental conditions like protection from water, UV radiations, etc. Servers on the other hand are focused on building products for enterprise storage systems which includes high performance motherboards and RAID cards. As a part of products for consumer electronics, Pegatron manufactures tablets and game consoles. Pegatron also manufactures a wide range of communication products which includes smartphones, cable modems, Set-top box, and network switch. Pegatron offers the network equipment solutions especially for the large enterprises and datacenters such that it reduces the complexity and difficulty and improves efficiency of the network.

As mentioned earlier, Pegatron is actively participating in the area of car electronics and so far built Pegatron’s car entertainment system, vehicle telematics system, and advanced driver assistance system. Many companies are currently involved in manufacturing smart wearables that help in tracking health management functions. Pegatron is also investing to manufacture smart wearable technology carrying out multiple features including health monitoring. Some of the other smart electronics manufactured by Pegatron are IoT products, drones, robots, and virtual reality (VR). Apart from these electronics products, Pegatron also offers quality services for both hardware and software technologies across the world.

The Parent Company – AsusTek

AsusTek Computer Inc is one of the most admired computer brands across the globe. The company has created a strong brand presence both in its country and the international market. Founded in 1989, AsusTek is a Taiwanese company pioneering in the computer hardware and electronics industry. According to the statistics, Asus stands in the 5th position in terms of world’s largest PC vendors by unit sales in 2021. Asus is also in the list of Asia’s Top 10 IT companies. Asus is famous for its wide range of smartphones and laptops (especially gaming laptops).

T. H. Tung – Chairperson of Pegatron Corporation

T. H. Tung is a famous Taiwanese businessman and philanthropist. He is famous as the co-founder of Asus and currently playing his role as the Chairperson of Pegatron. Tung completed his education from National Taipei University of Technology and started his career with Acer Inc. He later quit his job to co-found Asus.