ST-Ericsson is a global wireless platform and semiconductor supplier to four of the top five mobile handset manufacturers. ST-Ericsson is a 50/50 joint venture

Joint venture

A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...

 of Ericsson

Ericsson

Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...

 and STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics is an Italian-French electronics and semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.While STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for EMEA region are based in Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is registered in Amsterdam,...

 established on February 3, 2009. Headquartered in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, it is a fabless

Fabless semiconductor company

A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...

 company, meaning that it does not do the actual manufacturing of semiconductors.

History

ST-Ericsson was formed on February 3, 2009 when STMicroelectronics and Ericsson completed the merger of Ericsson Mobile Platforms

Ericsson Mobile Platforms

Ericsson Mobile Platforms was the name of the company within the Ericsson group that supplied mobile platforms, i.e. the technological basis on which a cellular phone product can be built...

 and ST-NXP Wireless into a 50/50 joint venture.

On August 20, 2008, STMicroelectronics and Ericsson announced their intention to merge their wireless semiconductor businesses with the goal of creating the industry's strongest product offering in semiconductors and platforms for mobile applications. ST contributed its multimedia and connectivity solutions as well as a complete 2G/EDGE platform and 3G offering. Ericsson contributed its 3G and 3GPP Long Term Evolution

3GPP Long Term Evolution

3GPP Long Term Evolution, usually referred to as LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using new modulation techniques...

 (LTE) platform technology. The merger, which built on an existing strategic co-operation between Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless, was also designed to generate significant scale and synergies.

ST-NXP Wireless

ST-NXP Wireless, a joint venture made up of the wireless operations of STMicroelectronics and NXP Semiconductors, began operations on August 2, 2008. NXP and STMicroelectronics announced on April 10, 2008 that they would combine their wireless operations to generate more scale and better meet their customers’ needs in 2G, 2.5G, 3G, multimedia, connectivity and future wireless technologies. The combined venture was created from businesses that together owned thousands of communication and multimedia patents.

Formerly a division of Royal Philips Electronics with more than 50 years experience in semiconductors, NXP was established as an independent company in 2006. STMicroelectronics was formed in June 1987 by the merger of semiconductor companies SGS Microelettronica of Italy and Thomson Semiconductors, the semiconductor arm of France's Thomson.

Ericsson Mobile Platforms

Ericsson established Ericsson Mobile Platforms in September 2001. It was based on the research and development (R&D) group that developed the core technology for Ericsson’s mobile phones throughout the 1990s. Their main development centers were situated in Lund, Sweden and with other three large developments centers in Basingstoke (UK) and RTP, North Carolina (US), and Nuremberg (Germany). In addition, it had R&D, sales and customer support teams in Tokyo (Japan), Shanghai (China), Taipei (Taiwan), Seoul (South Korea), Grimstad (Norway) and Nuremberg (Germany). It provided mobile terminal technology to customers who wanted to develop and produce mobile phones for the GPRS

General Packet Radio Service

General packet radio service is a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication system's global system for mobile communications . GPRS was originally standardized by European Telecommunications Standards Institute in response to the earlier CDPD and i-mode...

, EDGE

Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution

Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution is a digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-compatible extension of GSM...

 and WCDMA mobile standards. EMP and, Ericsson as a whole, dedicated considerable resources to standardization bodies such as 3GPP, OMA

Open Mobile Alliance

The Open Mobile Alliance is a standards body which develops open standards for the mobile phone industry.- Principles :Mission: To provide interoperable service enablers working across countries, operators and mobile terminals....

, JCP and OMTP

Open mobile terminal platform

The Open Mobile Terminal Platform was a forum created by mobile network operators to discuss standards with manufacturers of cell phones and other mobile devices. During its lifetime, the OMTP included manufacturers such as Huawei, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony...

. Ericsson was founded in 1876 and has a comprehensive intellectual property portfolios containing over 25,000 patents.

Portfolio and mobile phone standards

ST-Ericsson serves all market segments, from entry-level handsets,to smartphones and connected devices.
ST-Ericsson delivers complete platforms for mobile devices, integrating both multimedia and connectivity with a broad range of cellular access technologies covering GSM, EDGE

Edge

- Aviation :* Leading edge, a line connecting the forward-most points of a wing's profile* Trailing edge, the rear edge of the wing* Zivko Edge 540, an aerobatic aircraft- Mathematics, science and technology :...

, WCDMA, HSPA

High Speed Packet Access

High Speed Packet Access is an amalgamation of two mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access and High Speed Uplink Packet Access , that extends and improves the performance of existing WCDMA protocols...

, as well as TD-SCDMA

TD-SCDMA

Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access or UTRA/UMTS-TDD 1.28 Mcps Low Chip Rate , is an air interface found in UMTS mobile telecommunications networks in China as an alternative to W-CDMA. Together with TD-CDMA, it is also known as UMTS-TDD or IMT 2000 Time-Division .The term...

, TD-LTE and LTE

3GPP Long Term Evolution

3GPP Long Term Evolution, usually referred to as LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using new modulation techniques...

. The company’s smartphone platforms support major open operating systems (OS) such as Android (operating system) ,Symbian

Symbian

Symbian is a mobile operating system and computing platform designed for smartphones and currently maintained by Accenture. The Symbian platform is the successor to Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60; unlike Symbian OS, which needed an additional user interface system, Symbian includes a user...

 and Windows Phone

Windows Phone

Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...

. It also provides connectivity and broadcast solutions for Bluetooth

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...

, FM, GPS

Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...

, WLAN

Wireless LAN

A wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network...

 and USB

Universal Serial Bus

USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....

.
The company is a supplier to four of the top five handset manufacturers, which together represent about 80 percent of global handset shipments, as well as to other industry leaders, including both mobile operators and device manufacturers. Almost 4,5 billion phones have been built using ST-Ericsson’s products and technologies, and more than a billion phones have been built on the company’s complete platform solutions.

ST-Ericsson’s Chinese subsidiary, T3G was acquired in December 2008 and has been actively developing platforms for the TD-SCDMA mobile standard since 2003.

Locations

Incorporated in Switzerland and headquartered in Geneva, ST-Ericsson employs around 7,700 people worldwide, more than 85 per cent of whom work in R&D.

ST-Ericsson’s operations are spread around the world, with main centers in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, UK, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 (Bangalore

Bangalore

Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...

 and Greater Noida

Greater Noida

Greater Noida is located in the Gautam Budh Nagar district of the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh . It is under the purview of the National Capital Region of India...

), Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

.

Corporate governance

Both Ericsson and STMicroelectronics appoint four directors to the board with Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson, serving as the Chairman of the Board and Carlo Bozotti, President and CEO of STMicroelectronics, as the Vice Chairman.

ST-Ericsson Executive Management Team

• Didier Lamouche , President and CEO
• Jörgen Lantto, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and Strategy