STMicroelectronics

Encyclopedia : S : ST : STM : STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics is an international leading supplier of semiconductors.

Contents

1 History
2 Share-holders and revenues
3 Competitors
4 Product portfolio
5 Company organization

5.1 Products Groups and R&D

6 Major Sites
7 External links

History

The ST group was formed in June 1987 from the merger of two semiconductor companies: the Italian company SGS Microelettronica (Società Generale Semiconduttori) and the French company Thomson Semiconducteurs, the semiconductor arm of the French company, Thomson. In May 1998, the company changed its name from SGS-THOMSON to STMicroelectronics following the withdrawal of Thomson SA.

Looking back farther:

The Italian company SGS was initially named SGS-ATES (Aquila Tubi E Semiconduttori) and resulted from the merger in 1972 of the company ATES (Aziende Tecnica ed Elettronica del Sud), initially founded in 1963 and the company SGS (Società Generale Semiconduttori), founded in 1957 by Adriano Olivetti.

The French company Thomson Semiconducteurs was created in 1982 with the merger of :
* The semiconductor activities of the French electronic company Thomson.
*Mostek, a US company founded in 1969 by some of the founders of Texas Instruments.
*Silec, founded in 1977.
*Eurotechnique founded in 1979 in Rousset, Bouches-du-Rhône, France near Aix-en-Provence. It had been created as a joint-venture between the French company Saint-Gobain and the American company National Semiconductor.
*EFCIS, founded in 1977.
*SESCOSEM, founded in 1969.

In 1989, SGS-Thomson purchases the British company Inmos, formerly known for its transputer microprocessors.

Share-holders and revenues

After the merger of SGS and Thomson Semiconducteurs, the balance was maintained between French and Italian shareholders. 8 December 1994, the company completed its initial public offering. Since then, shares have been traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: [STM]) and on Euronext, Paris (Euronext: [STM]). Since June 1998, ST has also been listed in Milan on Borsa Italiana.

In 2005, the balance of the shares is held by STMicroelectronics Holding II B.V. Of the shareholders:

72.4% are public.
27.6% are split 50/50 between Italian shareholders (40/60 between the Italian company Finmeccanica and the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti) and French shareholders (the French company Areva).

Corporate Headquarters, as well as the headquarters for Europe and for Emerging Markets, are in Geneva. The company’s U.S. Headquarters are in Carrollton, Texas; headquarters for Asia/Pacific are based in Singapore and Japanese operations are headquartered in Tokyo. Finally, the recently-established “Greater China” region that includes Hong-Kong, China and Taiwan is headquartered in Shanghai.

Net revenues by year (sources : ST financial reports from www.st.com)
Year Net revenues (Millions $) Net incomes or loss (Millions $)
2005 876 + 6
2004 756 + 1
2003 234 + 3
2002 270 + 9
2001 356 + 7
2000 813 + 452
1999 056 + 7
1998 247 + 1
1997 019 + 6
1996 122 + 5
1995 554 + 6
1994 645 + 2
1993 037 + 0
1992 568 +
1991 374 - 2

Net revenues by year (sources : ST financial reports from www.st.com)
Year	Net revenues (Millions $)	Net incomes or loss (Millions $)
2005	876	+ 6
2004	756	+ 1
2003	234	+ 3
2002	270	+ 9
2001	356	+ 7
2000	813	+ 452
1999	056	+ 7
1998	247	+ 1
1997	019	+ 6
1996	122	+ 5
1995	554	+ 6
1994	645	+ 2
1993	037	+ 0
1992	568	+
1991	374	- 2

Competitors

When created in 1987, SGS-Thomson pointed at the 14th position of the TOP 20 semiconductors suppliers ranking with around $850 Millions USD. In 2005, 'ST's position was number five , behind Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments and Toshiba, but ahead of Infineon,Renesas, NEC, Philips, and Freescale. ST is also the first European semiconductors supplier, just ahead of Infineon and far ahead of Philips.
For more informations, refer to the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Market Share Ranking Year by Year.

Product portfolio

The company holds a large portfolio. ST is leader in many markets including :

Digital consumer application specific standard products (ASSPs) like coders/decoders MPEG-2/MPEG-4 .
Wireless ASICs.
Computer peripheral ASICs (like hard disk drives or printers).
Automotive application specific standard products (ASSPs).
Non-volatile memory including NOR and NAND Flash memory
Smartcards
Analog and power integrated circuits (ICs)
Microcontrollers
Discrete semiconductor products

Since 2001 ST has been involved in developing MEMS at the Castelletto site. This plant has been closed in June, 2006 and the MEMS activities moved to the Agrate main fab.

Since the beginning, ST took the decision to stay out of the markets for DRAM and microprocessors for PC. A brief exception occurred with the small and limited attempt in 1994 to introduce compatible Intel x486 microprocessors in partnership with the American company Cyrix and the 1995 production of the Cyrix M1 microprocessor, a competitor to the Intel Pentium family.

The company totals around 1500 customers. The most important are :

The automotive equipment suppliers : Bosch, DaimlerChrysler, Visteon, and Siemens
The cellular phones suppliers : Nokia, Motorola
The printer suppliers : Hewlett-Packard
The telecom infrastructure suppliers : Alcatel and Nortel Networks
The hard disk drives suppliers : Seagate Technology and Western Digital
The consumer electronics suppliers : Philips, Sony, and Thomson
The industrial equipments suppliers : Siemens
The electronic components distributor Arrow Electronics

Company organization

The company is based on four top organizations :

The Product Groups
The Sales, divided in five regions ((Europa, USA, Asia/Pacific, Japan, China and Emerging Markets). The group totals 78 sales offices in 36 countries.
The manufacturing facilities which group the wafer fabs (where chips are manufactured) and the assembly and test facilities (where chips are assembled in plastic or ceramic packages).
The corporate R&D group.

Products Groups and R&D

There are four Product Groups, each groups is composed of several divisions. Each division manages itself the design, industrialization, manufacturing (using the ST manufacturing machine) and marketing for its product portfolio. They are helped by the corporate R&Da nd the local sales offices.

HPC : Home Personal Communication : All consumer, multimedia & wireless/wireline divisions.
MPG : Memory Product Group : All stand-alone memories : eeprom, Flash memories (nand & nor), serial flash memories and also smartcards.
APG : Automotive Product Group : All chips related to Automotive business (car body , power train, safety, etc.
MPA : Micro, Power & Analog Group : All analog & power circuits plus the microcontrollers.

The corporate R&D labs are developing leading-edge process technology and innovative design methodologies. In addition, each division operates its own R&D to design, industrialize, and build the applications of its products

The group totals 16 advanced research and development units, 39 design and application centers.

Major Sites

External links

[Corporate website]

CAC 40 companies of France

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.