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ST-Ericsson

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ST-Ericsson
Company typeJoint venture
IndustryWireless Semiconductors
PredecessorEricsson Mobile Platforms
ST-NXP Wireless
Founded3 February 2009
Defunct2 August 2013
FateFinancial problems (asST-NXP Semiconductors)
Dissolved and remained bankrupted in 2013 (as ST-Ericsson)
SuccessorSTMicroelectronics
Ericsson Modems
Headquarters
Geneva
,
Switzerland
Key people
Didier Lamouche (President and CEO)
RevenueIncrease$1.7 billion US$ (2011)[1]
Number of employees
5,000 (as of end 2012)
ParentSTMicroelectronics(50%)
Ericsson(50%)
WebsiteST-Ericssonat theWayback Machine(archived 13 June 2013)

ST-Ericssonwas a multinational manufacturer ofwirelessproducts andsemiconductors,supplying to mobile device manufacturers.[1]ST-Ericsson was a 50/50 joint venture ofEricssonandSTMicroelectronicsestablished on 3 February 2009 and dissolved 2 August 2013. Headquartered inGeneva,Switzerland,it was afablesscompany, outsourcingsemiconductor manufacturingto foundry companies.

Both Ericsson and STMicroelectronics appointed 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.

History[edit]

ST-Ericsson was formed on 3 February 2009 when STMicroelectronics and Ericsson completed the merger ofEricsson Mobile PlatformsandST-NXP Wirelessinto a 50/50 joint venture.

On 20 August 2008, STMicroelectronics and Ericsson announced their interest to merge their wireless semiconductor businesses. ST contributed its multimedia and connectivity products as well as their 2G/EDGEplatform and3Goffering. Ericsson contributed its 3G and3GPP Long Term Evolution(LTE) platform technology. The merger followed an existing strategic co-operation between Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless.[2]

Ericsson also had a venture withSonycalledSony Ericssonduring 2001–2012.

On 11 December 2012, ST-Ericsson was on the brink of shutdown after its parent companySTMicroelectronicsdecided to move out of the JV, citing loss of market share due to ST-Ericsson failing to attainBreak-even.Since ST-Ericsson came into being in 2009,STMicroelectronicshas slipped from 5 to 7 in global semiconductor firms' rakings.[3]

On 18 March 2013, the parent companies announced that the joint venture was to be closed down, with the parent companies taking over parts, but not all, of its operation and products.[4]

On 28 May 2013, ST-Ericsson announced that they would sell the assets and intellectual property rights for its mobile connectivity Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) toIntelfor $90 million.[5]

On 5 August 2013 Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) announced the closing of the transaction for the split up of ST-Ericsson. This follows the announcement the companies made on 18 March 2013 on the chosen strategic option for the future of the joint venture.

Effective 2 August 2013 Ericsson has taken on the design, development and sales of the LTE multimode thin modem solutions, including 2G, 3G and 4G interoperability. ST has taken on the existing ST-Ericsson products, other than LTE multimode thin modems, and the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) connectivity solution sold to a third party, and related business as well as certain assembly and test facilities.[6][7]

Ericsson Mobile Platforms[edit]

Main article:Ericsson Mobile Platforms

Ericsson Mobile Platformshad been formed in 2001 fromEricsson Mobile Communicationsduring the European telecom crisis around the year 2000. It was a pure platform company after the transfer of all handset products toSonyEricsson,laterSony Mobile.At the forming of ST-Ericsson, Ericsson Mobile Platforms had roughly 3100 employees.[8]Some of EMPs customers were Flextronics, HTC, LG, NEC, Sagem, Sharp and of course Sony Ericsson. The main focus in the company was for the eight years it existed, to develop a platform forUMTS.[9]Their main development centers were situated inLund,Sweden and with other three developments centers inBasingstoke(UK),Research Triangle Park,North Carolina (US), andNuremberg(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 theGPRS,EDGEandWCDMAmobile standards. EMP and, Ericsson as a whole, donated resources to standardization bodies such as3GPP,OMA,JCP andOMTP.

Portfolio and mobile products[edit]

TheST-Ericsson Snowballis asingle-board computerin theNano-ITXform factor using the A9500 version of theNovaThorSoC.
ST-Ericsson late platform chipsets A9500 and A9540 with M5730 M5780 and M7400 modems, some never released or used in real products, showcased atMobile World Congress,2011.

Before joining the joint venture,ST Microelectronics' wireless division had been working on theNomadikapplication processor platform since the STn8800, which won the Microprocessor Report Analysts' Choice Awards in 2003.[10]Likewise, the NXP part of the company had worked on a product namedNexperia.The Nomadik platform was chosen as a starting point for development of new application processors within the company.[11]

October third, 2008 the predecessorEricsson Mobile Platformsshowcased a handheld prototype forLTE(fourth generation of mobile telephony). At this time, the company stated that the technology would reach the market by roughly 2011.[12]In December 2009 the LTE-platform had a name:M710and it was presented as a multimode-device that would also be able to handleHSDPA.[13]1 November 2010 there were statements about a product namedM700and it was said that this would deliver data speeds of 100 Mbit/s downstream and 50 Mbit/s upstream.[14]

Starting 15 February 2011 the company presented a whole family of products:[15][16][17][18]

  • A series of application processors under the brand nameNovasuch as A9600, A9540 and A9500.
  • A series of modem products under the brand nameThorsuch as M5720, M5730, M5780, M7300, M7400 and M7450.
  • A series of combined products with both application processor and modem under the brand nameNovaThorsuch as T5008, U4500, U8500, L9540, L8540 and L8580.

Many of these products appear to have failed to reach the market. In the press release regarding the last product L8580 it is mentioned that U8500 has been mass-produced and that L8540 is available in samples since the end of 2012.[18]The quarterly results for the fourth quarter 2012 states that the company has shipped 10.7 million units of U8500 during that quarter.[19]

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

Locations[edit]

Achievement token celebrating 25 million shipped U8500 platforms found in ST Microelectronics reception inLe Mans,2014.

Incorporated in Switzerland and headquartered in Geneva,[20]ST-Ericsson employed around 6,700 people worldwide, more than 85 per cent of whom work in R&D.

ST-Ericsson's main centers are in France,Switzerland,[21]Sweden,Finland,Germany, UK,India,[22]Singapore, China, Japan andKorea.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ab"About us – General Information – ST-Ericsson".stericsson.Archived fromthe originalon 23 December 2010.Retrieved24 February2011.
  2. ^"Ericsson and STMicroelectronics to Create World Leader in Semiconductors and Platforms for Mobile Applications".stericsson.20 August 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 28 January 2013.Retrieved12 February2013.
  3. ^Leila Abboud (10 December 2012)."STMicro to quit ST-Ericsson mobile chip venture".Reuters.
  4. ^"Ericsson and STMicroelectronics agree on strategic way forward for ST-Ericsson".Ericsson.18 March 2013.
  5. ^"ST-Ericsson announces sale of its Connectivity (GNSS) business".Stericsson.Retrieved10 July2013.
  6. ^"Ericsson and STMicroelectronics complete transaction to split up ST-Ericsson".ericsson.5 August 2013.Retrieved5 August2013.
  7. ^"Ericsson and STMicroelectronics Complete Transaction to split up ST-Ericsson".st.5 August 2013.Retrieved5 August2013.
  8. ^Kroes, Neelie (2008)."Case No COMP/M.5332 – ERICSSON / STM / JV"(PDF)(32008M5332). Luxemburg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities L-2985 Luxembourg.Retrieved13 December2012.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal=(help)
  9. ^ Kornby, Mikael (2005)."The EMP Story"(PDF).Ericsson Review(1). Ericsson AB. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 4 March 2016.Retrieved7 April2012.
  10. ^Glaskowsky, Peter N. (9 December 2003)."Microprocessor Report Announces Finalists for the Fifth Annual Analysts' Choice Awards".BusinessWire.Retrieved19 May2013.
  11. ^Muppala, Nalini Kumar (11 September 2009)."ST-Ericsson (Part 2): Diverse Offering".Sramana Mitra's One Million by One Million Blog.Retrieved19 May2013.
  12. ^Wessman, Johan (3 October 2008)."Vägen mot framtiden".Sydsvenskan.Archived fromthe originalon 25 April 2013.Retrieved19 May2013.
  13. ^"ST-Ericsson and Ericsson first to achieve LTE and HSPA mobility with a multimode device".15 December 2009. Archived fromthe originalon 18 June 2013.Retrieved19 May2013.
  14. ^"ST-Ericsson enables pioneering video applications demonstration on a TD-LTE tablet".1 November 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 18 June 2013.Retrieved19 May2013.
  15. ^"Changing the game: ST-Ericsson Unveils NovaThor™ Family of Smartphone Platforms Combining its Most Advanced Application Processors with the Latest Generation of Modems".15 February 2011. Archived fromthe originalon 18 June 2013.Retrieved20 March2013.
  16. ^"ST-Ericsson announces new highly integrated LTE NovaThor platform".28 February 2012. Archived fromthe originalon 18 June 2013.Retrieved20 March2013.
  17. ^"ST-Ericsson unveils ultrafast Thor M7450 LTE advanced modem with first single RF carrier aggregation solution".24 February 2013. Archived fromthe originalon 18 June 2013.Retrieved20 March2013.
  18. ^ab"ST-Ericsson opens the way for a new era of smartphones and announces the world's fastest, coolest integrated LTE Modem and Application Processor platform based on FD-SOI".8 January 2013. Archived fromthe originalon 18 June 2013.Retrieved20 March2013.
  19. ^"ST-Ericsson reports fourth quarter 2012 financial results".30 January 2013. Archived fromthe originalon 18 June 2013.Retrieved21 March2013.
  20. ^"Ericsson and ST Microelectronics to Dissolve Venture".nytimes.18 March 2013.Retrieved3 April2024.
  21. ^"About ST-Ericsson".cbinsights.Retrieved3 April2024.
  22. ^"ST-Ericsson India Private Limited".zaubacorp.7 April 2023.Retrieved3 April2024.

External links[edit]

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