Industry welcomes ST-Ericsson JV

The 50/50 joint venture that united the wireless semiconductor division of STMicroelectronics and the mobile platform division of Ericsson will move forward as ST-Ericsson. This announcement follows the recent closing of the agreement announced in August 2008 between the parent companies to merge Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless.

ST-Ericsson has a combined pro-forma revenues of about $3.6 billion in 2008, and a solid cash position of $400 million.

"ST-Ericsson is born as a leader, drawing upon the strong heritage of some of the best wireless companies," said Alain Dutheil, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. "We have the scale to invest and bring to market the technologies that will give our customers the momentum to succeed. We will build on a well-established tradition of technology and innovation leadership to create a well focused R&D powerhouse."

The joint venture will deliver mobile multimedia, connectivity and platform solutions including reference designs for GSM, Edge, W-CDMA, HSPA, TD-SCDMA and LTE. Its multimedia and application processors, which support all major operating systems, will power next-generation devices. Its connectivity and broadcast solutions span Bluetooth, FM, GPS, WLAN, NFC and USB. ST-Ericsson's solutions cover all market segments, from entry-level to smart phones, and can be delivered as completely integrated solutions, as well as individual components.

ST-Ericsson has long-standing relationships with all major handset manufacturers and is a supplier to Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and Sharp.

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the ST-Ericsson also revealed details of its management team:
??Robert Puskaric, deputy CEO, executive vice president;

??Tommi Uhari, senior VP of Products;
??Abhijit Bhattacharya, VP of operations and quality;
??Marc Cetto, VP of 2G and connectivity;
??Jean-Louis Champseix, VP of human resources;
??Monica De Virgiliis, VP of wireless multimedia;
??Jorgen Lantto, VP of mobile platforms and chief technology officer;
??Claudia Levo, VP of global communications;
??Timothy Lucie-Smith, vice president and chief financial officer;
??Thierry Tingaud, VP of strategic planning;
??Lotta Westerlund, VP of legal affairs;
??Pascal Langlois, VP of sales, reporting to chief sales and marketing officer, R. Puskaric.

Created as a fabless company, ST-Ericsson will use the wafer-processing capabilities of STMicroelectronics as well as other third-party foundries. It also has full access to assembly and test facilities operated by STMicroelectronics. ST-Ericsson's operations are spread around the world, with main centers in China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom and United States.