improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article may contain excessive or improper use of non free material . please review the use of non free media according to policy and guidelines and correct any violations . the talk page may have details . april 2015 this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message stmicroelectronics n.v. type naamloze vennootschap traded as bit stm nyse stm euronext stm industry semiconductors founded 1957 ; 59 years ago 1957 as societ generale semiconduttori 1987 as sgs thomson headquarters geneva switzerland key people carlo bozotti president and ceo didier lombard chairman of the supervisory board products integrated circuits for specific applications memory including eeprom microcontrollers transistors smartcards revenue us 8.082 billion 2013 1 operating income us 465 million 2013 1 profit us 500 million 2013 1 total assets us 9.173 billion 2013 2 us 10.434 billion 2012 2 total equity us 7.603 billion 2011 owner stmicroelectronics holding n.v. 27.5 % general public 68.4 % treasury shares 4.1 % 3 number of employees 49 450 2011 subsidiaries st ericsson 50 % closed website st.com stmicroelectronics building in geneva switzerland aerial view stmicroelectronics is a french italian multinational electronics and semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in geneva switzerland . it is commonly called st and it is europe s largest semiconductor chip maker based on revenue . while stmicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for emea region are based in geneva the holding company stmicroelectronics n.v. is registered in amsterdam netherlands . the company s us headquarters is in coppell texas . headquarters for the asia pacific region is in singapore whilst japan and korea operations are headquartered in tokyo . the company headquarters for the greater china region is in shanghai . contents 1 history 2 shareholders 3 company structure 4 manufacturing facilities 4.1 grenoble france 4.2 rousset france 4.3 tours france 4.4 milan italy 4.5 catania italy 4.6 kirkop malta 4.7 ang mo kio singapore 4.8 tunis tunisia 5 other sites 5.1 administrative headquarters 5.2 assembly plants 5.3 design centers 5.4 closing sites 5.5 closed sites 5.6 future locations 6 solar cells 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit stmicroelectronics was formed in 1987 by the merger of semiconductor companies sgs microelettronica societ generale semiconduttori of italy and thomson semiconducteurs the semiconductor arm of france s thomson . at the time of the merger the company was known as sgs thomson but took its current name in may 1998 following the withdrawal of thomson sa as an owner . sgs microelettronica and thomson semiconducteurs were both long established semiconductor companies . sgs microelettronica originated in 1972 from a previous merger of two companies ates aquila tubi e semiconduttori a vacuum tube and semiconductor maker headquartered in the abruzzese city of l aquila which in 1961 changed its name to azienda tecnica ed elettronica del sud and relocated its manufacturing plant to the outskirts of the sicilian city of catania societ generale semiconduttori founded in 1957 by adriano olivetti . thomson semiconducteurs was created in 1982 by the french government s widespread nationalisation of industries . it included the semiconductor activities of the french electronics company thomson . mostek a us company founded in 1969 by some ex employees of texas instruments . silec founded in 1977 . eurotechnique founded in 1979 in rousset bouches du rh ne as a joint venture between saint gobain of france and us based national semiconductor . efcis founded in 1977 . sescosem founded in 1969 . after its creation by merger in 1987 sgs thomson was ranked 14th among the top 20 semiconductor suppliers with sales of around us 850 million . the company has participated in the consolidation of the semiconductor industry since its formation with acquisitions including in 1989 british company inmos known for its transputer microprocessors from parent thorn emi . in 1994 canada based nortel s semiconductor activities . in 2002 alcatel s microelectronics division which along with the incorporation of smaller ventures such as uk company synad ltd helped the company expand into the wireless lan market . in 2007 us based genesis microchip . 4 5 genesis microchip is known for their strength in video processing technology faroudja and has design centres located in santa clara toronto taipei city taiwan r.o.c. and bangalore . on december 8 1994 the company completed its initial public offering on the paris and new york stock exchanges . owner thomson sa sold its stake in the company in 1998 when the company also listed on the borsa italiana in milan . buy out of vlsi vision ltd. in 2002 motorola and tsmc joined st and philips in a new technology partnership . the crolles2 alliance was created with a new 12 wafer manufacturing facility located in crolles france . by 2005 stmicroelectronics was ranked fifth behind intel samsung texas instruments and toshiba but ahead of infineon renesas nec nxp and freescale . the company was the largest european semiconductors supplier ahead of infineon and nxp see semiconductor sales leaders by year . early in 2007 nxp formerly philips semiconductors and freescale formerly motorola semiconductors decided to stop their participation in crolles2 alliance . under the terms of the agreement the alliance came to an end on december 31 2007 . 6 on may 22 2007 st and intel created a joint venture in the memory application called numonyx . this new company merged st and intel flash memory activities . semiconductor market consolidation continued with st and nxp announcing on april 10 2008 the creation of a new joint venture of their mobile activities with st owning 80 % of the new company and nxp 20 % . this joint venture began on august 20 2008 . on february 10 2009 st ericsson a joint venture bringing together st nxp wireless and ericsson mobile platforms was established . in 2011 stmicroelectronics announced the creation of a joint lab with sant anna school of advanced studies . the lab will focus on research and innovation in bio robotics smart systems and microelectronics . 7 past collaborations with sant anna school of advanced studies included dustbot a platform that integrated self navigating service robots for waste collection . 7 st ericsson was a multinational manufacturer of wireless products and semiconductors supplying to mobile device manufacturers . 8 st ericsson was a 50 50 joint venture of ericsson and stmicroelectronics established on 3 february 2009 and dissolved 2 august 2013 . headquartered in geneva switzerland it was a fabless company outsourcing semiconductor manufacturing to foundry companies . shareholders edit as at 31 december 2014 the shareholders were 3 68.4 % public new york stock exchange euronext paris borsa italiana milano 4.1 % treasury shares 27.6 % stmicroelectronics holding b.v. 50 % ft1ci bpifrance 79.2 % and french alternative energies and atomic energy commission cea 20.8 % ; previously areva and cea citation needed 50 % ministero dell economia e delle finanze of italy finmeccanica until 2004 cassa depositi e prestiti until 2010 both between 2004 2009 citation needed company structure edit sense and power automative products embedded processing solutions following an earlier failure stmicroelectronics has stayed out of the volatile markets for dram and pc microprocessors . in 1994 it attempted to launch compatible intel 80486 microprocessors in partnership with american company cyrix . one model only was completed the 1995 cyrix m1 microprocessor which was intended to compete with intel s pentium family . citation needed it did achieve some success however in the pc compatible x86 embedded systems market with its stpc soc line culminating in the 486 class stpc atlas which reached end of life in 2008 . manufacturing facilities edit unlike so called fabless semiconductor companies stmicroelectronics owns and operates its own semiconductor wafer fabs . the company owned five 8 inch 200 mm wafer fabs and one 12 inch 300 mm wafer fab in 2006 . citation needed most of the production is scaled at 0.18 m 0.13 m 90 nm and 65 nm measurements of transistor gate length . stmicroelectronics also owns back end plants where silicon dies are assembled and bonded into plastic or ceramic packages . 9 major sites include citation needed grenoble france edit grenoble is one of the company s most important r & d centres employing around 6 000 staff . the polygone site employs 2200 staff and is one of the historical bases of the company ex sgs . all the historical wafer fab lines are now closed but the site hosts the headquarters of many divisions marketing design industrialization and an important r & d center focused on silicon and software design and fab process development . the crolles site hosts a 200 mm 8 in and a 300 mm 12 in fab and was originally built as a common r & d center for submicrometre technologies as part of the 1990 grenoble 92 partnership between sgs thomson and cnet the r & d center of french telecom company france telecom . the 200 mm 8 in fab known as crolles 1 is the company s first and was built as part of a 1991 partnership between sgs thomson and philips to develop new manufacturing technologies . crolles 1 was opened on september 9 1993 by g rard longuet french minister for industry . the 300 mm 12 in fab was inaugurated by french president jacques chirac on february 27 2003 . it includes a r & d center which focuses on developing new nanometric technology processes for 90 nm to 32 nm scale using 300 mm 12 in wafers and it was developed for the crolles 2 alliance . this alliance of stmicroelectronics tsmc nxp semiconductors formerly philips semiconductor and freescale formerly motorola semiconductor partnered in 2002 to develop the facility and to work together on process development . the technologies developed at the facility were also used by global semiconductor foundry tsmc of taiwan allowing tsmc to build the products developed in crolles on behalf of the alliance partners who required such foundry capacity . a new fab is under construction since 2015 . rousset france edit employing around 3 000 staff rousset hosts several division headquarters including smartcards microcontrollers and eeprom as well as several r & d centers . rousset also hosts an 8 inch 200 mm fab which was opened on may 15 2000 by french prime minister lionel jospin . the site opened in 1979 as a 100 mm 3.9 in fab operated by eurotechnique a joint venture between saint gobain of france and national semiconductor of the us . rousset was sold to thomson csf in 1982 as part of the french government s 1981 82 nationalization of several industries . as part of the nationalisation a former thomson plant in the center of aix en provence operating since the 1960s was closed and staff were transferred to the new rousset site . the original 100 mm 4 in fab was upgraded into 130 mm 5 in and later 150 mm 6 in fab in 1996 . it is now being shut down . in 1988 a small group of employees from the thomson rousset plant including the director marc lassus founded a start up company gemalto formerly known as gemplus which became a leader in the smartcard industry . tours france edit employing 1 500 staff this site hosts a fab and r & d centers . citation needed milan italy edit employing 6 000 staff the milan facilities match grenoble in importance . agrate brianza map employs around 4000 staff and is a historical base of the company ex sgs . the site has several fab lines including an 300 mm 12