publicly traded aktieselskab traded as nasdaq copenhagen gn industry electronics founded 1869 headquarters ballerup denmark key people ren svendsen tune ceo gn netcom anders hedegaard ceo gn resound per wold olsen chairman products headsets hearing instruments revenue profit dkk 6 791million 2013 total assets dkk 8 963 million 2013 number of employees 5 075 2014 website gn.com gn store nord a s is a danish manufacturer of hearing instruments and audiological diagnostics equipments gn resound and gn otometrics and headsets jabra gn netcom . contents 1 history 2 business 3 stock listing 4 headquarters 5 directors 6 references 7 external links history edit great northern telegraph company building kongens nytorv copenhagen built 1893 it was founded as the great northern telegraph company det store nordiske telegrafselskab a s in denmark in june 1869 . it was set up as a merger of three recently established telegraph companies initiated by danish industrial mogul carl frederik tietgen . the aim of the firm was to create a worldwide telegraph company . the starting point of the great northern telegraph company now gn store nord was a concession agreement which c.f. tietgen made with the russian tzar in 1869 . the agreement gave the great northern telegraph company exclusive rights and obligations to establish and run a telegraph line in russia . this represented a great pioneer task for the company in establishing connections from europe to the far east . the russian authorities ran the actual construction work in russia . they had already set up a telegraph line in parts of siberia but were looking for a business partner to cover china and japan before continuing the russian line all the way east to vladivostok . thus the great northern telegraph company was given the responsibility to establish and run its own telegraph line in asia and additionally assisting the russians with operations maintenance technical assistance and education . in the following years the telegraph line expanded massively both in europe and in asia . first oslo london and paris were covered . later operations took place along the coast of china ranging from hong kong to shanghai and further into japan where the first telegraph station opened in nagasaki in 1897 . in addition to the telegraph line telegraph stations and offices opened at several locations . in 1897 negotiations began about a potential connection going from scotland to the united states through the faroe islands iceland and greenland . in 1906 the cable was established although without the final connection to the united states which had to wait for almost 60 years to become a reality . when the transatlantic connection was finally established however it represented a remarkable expansion which significantly facilitated communication between people around the world . the beginning of the 20th century was characterized by several wars and disputes which affected the company s operations . world war i and largely the russian revolution changed the map of europe but this only meant an increase in demand for telegraphy . thus the company succeeded in prolonging its concession agreement in 1921 signed by lenin . the 1920s and the early 1930s represented great decades for the great northern telegraph company as it had managed to acquire a reputation as being one of the leading international telecommunication companies in the world . the late 1930s however presented great challenges as competition from wireless telegraphy was becoming increasingly severe . in addition world war ii caused great damage to the telegraph lines around the world which meant that in 1945 the company had only two lines left ; the england faroes iceland line and the sweden finland line . although broken lines were repaired and re established after the war the company had to acknowledge that an era was over . thus the new strategy was to focus on a broader segment by investing in various companies across sectors . this strategy was initiated in 1939 with the investment in the battery factory hellesens . over the following decades the great northern telegraph company balanced between investing in the telecommunications industry and other industries . on the industry side it invested in companies such as lauritz knudsen which produced electrical goods and in 1947 the radiotelephone production company storno a contraction of store nordiske great northern was founded . other acquisitions were telematic which produced telephones elmi which produced measuring equipment and danavox which produced hearing aids . gn store nord in 1985 the great northern telegraph company changed its name to gn store nord gn great nordic with the aim of creating a new group identity and organizing its businesses . in this process all subsidiaries were renamed to include gn gn danavox gn nettest gn automatic etc. a major change happened in 1991 when gn was assigned the attractive gms concession from the national danish telecommunication authorities . in march 1992 gn s new subsidiary sonofon opened the first private mobile telephone network in denmark . although gn was not the only investor in sonofon it owned the majority of the shares . with the blossoming of the data communications and telephony industry and a charismatic ceo j rgen lindegaard gn was back on track and enjoyed massive success in the late 1990s . in 2000 the company sold sonofon to norwegian telecom operator telenor for a price of dkk 14 7 billion . a large amount was invested in the gn subsidiary nettest which had evolved from the former elmi and considered gn s prospective core business . it was decided to let nettest acquire the french company photonetics for a price of dkk 9 1 billion . the optimistic view of the future was also reflected in the share price which had increased fivefold in only one year from september 1 1999 to september 1 2000 . the focus and investment in nettest however resulted in a serious downturn since gn had misjudged the market development of nettest s products . in 2001 net profit ended at dkk 9 2 billion followed by a share price decline equivalent to previous years gains . thereby major parts of the yield from sonofon was lost within one year and shareholders were raging in the media and at the annual general meeting . the following years turbulence led to the company selling most of its subsidiaries and leaving tietgen s old headquarters from 1893 at kongens nytorv in copenhagen . gn continued focusing on its two core businesses hearing aids and headsets produced by gn resound and gn netcom respectively . on october 2 2006 gn announced its decision to divest gn resound and gn otometrics a company producing audio measuring equipment to swiss competitor sonova formerly known as phonak . the deal however was annulled after being blocked by the german cartel office . after this gn announced that it intended to keep the two companies but filed an appeal against the court ruling . the case is still pending . the blocked deal however left gn challenged to the extreme with two underperforming businesses a thin product pipeline a heavy debt position and facing a highly adverse macroeconomic environment . nonetheless with comprehensive restructuring and management efforts the company managed to survive . since then gn has gradually fought its way back . in 2009 gn netcom made a decision to globally market all its products under the same brand ; jabra a company that gn had acquired in 2000 . the purpose of consolidating all products under the same brand was to strengthen the company s position as the world s leading supplier of headsets . today gn netcom is a world leader in unified communications headsets and within the last couple of years the company has managed to be the first at introducing a number of innovative products on the market . in 2014 the company launched the world s first sports headset with a built in heart rate monitor . in addition a series of noise cancellation headsets with a concentration zone has been launched which are specially designed to improve employees ability to concentrate in noisy open offices . gn resound also got back on track . in 2010 the company revolutionized the industry by launching the world s first hearing aid with 2.4 ghz technology a new wireless technology that was groundbreaking compared to the previous inductive technology . in 2014 gn resound changed the industry once more with the introduction of the world s first made for iphone hearing aid which based on the 2.4 ghz technology enables the streaming of sound directly from an iphone without any body worn devices . since the end of 2008 gn s share price has increased by almost 1200 % december 2014 . business edit today gn store nord is a manufacturer of hearing instruments and audiological diagnostics equipment under the gn resound and gn otometrics brands and a manufacturer of headsets under the jabra brand in its gn netcom division . stock listing edit gn is listed on nasdaq omx copenhagen isin code dk001027263 2 . headquarters edit the former headquarters of the gntc on the bund shanghai . this company s headquarters is located at lautrupbjerg 7 in ballerup near copenhagen . its former headquarters in kongens nytorv copenhagen was built in 1893 and still stands . coordinates 55 44 19 n 12 23 12 e 55.73861 n 12.38667 e 55.73861 ; 12.38667 directors edit incomplete 1873 1908 edouard suenson 1908 1938 kay suenson 1938 1966 bent suenson 1985 2000 christian tillisch gn netcom 1987 1993 thomas duer 2000 2003 niels b. christiansen gn netcom 1995 2001 j rgen lindegaard 2001 2006 j rn kildegaard 1997 2008 jesper mailind gn resound 2006 2009 toon bouten gn netcom 2008 2010 mike van der wallen gn resound 2009 2013 mogens elsberg gn netcom 2010 2014 lars viksmoen gn resound 2014 present anders hedegaard gn resound 2014 2015 niels svenningsen gn netcom 2015 present ren svendsen tune gn netcom references edit helge holst elektriciteten nordisk forlag 1911 . kurt jacobsen den r de tr d. det store nordiske telegraf selskabs storpolitiske spil efter den russiske revolution k benhavn gyldendal 1997 . gn store nord s 125th anniversary publication from dots and dashes to tele and data communication june 1 1994 . www.stornotime.dk the story about a storno radiotelefonfabrik . gn.com martin jes iversen turn around kampen om gn store nord lindhardt og ringhof 2015 external links edit official website gn at nasdaq omx great northern telegraph history v t e telecommunications history beacon broadcasting cable tv communications satellite computer network drums electrical telegraph fax heliographs hydraulic telegraph internet mass media mobile phone optical telecommunication optical telegraphy photophone prepaid mobile phone radio radiotelephone satellite communications semaphore smartphone smoke signals telecommunications history telautograph telegraphy teleprinter teletype telephone the telephone cases television timeline of communication technology undersea telegraph line videoconferencing videophone videotelephony pioneers edwin howard armstrong john logie baird paul baran alexander graham bell tim berners lee jagadish chandra bose vint cerf claude chappe donald davies lee de forest philo farnsworth reginald fessenden elisha gray innocenzo manzetti guglielmo marconi antonio meucci alexander stepanovich popov johann philipp reis nikola tesla camille tissot alfred vail charles wheatstone vladimir k. zworykin transmission media electromagnetic radiation electrical cable free space optical communication molecular communication optical fiber network topology and switching links nodes terminal node network switching circuit packet telephone exchange multiplexing space division frequency division time division polarization division orbital angular momentum code division networks arpanet bitnet cellular network computer cyclades ethernet fidonet internet isdn lan mobile ngn npl network public switched telephone radio telecommunications equipment television telex wan wireless world wide web category portal v t e omx copenhagen 20 companies of denmark march 2016 a.p. m ller m rsk carlsberg chr . hansen coloplast danske bank dsv flsmidth & co. genmab gn store nord iss jyske bank nordea novo nordisk novozymes pandora tdc tryg vestas wind systems william demant retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title gn