company . for other uses see nec disambiguation . this article s lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents . please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article . please discuss this issue on the article s talk page . march 2012 nec corporation orchestrating a brighter world the nec supertower in minato tokyo japan the headquarters of nec type public traded as tyo 6701 ose 6701 nse 6701 fse 6701 sapporo se 6701 industry information technology electronics founded july 17 1899 ; 117 years ago 1899 07 17 tokyo japan headquarters 5 7 2 shiba minato tokyo japan area served worldwide key people nobuhiro endo chairman takashi niino president products telecommunications equipment servers consumer electronics domestic appliances lighting revenue 3.0716 trillion 2013 1 operating income 114.647 billion 2013 1 net income 30.434 billion 2013 1 total assets 2.581 trillion 2013 1 total equity 700.429 billion 2013 1 number of employees 102 375 2013 1 subsidiaries nec corporation of america website nec.com nec corporation nippon denki kabushiki gaisha is a japanese multinational provider of information technology it services and products headquartered in minato tokyo japan . 2 nec provides it and network solutions to business enterprises communications services providers and to government agencies and has also been the biggest pc vendor in japan since the 1980s . the company was known as the nippon electric company limited before rebranding in 1983 as just nec . its nec semiconductors business unit was one of the worldwide top 20 semiconductor sales leaders before merging with renesas electronics . nec is a member of the sumitomo group . contents 1 history 1.1 1898 to 1919 1.2 1919 to 1938 1.3 1938 to 1945 1.4 1945 to 1980 1.5 1980 to 2000 1.6 2000 to present 2 operations 3 products 3.1 supercomputers 4 achievements 5 sponsorships 6 sports teams 7 see also 8 footnotes 9 references 10 external links history edit 1898 to 1919 edit kunihiko iwadare and takeshiro maeda established nippon electric limited partnership on august 31 1898 by using facilities that they had bought from miyoshi electrical manufacturing company . iwadare acted as the representative partner ; maeda handled company sales . western electric which had an interest in the japanese phone market was represented by walter tenney carleton . 3 carleton was also responsible for the renovation of the miyoshi facilities . 4 it was agreed that the partnership would be reorganized as a joint stock company when treaty would allow it . on july 17 1899 the revised treaty between japan and the united states went into effect . nippon electric company limited was organized the same day with western electric company to become the first japanese joint venture with foreign capital . 5 iwadare was named managing director . ernest clement and carleton were named as directors . maeda and mototeru fujii were assigned to be auditors . iwadare maeda and carleton handled the overall management . 6 the company started with the production sales and maintenance of telephones and switches . nec modernized the production facilities with the construction of the mita plant in 1901 at mita shikokumachi . it was completed in december 1902 . the japanese ministry of communications adopted a new technology in 1903 the common battery switchboard supplied by nec . the common battery switchboards powered the subscriber phone eliminating the need for a permanent magnet generator in each subscriber s phone . the switchboards were initially imported but were manufactured locally by 1909 . 7 nec started exporting telephone sets to china in 1904 . in 1905 iwadare visited western electric in the u.s. to see their management and production control . on his return to japan he discontinued the oyakata system of sub contracting and replaced it with a new system where managers and employees were all direct employees of the company . inefficiency was also removed from the production process . the company paid higher salaries with incentives for efficiency . new accounting and cost controls were put in place and time clocks installed . 8 between 1899 and 1907 the number of telephone subscribers in japan rose from 35 000 to 95 000 . 9 nec entered the china market in 1908 with the implementation of the telegraph treaty between japan and china . they also entered the korean market setting up an office in seoul in january 1908 . during the period of 1907 to 1912 sales rose from 1.6 million yen to 2 million yen . the expansion of the japanese phone service had been a key part of nec s success during this period . this expansion was about to take a pause . the ministry of communications delayed a third expansion plan of the phone service in march 1913 despite having 120 000 potential telephone subscribers waiting for phone installations . nec sales fell sixty percent between 1912 and 1915 . during the interim iwadare started importing appliances including electric fans kitchen appliances washing machines and vacuum cleaners . electric fans had never been seen in japan before . the imports were intended to prop up company sales . in 1916 the government resumed the delayed telephone expansion plan adding 75 000 subscribers and 326 000 kilometers of new toll lines . thanks to this third expansion plan nec expanded at a time when much of the rest of japanese industry contracted . 10 1919 to 1938 edit in 1919 nec started its first association with sumitomo engaging sumitomo densen seizosho to manufacture cables . as part of the venture nec provided cable manufacturing equipment to sumitomo densen . rights to western electrics duplex cable patents were also transferred to sumitomo densen . 11 the great kant earthquake struck japan in 1923 . 140 000 people were killed and 3.4 million were left homeless . 12 four of nec s factories were destroyed killing 105 of nec s engineers and workers . thirteen of tokyo s telephone offices were destroyed by fire . telephone and telegraph service was interrupted by damage to telephone cables . in response the ministry of communications accelerated major programs to install automatic telephone switching systems and enter radio broadcasting . 13 the first automatic switching systems were the strowger type model made by automatic telephone manufacturing co. atm in the united kingdom . nec participated in the installation of the automatic switching systems ultimately becoming the general sales agent for atm . nec developed its own strowger type automatic switching system in 1924 a first in japan . one of the plants almost leveled during the kanto earthquake the mita plant was chosen to support expanding production . a new three story steel reinforced concrete building was built starting in 1925 . it was modeled after the western electric hawthorne works . nec started its radio communications business in 1924 . japan s first radio broadcaster radio tokyo was founded in 1924 and started broadcasting in 1925 . nec imported the broadcasting equipment from western electric . 14 the expansion of radio broadcasting into osaka and nagoya marked the emergence of radio as an industry . nec established a radio research unit 1924 . nec started developing electron tubes in 1925 . by 1930 they were manufacturing their first 500 w radio transmitter . they provided the chinese xinjing station with a 100 kw radio broadcasting system in 1934 . photo telegraphic equipment developed by nec transmitted photos of the accession ceremony of emperor hirohito . the ceremony was held in kyoto in 1928 . the newspapers asahi shimbun and mainichi shimbun were competing to cover the ceremony . the asahi shimbun was using a siemens device . the mainichi was planning to use french photo telegraphic equipment . in the end both papers acquired and used the nec product due to its faster transmission rate and higher picture quality . 15 in 1929 nippon electric provided japan s ministry of communications with the a type switching system the first of these systems to be developed in japan . nippon supplied japan s ministry of communications with nonloaded line carrier equipment for long distance telephone channels in 1937 . 16 1938 to 1945 edit world war ii was described by the company as being the blackest days of its history . 17 in 1938 the mita and tamagawa plants were placed under military control with direct supervision by military officers . in 1939 nippon electric established a research laboratory in the tamagawa plant . it became the first japanese company to successfully test microwave multiplex communications . 18 on december 22 1941 the enemy property control law was passed . nec shares owned by international standard electric corporation ise an itt subsidiary and western electric affiliate were seized . capital and technical relations were abruptly severed . the munitions company law was passed in october 1943 placing overall control of nec plants under military jurisdiction . 19 the ueno plant was leveled by military attack in march 1945 . fire bombings in april and may heavily damaged the tamagawa plant reducing its capacity by forty percent . the okayama plant was totally destroyed by a bombing attack in june of the same year . at the end of the war nec s production had been substantially reduced by damage to its facilities and by material and personnel shortages . 1945 to 1980 edit after the war production was slowly returned to civilian use . nec re opened its major plants by the end of january 1946 . 20 nec began transistor research and development in 1950 . it started exporting radio broadcast equipment to korea under the first major postwar contract in 1951 . nec received the deming prize for excellence in quality control in 1952 . computer research and development began in 1954 . nec produced the first crossbar switching system in japan . it was installed at nippon telegraph and telephone public corporation currently nippon telegraph and telephone corporation ; ntt in 1956 . nec began joint research and development with ntt of electronic switching systems the same year . nec established taiwan telecommunication company as their first postwar overseas joint venture in 1958 . they completed the neac 1101 and neac 1102 computers the same year . in 1959 nec demonstrated their first transistorized computer the neac 2201 . they demonstrated it at the unesco automath show in paris . the company began integrated circuit research and development in 1960 . in 1963 nec started trading as american depositary receipts ten million shares being sold in the united states . 21 nippon electric new york now nec america inc. was incorporated in the same year . the nec logo from 1963 to 1992 22 nec supplied kdd with submarine cable systems for laying in the pacific ocean in 1964 . they supplied short haul 24 channel pcm carrier transmission equipment to ntt in 1965 . nec de mexico s. a. de c. v. nec do brasil s. a. nec australia pty. ltd. were established between 1968 and 1969 . nec supplied comsat corporation with the spade satellite communications system in 1971 . in 1972 switzerland ordered a nec satellite communications earth station . the same year a small transportable satellite communications earth station was set up in china . shares of nec common stock were listed on the amsterdam stock exchange in 1973 . nec also designed an automated broadcasting system for the japan broadcasting corporation the same year . nec electronics europe gmbh was also established . in 1974 the acos series computer was introduced . the new central research laboratories were completed in 1975 . in 1977 japan s national space development agency launched the nec geostationary meteorological satellite named himawari . during this period nec introduced the concept of c & c the integration of computers and communications . nec america inc. opened a plant in dallas texas to manufacture pabx and