. for the former fujitsu siemens company see fujitsu siemens computers . for other uses see siemens disambiguation . siemens ag type aktiengesellschaft traded as fwb sie industry conglomerate founded 12 october 1847 ; 169 years ago 1847 10 12 berlin kingdom of prussia founder werner von siemens headquarters berlin and munich germany area served worldwide key people joe kaeser president & ceo gerhard cromme chairman of the supervisory board products power generation technology industrial and buildings automation medical technology railway vehicles water treatment systems fire alarms plm software services business services financing project engineering and construction revenue 75.63 billion 2015 1 operating income 6.04 billion 2015 1 net income 7.28 billion 2015 1 total assets 120.34 billion 2015 1 total equity 34.47 billion 2015 1 number of employees 348 000 2015 1 divisions process industries and drives digital factory energy management healthineers mobility power and gas power generation services wind power and renewables building technologies website www.siemens.com siemens ag german pronunciation zi m ns 2 is a german company headquartered in berlin and munich and the largest engineering company in europe with branch offices abroad . the principal divisions of the company are industry energy healthcare and infrastructure & cities which represent the main activities of the company . 3 4 5 the company is a prominent maker of medical diagnostics equipment and its medical health care division which generates about 12 percent of the company s total sales is its second most profitable unit after the industrial automation division . 6 the company is a component of the euro stoxx 50 stock market index . 7 siemens and its subsidiaries employ approximately 362 000 people worldwide and reported global revenue of around 75.6 billion in 2015 according to their annual report . contents 1 history 1.1 1847 to 1901 1.2 1901 to 1933 1.3 1933 to 1945 1.4 1945 to 2001 1.5 2001 to 2011 1.6 2011 to present 2 products services and contribution 3 operations 3.1 research and development 4 joint ventures 5 shareholders 6 senior management 7 the siemens graduate program the sgp 8 controversies 8.1 argentine 8.2 european union 8.3 iran 8.4 greece 8.5 japan 8.6 israel 9 see also 10 references 11 further reading 12 external links history edit 1847 to 1901 edit werner von siemens co founder of siemens & halske . siemens & halske was founded by werner von siemens and johann georg halske on 12 october 1847 . based on the telegraph his invention used a needle to point to the sequence of letters instead of using morse code . the company then called telegraphen bauanstalt von siemens & halske opened its first workshop on 12 october . 8 in 1848 the company built the first long distance telegraph line in europe ; 500 km from berlin to frankfurt am main . in 1850 the founder s younger brother carl wilhelm siemens later sir william siemens started to represent the company in london . the london agency became a branch office in 1858 . in the 1850s the company was involved in building long distance telegraph networks in russia . in 1855 a company branch headed by another brother carl heinrich von siemens opened in st petersburg russia . in 1867 siemens completed the monumental indo european calcutta to london telegraph line . 9 first electric locomotive built in 1879 by company founder werner von siemens . in 1867 werner von siemens described a dynamo without permanent magnets . a similar system was also independently invented by charles wheatstone but siemens became the first company to build such devices . in 1881 a siemens ac alternator driven by a watermill was used to power the world s first electric street lighting in the town of godalming united kingdom . the company continued to grow and diversified into electric trains and light bulbs . in 1890 the founder retired and left running the company to his brother carl and sons arnold and wilhelm . in 1887 it opened its first office in japan . 10 1901 to 1933 edit the company built airplanes during world war i for example this siemens airplane in 1926 . siemens & halske s & h was incorporated in 1897 and then merged parts of its activities with schuckert & co. nuremberg in 1903 to become siemens schuckert . in 1907 siemens siemens & halske and siemens schuckert had 34 324 employees and was the seventh largest company in the german empire by number of employees . 11 see list of german companies by employees in 1907 in 1919 s & h and two other companies jointly formed the osram lightbulb company . citation needed during the 1920s and 1930s s & h started to manufacture radios television sets and electron microscopes . citation needed in 1932 reiniger gebbert & schall erlangen ph nix ag rudolstadt and siemens reiniger veifa mbh berlin merged to form the siemens reiniger werke ag srw the third of the so called parent companies that merged in 1966 to form the present day siemens ag . 12 in the 1920s siemens constructed the ardnacrusha hydro power station on the river shannon in the then irish free state and it was a world first for its design . the company is remembered for its desire to raise the wages of its under paid workers only to be overruled by the cumann na ngaedheal government . 13 1933 to 1945 edit prisoners around 1944 working at a siemens factory in kz bobrek a subcamp of auschwitz concentration camp . 14 a siemens truck being used as a nazi public address vehicle in 1932 siemens at the time siemens schuckert exploited the forced labour of deported people in extermination camps . the company owned a plant in auschwitz concentration camp . 14 15 during the final years of world war ii numerous plants and factories in berlin and other major cities were destroyed by allied air raids . to prevent further losses manufacturing was therefore moved to alternative places and regions not affected by the air war . the goal was to secure continued production of important war related and everyday goods . according to records siemens was operating almost 400 alternative or relocated manufacturing plants at the end of 1944 and in early 1945 . in 1972 siemens sued german satirist f.c. delius for his satirical history of the company unsere siemenswelt and it was determined much of the book contained false claims although the trial itself publicized siemens history in nazi germany . 16 the company supplied electrical parts to nazi concentration camps and death camps . the factories had poor working conditions where malnutrition and death were common . also the scholarship has shown that the camp factories were created run and supplied by the ss in conjunction with company officials sometimes high level officials . 17 18 19 20 siemens businessman and nazi party member john rabe is however credited with saving many chinese lives during the infamous nanking massacre . he later toured germany lecturing on the atrocities committed by japanese forces in nanking . 21 1945 to 2001 edit in the 1950s and from their new base in bavaria s & h started to manufacture computers semiconductor devices washing machines and pacemakers . citation needed in 1966 siemens & halske s & h founded in 1847 siemens schuckertwerke ssw founded in 1903 and siemens reiniger werke srw founded in 1932 merged to form siemens ag . 12 in 1969 siemens formed kraftwerk union with aeg by pooling their nuclear power businesses . 22 a 1973 siemens electron microscope on display at the mus e des arts et m tiers in paris . the company s first digital telephone exchange was produced in 1980 . in 1988 siemens and gec acquired the uk defence and technology company plessey . plessey s holdings were split and siemens took over the avionics radar and traffic control businesses as siemens plessey . in 1985 siemens bought allis chalmers interest in the partnership company siemens allis formed 1978 which supplied electrical control equipment . it was incorporated into siemens energy and automation division . 23 in 1987 siemens reintegrated kraftwerk union the unit overseeing nuclear power business . 22 in 1991 siemens acquired nixdorf computer ag and renamed it siemens nixdorf informationssysteme ag in order to produce personal computers . in october 1991 siemens acquired the industrial systems division of texas instruments inc based in johnson city tennessee . this division was organized as siemens industrial automation inc. and was later absorbed by siemens energy and automation inc. in 1992 siemens bought out ibm s half of rolm siemens had bought into rolm five years earlier thus creating siemensrolm communications ; eventually dropping rolm from the name later in the 1990s . in 1997 siemens agreed to sell the defence arm of siemens plessey to british aerospace bae and a german aerospace company daimlerchrysler aerospace . bae and dasa acquired the british and german divisions of the operation respectively . 24 in october 1997 siemens financial services sfs was founded to act as competence center for financing issues and as a manager of financial risks within siemens . in 1998 siemens acquired westinghouse power generation for more than 1.5 billion from cbs corp and moving siemens from third to second the world power generation market . 25 in 1999 siemens semiconductor operations were spun off into a new company called infineon technologies . in the same year siemens nixdorf informationssysteme ag became part of fujitsu siemens computers ag with its retail banking technology group becoming wincor nixdorf . in 2000 shared medical systems corporation 26 was acquired by the siemens medical engineering group 27 eventually becoming part of siemens medical solutions . also in 2000 atecs mannesman was acquired by siemens 28 the sale was finalised in april 2001 with 50 % of the shares acquired acquisition mannesmann vdo ag merged into siemens automotive forming siemens vdo automotive ag atecs mannesmann dematic systems merged into siemens production and logistics forming siemens dematic ag mannesmann demag delaval merged into the power generation division of siemens ag . 29 other parts of the company were acquired by robert bosch gmbh at the same time . 30 2001 to 2011 edit a siemens velaro high speed train in service on the k ln frankfurt high speed rail line in 2001 chemtech group of brazil was incorporated into the siemens group ; 31 it provides industrial process optimisation consultancy and other engineering services . 32 also in 2001 siemens formed joint venture framatome with areva sa of france by merging much of the companies nuclear businesses . 22 in 2002 siemens sold some of its business activities to kohlberg kravis roberts & co. l.p. kkr with its metering business included in the sale package . 33 in 2003 siemens acquired the flow division of danfoss and incorporated it into the automation and drives division . 34 also in 2003 siemens acquired indx software realtime data organisation and presentation . 35 36 the same year in an unrelated development siemens reopened its office in kabul . 37 also in 2003 agreed to buy alstom industrial turbines ; a manufacturer of small medium and industrial gas turbines for 1.1 billion . 38 39 on 11 february 2003 siemens planned to shorten phones shelf life by bringing out annual xelibri lines with new devices launched as spring summer and autumn winter collections . 40 on 6 march 2003 the company opened an office in san jose . 41 on 7 march 2003 the company announced that it planned to gain 10 per cent of the mainland china market for handsets . 42 on 18 march 2003 the company unveiled the latest in its series of xelibri fashion phones . 43 in 2004 the wind energy company bonus energy in brande denmark was acquired 44 45 forming siemens wind power division . 46 also in 2004 siemens invested in dasan networks south