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Sampoerna
Sampoerna (PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna Tbk) is an Indonesian tobacco company whose cigarette brands are smoked by millions of Indonesians. It is reportedly the largest Indonesian tobacco company, ahead of Gudang Garam and Djarum. In May, 2005, subsidiaries of Altria Group completed the acquisition of 98% of the company. A bloc of approximately 40% of the outstanding stock was sold by the controlling Sampoerna family, especially by Putra Sampoerna, and other insiders in a negotiated transaction and the remaining shares were purchased in a tender offer. The series of transactions valued the company at approximately $5.2 billion. The investment in Sampoerna represented a strategic move for Altria, as although Marlboro is by far the most popular Western-style (non kretek cigarette), most Indonesians still smoke kretek cigarettes.
Sampoerna reported 2005 Net Sales of 24.66 trillion Rupiah (approximately $2.6bn using the June 6, 2006 exchange rate) resulting in 1.99 trillion Rupiah Net Income.
It produces kretek-type cigarettes, flavoured with cloves and spices. Its most popular brand is Sampoerna 'A' Mild, a filter cigarette in white paper. The filter has a sweet coating of sugar and spices. Although the cigarette is described as mild, it contains similar tar and nicotine levels to Marlboro Red. Along with variations on the Sampoerna Brand (filterless (known as Hijau, or green), menthol, etc.), the company's other key brand is "234" (pronounced Dji Sam Soe), an unfiltered cigarette with 39mg of tar and 2.3 mg of nicotine per stick. Dji Sam Soe is the most premium cigarette in Indonesia. Its retail price per pack is the same with Marlboro Red (20 sticks), whilst 234 is packed 16 sticks. [1].
The company is named after the founding Sampoerna family, and was founded in 1913.
In 2001, Putera Sampoerna also founded Sampoerna Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improve the access to, and quality of education in Indonesia. After the Phillip Morris acquisition, the Foundation became an independent entity run by a team of professionals, while the Sampoerna family members remain to be the Foundation's Board of Patrons and Supervisors.
Aside from scholarship provision, Sampoerna Foundation also established several education quality improvement programs such as Sampoerna Foundation United Schools Program (SF USP), Sampoerna Foundation Teacher Institute, Sampoerna School of Business and Management-Institut Teknologi Bandung (Sampoerna SBM-ITB) and Sampoerna Language Centre.
Acer
Founded
1976Founder
Stan Shih et al.
Headquarters
Taipei, TaiwanIndustryComputerProductsLaptops, Desktop Computers, IT services
SubsidiariesAcer Computer Australia, Acer India, Acer America CorporationWebsitewww.acer.com
Acer (LSE: ACID) is a Taiwan-based company which by 2004 had grown to be one of the world's top five branded PC vendors. It owns the second largest computer retail chain in Taiwan, Acerland, second only to Asus. Acer's product offering includes desktop and mobile PCs (laptops), servers and storage, displays, peripherals, and e-business solutions for business, government, education, and home users.Multitech, which was founded by Stan Shih (施振榮) and other six people in 1976, was renamed Acer in 1987. The global headquarters is in Hsichih City, Taipei County, Taiwan. In 2002, the pan Acer Group employed 39,000 people supporting dealers and distributors in more than 100 countries. Revenues reached US $12.9 billion that year. In 2000, Acer spun-off its manufacturing operation (as Wistron Corporation) to focus itself on branding business. In deciding to support the sales of its product lines through specific marketing activities that best utilise distribution channels, Acer grew worldwide while its labour force contracted. By 2005, Acer employed 7,800 people throughout the world while maintaining a global sales and service network. Revenues were US$4.9 billion in 2003[1] and US$7 billion in 2004. Acer's North American market share has slipped over the past few years while the European market share has gone up. Much of their success in Europe can be attributed to their ongoing association with the Ferrari Formula 1 Team and the former F1 team, Prost Grand Prix in 2001. They have recently broadened the scope of their relationship with Ferrari by announcing they will sponsor the Formula One team until 2008.
Samsung Group
Founded
1938
Headquarters
Seoul, South KoreaKey people
Lee Byung-chulIndustryElectronics, Finances, Insurance
Revenue$79.5 billion (2005)
Net income$7.5 billion
Employees229,000
SloganImagine the Possibilities
The 1990s saw Samsung rise as an international corporation. Not only did it acquire a number of businesses abroad, but also began leading the way in certain electronic components. Samsung's construction branch was awarded a contract to build one of the two Petronas Towers in Malaysia in September 1993 and the Burj Dubai in 2004, which is set to be tallest structure ever created by mankind.
Compared to other major Korean companies, Samsung survived the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 relatively unharmed. However, Samsung Motor Co, a $5 billion venture was sold to Renault at a significant loss. Most importantly, Samsung Electronics (SEC) was officially spun-off from the Samsung Group and has since come to dominate the group and the worldwide semiconductor business, even surpassing worldwide leader Intel in investments for the 2005 fiscal year. Samsung's brand strength has greatly improved in the last few years, despite scandals and political intrigue.
Considered a strong competitor by its rivals, Samsung Electronics (SEC) expanded production dramatically to become the world's largest manufacturer of DRAM chips, refrigerators, flash memory, optical storage drives and it aims to double sales and become the top manufacturer of 20 products globally by 2010. It is now one of the world's leading manufacturers of plasma displays and next generation mobile phones. Due to its involvement in many fields, Samsung is involved in many legal controversies, such as patent infringements against other companies like Fujitsu, who claim to have created plasma display technology first. Samsung has also faced controversy in Korea for its anti-worker policies, although such claims are widely disputed.
Hitachi, Ltd.
Founded
1910Headquarters
Marunouchi-1, Chiyoda, Tokyo, JapanKey people
Kazuo Furukawa, President
IndustryComputer hardware, softwareProductssoftware & services, computing & communications platforms, electronic devices
SloganInspire the Next
Websitewww.hitachi.com
Hitachi was founded in 1910 as an electrical repair shop. Today it is one of the leading retailers in new technology.
Hitachi Works
Hitachi Works is the oldest member of the Hitachi Group and consists of three factories: Kaigan, Yamatte, and Rinkai Works. Yamatte Works, the oldest of the three factories, was founded in 1910 by Namihei Odaira as an electrical equipment repair and manufacturing facility. This facility was named Hitachi, and is regarded as the ancestral home of Hitachi, Ltd.
Many management trainees intern at Hitachi Works before being permanently assigned to other Hitachi divisions. Senior management personnel are often participants in rotations at Hitachi Works for a few years as their career develops towards eventual head office stature. As a result, many of the senior managers of Hitachi Ltd. have passed through Hitachi Works.
Spin-off entities from Hitachi Works include Hitachi Cable (1956) and Hitachi Canadian Industries (1988).
Fujitsu Limited
Founded
1935Headquarters
Tokyo, JapanKey people
Hiroaki Kurokawa, President
IndustryComputer hardware, softwareProductssoftware & services, computing & communications platforms, electronic devices
Revenue¥4,791 billion yen (year ending 31 March 2006)
Employees~158,000 (31 March 2006)
SloganThe Possibilities Are Infinite
The company was established in 1935 under the name Fuji Tsūshinki Seizō (富士通信機製造, Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing), a spinoff of the Fuji Electric Company, this in turn being a joint venture between the Furukawa Electric Company and German conglomerate Siemens. Despite its connections to the Furukawa zaibatsu, Fujitsu escaped the Allied occupation of Japan mostly unscathed.
In 1954 Fujitsu manufactured Japan's first computer, the FACOM 100, and in 1961 the transistorized FACOM 222. In 1967, the company's name was officially changed to the contraction Fujitsū (富士通).
In 1955, Fujitsu founded Kawasaki Frontale (川崎フロンターレ, Kawasaki Furontāre) as a Fujitsu soccer club. Kawasaki Frontale has now been a J. League football club since 1999.
After 1981 Fujitsu gradually took over International Computers Ltd (ICL) , which was renamed to Fujitsu Services Limited in 2002.
From February 1989 until the Summer of 1997 Fujitsu built the FM Towns PC variant. It started as a proprietary PC variant intended for multimedia applications and computer games, but later became more compatible with regular PCs. In 1993, the FM Towns Marty was released, a gaming console compatible with the FM Towns games.
Amdahl became a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu in 1997.
The active partnership with Siemens AG was revived in 1999 in the form of Fujitsu Siemens Computers, now Europe's largest IT supplier, and owned 50/50 by Fujitsu and Siemens.
On March 2, 2004, Fujitsu Computer Products of America lost a class action lawsuit over hard disk drives with defective chips and firmware.
Singapore Telecommunications
AT&T Inc.
Founded
2005Headquarters
San Antonio, Texas, USAKey people
Edward Whitacre, Jr., Chairman/CEORichard Lindner, CFOIndustryTelecommunicationsProductsTelephone, Internet, Wireless, TelevisionRevenue$43.862 billion USD (2005)
Net income$4.786 billion USD (2005)
Employees301,100
SloganYour World. Delivered.
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is the largest provider of both local and long distance telephone services, wireless service (formerly known as Cingular Wireless), and DSL internet access in the United States. The current company, which is based in San Antonio, Texas, United States, was formed in 2005 by SBC Communications' purchase of its former parent company, AT&T Corp. As a part of the merger, SBC shed its name and took on the iconic AT&T moniker and the T stock-trading symbol (for "telephone"). Despite that the corporation is considered SBC renamed, most of its major subsidiaries were part of AT&T prior to 1984, including the Bell Operating Companies and the long distance division.[1] However, AT&T lacks the vertical integration it once had, which had been the reason for the anti-trust suits that led to the 1984 breakup.
Macintosh
The Macintosh, or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple. Named after the McIntosh variety of apple, the original Macintosh was released on January 24, 1984. It was one of the first commercially successful personal computers to use a graphical user interface (GUI) and mouse instead of the then-standard command line interface. The current range of Macintoshes varies from Apple's entry level Mac mini desktop, to a mid-range server, the Xserve. Macintosh systems are mainly targeted at the home, education, and creative professional markets. Production of the Macintosh is based upon a vertical integration model in that Apple facilitates all aspects of its hardware and creates its own operating system. This is in contrast to PCs, where different makes of hardware run operating systems such as Microsoft Windows or Linux.
Original Macintosh computers used the Motorola 68k family of microprocessors, but later models switched to Motorola and IBM's PowerPC range of CPUs in 1994. Apple began a transition from the PowerPC line to Intel's processor architecture in 2006, which for the first time allowed Macs to run any x86 operating system natively. Current Macintoshes use the Intel Core, Intel Core 2 and Intel Xeon 5100 series microprocessors. All models of Macintosh come pre-installed with a native version of the latest Mac OS, which is currently at version 10.4.8 and is commonly referred to by its code name of "Tiger". Apple will be releasing Mac OS X v10.5, codenamed "Leopard", in Spring of 2007.
International Business Machines Corporation
Founded
1888, incorporated 1911
Headquarters
Armonk, New York, USAKey people
Samuel J. Palmisano, Chairman & CEOMark Loughridge SVP & CFODan Fortin, President (Canada)Frank Kern, President (Asia Pacific)Nick Donofrio, EVP (Innovation & Technology)Colleen Arnold, President IOT Northeast EuropeDominique Cerutti, President IOT Southwest Europe
IndustryComputer hardwareComputer softwareConsultingIT ServicesProductsSee complete products listingRevenue$US 91.4 billion (2006)Operating income$US 13.3 billion (2006)(14.6% operating margin)
Net income$US 9.5 billion (2006)(9.3% profit margin)
Employees329,373 (2005)SubsidiariesADSTARInformixIris AssociatesLotus SoftwareRational SoftwareSequent Computer SystemsTivoli Systems, Inc.
International Business Machines Corporation (known as IBM or "Big Blue"; NYSE: IBM) is a multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, infrastructure services, hosting services and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.Known through most of its recent history as the world's largest computer company, as of 2006, IBM has since fallen to second behind Hewlett-Packard in total revenue. With almost 330,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest information technology employer in the world. IBM holds more patents than any other technology company. IBM has engineers and consultants in over 170 countries and IBM Research has eight laboratories worldwide. IBM employees have earned five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, five National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science. As a chip maker, IBM is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.
Compaq Computer Corporation
Dell Inc.
Founded
Austin, Texas (1984) (as "PC's Limited")
Headquarters
Round Rock, Texas, USAKey people
Michael Dell, Founder & ChairmanKevin Rollins, President & CEODon Carty, CFOIndustryComputer hardwareProductsDesktopsServersNotebooksPeripheralsPrintersRevenue$55.908 Billion USD (2006)
Net income$3.572 Billion USD (2006)(6.39% profit margin)
Employees65,200
SubsidiariesAlienwareSloganPurely YouUniquely You (Australia)
Dell Inc. an American computer-hardware company based in Round Rock, Texas, develops, manufactures, sells and supports a wide range of personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, personal digital assistants (PDAs), software, computer peripherals, and more. As of 2006 Dell employs more than 63,700 people worldwide and manufactures more computers than any other organization in the world. According to the Fortune 500 2006 list, Dell ranks as the 25th-largest company in the United States by revenue. In 2006, Fortune magazine ranked Dell as No. 8 on its annual list of the most-admired companies in the United States. One publication has identified Dell as one of 38 high-performance companies in the S&P 500 which consistently out-performed the market over the previous 15 years.
Microsoft Corporation
Founded
Albuquerque (April 4, 1975)Headquarters
Redmond, Washington, USAKey people
Bill Gates, Co-founder and Executive ChairmanPaul Allen, Co-founderSteve Ballmer, CEORay Ozzie, Chief Software ArchitectIndustryComputer softwarePublishingResearch and developmentComputer hardwareVideo gamesProductsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft OfficeServer SystemDeveloper ToolsBusiness SolutionsGames and XboxWindows LiveWindows MobileRevenue
Microsoft Corporation, is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44.28 billion and 71,553 employees in 102 countries as of July 2006. It develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its best selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. These have all achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market, approaching fulfillment of Microsoft's original goal, "A computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software." Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360 and MSN TV.Microsoft's name, originally bi-capitalised as MicroSoft or with hyphenation as Micro-Soft, is a portmanteau of "microcomputer software"[7] and is often abbreviated as MS. The company was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico on April 4, 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. After the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones in the mid-1980s, Microsoft used its new position, which it gained in part due to a contract from IBM, to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS, which stood for Microsoft Disk Operating System. The company later released an initial public offering (IPO) in the stock market, which netted several of its employees millions of dollars due to the ensuing rise of the stock price. The price of the stock continued its rise steadily into the early 2000s. In Microsoft Windows, originally an add-on for MS-DOS, the company was selling what would become the most widely used operating system in the world; Microsoft continued to push into multiple markets, such as computer hardware and television. In addition, Microsoft has historically given customer support over Usenet newsgroups and the World Wide Web, and awards Microsoft MVP status to volunteers who are deemed helpful in assisting the company's customers.With what is generally described as a developer-centric business culture, Microsoft has become widely known for some of its internal codes of conduct for its employees. One example is the principle "eat your own dog food", which describes the practice of using pre-release products inside the company to test them in an environment geared towards the real world.[18] Microsoft has been convicted of monopolistic business practices — the U.S. Justice Department, among others, has sued Microsoft for antitrust violations and software bundling.[19] The slogan "embrace, extend, and extinguish" is often used to describe Microsoft's strategy for entering product categories involving widely-used standards, extending those standards with proprietary capabilities, and then using those differences to disadvantage its competitors.[20] In addition, Microsoft has been criticised for the insecurity of its software.[21] However, Microsoft has won several awards, such as the "1993 Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S." by Fortune magazine, as well as maintaining a place on the Fortune 500 list of companies as of 2006
