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.............................. ERICSSON
Logo and Trademark..............................
Ericsson (Telefonaktiebolaget L. M. Ericsson) (NASDAQ: ERIC, OMX: ERIC B) is a leading Swedish-based provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services covering a range of technologies, including handset technology platforms. Founded in 1876 as a telegraph equipment repair shop by Lars Magnus Ericsson, it was incorporated on August 18, 1918. Headquartered in Kista, Stockholm Municipality, since 2003, LM Ericsson is considered to be part of the so-called "Wireless Valley". Since the mid 1990s, Ericsson's extensive presence in Stockholm helped transform the capital into one of Europe's hubs of information technology (IT) research.
In the early 20th century, Ericsson dominated the world market for manual telephone exchanges but was late to introduce automatic equipment. The world's largest ever manual telephone exchange, serving 60,000 lines, was installed by Ericsson in Moscow in 1916. Throughout the 1990s, Ericsson has held a 35-40 percent market share of installed cellular telephone systems. Like most of the telecommunications industry, LM Ericsson suffered heavy losses after the telecommunications crash in the early years of the 2000s, and had to retrench tens of thousands of staff worldwide in an attempt to staunch the losses.
The handsets division was given a fresh start in the form of a joint venture with Sony called Sony Ericsson in 2001. LM Ericsson is a major provider of handsets and an infrastructure supplier for all major wireless technologies. It has played an important global role in modernizing exising copper lines to offer broadband services and has actively grown a new line of business in the professional services area.
In a curious oversight, Ericsson had ignored the growth of automatic telephony in the US. They concentrated instead on squeezing the most sales out of manual exchange designs. By 1910 this weakness was becoming seriously apparent, and the company spent the years up to 1920 correcting the situation. Their first dial phone was produced in 1921, although sales of their early automatic switching systems were slow until the equipment had proved itself on the world's markets. Phones of this period were characterised by a simpler design and finish, and many of the early automatic desk phones in Ericsson's catalogues were simply the proven magneto styles with a dial stuck on the front and appropriate changes to the electronics. A concession to style was in the elaborate decals (transfers) that decorated the cases. These phones have been also highly collectable and attractive.
World War I, the subsequent Great Depression, and the loss of its Russian assets after the Revolution slowed down the company's development and restricted its sales to many countries such as Australia.
The purchase of other related companies put pressure on Ericsson's finances, and in 1925, Karl Fredric Wincrantz took control of the company by acquiring the majority of the shares in the company. Wincrantz was partly funded by Ivar Kreuger, an international financier. The company was also renamed Telefon AB LM Ericsson. At this time, Ivar Kreuger started showing interest in the company, being a major owner of Wincrantz holding companies.
In 1928 LM Ericsson began its long tradition of "A" and "B" shares, where an "A" share comes with 1000 votes against a "B" share, so Wincrantz was actually only controlling a few of "A" shares, giving him control of the company whilst not actually controlling a majority of the shares. By issuing a lot of "B" shares, much more money was fed to the company, while maintaining the status quo of power distribution.
In 1930 a second issue of "B"-shares took place, resulting in Ivar Kreuger gaining majority control of the company with a mixture of "A" and "B" shares. He bought these shares with money lent from LM Ericsson, with security given in German state bonds.
He then took a large loan for his own company Kreuger & Toll from ITT (administered by Sosthenes Behn) giving large parts of LM Ericsson as security and used its assets and name in a series of doubtful international financial dealings that had little to do with telephony.
Financially weakened, Ericssons was now being looked at as a take over target by ITT, their main international competitor. In 1931 ITT acquired from Kreuger enough shares to have a majority interest in Ericsson. This news was not made public for some time. There was a government imposed limit on foreign shareholdings in Swedish companies, so for the time being the shares were still listed in Kreuger's name. Kreuger in return was to gain shares in ITT. He stood to make a profit of $11 million on the deal.
When ITT's Behn wanted to cancel this deal in 1932, he discovered the fact that there was no money left in the company, just a large claim on the same Kreuger & Toll that Kreuger had himself lent money to. Kreuger had effectively bought LM Ericsson with its own money.
With Kreuger no longer in control, the company's shaky financial position became quickly evident. Kreuger had been using the company as security for loans, and in spite of his profits, he was unable to repay these loans. Ericsson found that they had invested in some very doubtful share deals, and the probable losses from these were significant. ITT started to examine the deal they had bought into and found that they had been mislead quite seriously about the company's value. They summoned Kreuger to New York City for a conference, but Kreuger had a "breakdown". As the word of Kreuger's financial position spread, pressure was put on him by the banking institutions to provide security for his loans. ITT cancelled the deal to purchase the Ericssons shares. Kreuger had to repay the $11 million, which he could not do. Under the increasing pressure, he committed suicide in Paris in 1932. Ericssons, a basically stable and profitable company, was only saved from bankruptcy and closure with assistance from loyal banks and some government backing.
On Kreuger's suicide in 1932, ITT owned one third of LM Ericsson, but was forbidden to exercise this ownership because of a paragraph in the articles of association stating that no foreign investor was allowed to control more than 20% of the votes.
While LM Ericsson came close to filing for bankruptcy in 1932, this did not happen. Instead Marcus Wallenberg Jr negotiated a deal with several Swedish banks to rebuild LM Ericsson financially. One of them, Stockholms Enskilda Bank (after a later merger part of the present Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken), together with other Swedish investment banks controlled by the Wallenberg family, then gradually increased its possession of LM Ericsson "A" shares, with ITT still being the single largest owner. In 1960 the Wallenberg family finally struck a deal with ITT to buy their shares in LM Ericsson and the company has since then been controlled by the Wallenberg family, i.e. a part of the "Wallenberg sphere".
In the 1920s and 1930s, the world telephone markets were being organised and stabilized by many governments. The fragmented town-by-town systems which had grown up over the years, serviced by many small private companies, were integrated and then offered for lease to a single company. Ericsson had some successes in obtaining these leases, and some losses. The successes were vital to the company, as they represented further sales of equipment to the growing networks. The other large telephone companies, of course, had exactly the same goal in mind. Ericsson managed to get almost one third of its sales under the control of its telephone operating companies.
There were a number of negotiations between the major telephone companies aimed at dividing up the world between them, but the sheer size of the ITT empire made it hard to compete with. With its financial problems, Ericsson was forced to reduce its involvement in telephone operating companies and go back to what it did best, manufacturing telephones and switchgear. It could do this easily now, as it had a considerable hidden asset in its overseas manufacturing facilities and its associated supply companies. These had not been involved in the previously yesteryears of shady financial dealings and were generally in a sound position.
The Beeston factory in Britain became a very useful asset here. It had been a joint venture between Ericsson and the National Telephone Company. The factory built automatic switching equipment for the BPO under license from Strowger, but they also exported a large amount of their product to former colonies like South Africa and Australia. The British government divided their equipment contracts between the competing manufacturers. Ericsson's presence and manufacturing facilities in Britain led to them getting the lion's share of the contracts. Ericsson equipment maintained its reputation for quality.
Sales drives were resumed after the Great Depression, but the company never achieved the same market penetration that they had enjoyed at the turn of the century. Although they still produced a full range of telephones, switching equipment was now becoming a more important part of their range. With the increasing use of moulded thermoplastic phones (Bakelite, etc), the distinctive Ericsson styles soon became subdued.
In spite of this, Ericsson still managed to retain their position as one of the world's telecommunications leaders. They released one of the world's first handsfree speaker phones in the 1960s. In 1956 they released the Ericofon, which was such a radical departure in phone styling that it has been highly collectable. Their crossbar switching equipment is the mainstay of many telephone administrations around the world, and their influence is still felt strongly in such areas as mobile phones with their reputation for quality.
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