Founded in 1987, ST is a new enterprise after the merger of SGS semiconductor of Italy and Thomson semiconductor of France. Since its establishment, the growth rate of ST has exceeded the overall growth rate of the semiconductor industry. Since 1999, ST has been one of the top ten semiconductor companies in the world.
The group has nearly 50000 employees, 16 advanced R & D institutions, 39 design and application centers, 15 major manufacturing plants and 78 sales offices in 36 countries.
The company is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as in Europe and emerging markets; the company's U.S. headquarters are located in carolton, Dallas, Texas; its Asia Pacific headquarters are located in Singapore; its business in Japan is headquartered in Tokyo; and its headquarters in Greater China are located in Shanghai, responsible for Hong Kong, mainland and Taiwan.
Since its initial public offering on December 8, 1994, it has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange (STM) and the pan European Paris Stock Exchange. In June 1998, it was listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in Italy. STMicroelectronics has nearly 900 million public shares, of which about 71.1% are publicly traded on various stock exchanges. In addition, 27.5% of the shares are held by the Italian Finmeccanica consortium composed of Finmeccanica and CDP and the French consortium composed of Areva and France Telecom; the remaining 1.4% of the treasury shares are held by the Italian semiconductor.
