Ericsson
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (lit. 'Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson'), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in information and communications technology for telecommunications service providers and enterprises, including, among others, 3G, 4G, and 5G equipment, and Internet Protocol (IP) and optical transport systems. The company employs around 100,000 people and operates in more than 180 countries.[2] Ericsson has over 57,000 granted patents.[3]
For other uses, see Ericsson (disambiguation).Company type
Stockholm, Sweden
(1876)
Worldwide
- Ronnie Leten
(Chairman) - Börje Ekholm
(President & CEO)
Mobile and fixed broadband networks, consultancy and managed services, TV and multimedia technology
263.351 billion kr (2023)
–20.326 billion kr* (2023)
–26.104 billion kr* (2023)
297.036 billion kr (2023)
97.408 billion kr (2023)
- Investor AB (7.98%; 23.75% votes)
- AB Industrivärden (2.60%; 15.11% votes)
- AMF Tjänstepension & AMF Fonder (2.14%; 4.52% votes)
100,000 (2023)
- Cradlepoint
- Emodo
- iconectiv
- inCode Consulting
- Red Bee Media
- Vonage
Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one of the leaders in 5G.[4]
The company was founded in 1876 by Lars Magnus Ericsson[5] and is jointly controlled by the Wallenberg family through its holding company Investor AB, and the universal bank Handelsbanken through its investment company Industrivärden. The Wallenbergs and the Handelsbanken sphere acquired their voting-strong A-shares, and thus the control of Ericsson, after the fall of the Kreuger empire in the early 1930s.[6][7]
Ericsson is the inventor of Bluetooth technology.[8]
Corporate governance[edit]
As of 2016, members of the board of directors of LM Ericsson were: Leif Johansson, Jacob Wallenberg, Kristin S. Rinne, Helena Stjernholm, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Börje Ekholm, Ulf J. Johansson, Mikael Lännqvist, Zlatko Hadzic, Kjell-Åke Soting, Nora Denzel, Kristin Skogen Lund, Pehr Claesson, Karin Åberg and Roger Svensson.[78]
Research and development[edit]
Ericsson has structured its R&D in three levels depending on when products or technologies will be introduced to customers and users.[79] Its research and development organization is part of 'Group Function Technology' and addresses several facets of network architecture: wireless access networks; radio access technologies; broadband technologies; packet technologies; multimedia technologies; services software; EMF safety and sustainability; security; and global services.[80] The head of research since 2012 is Sara Mazur.[81]
Group Function Technology holds research co-operations with several major universities and research institutes including Lund University in Sweden, Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary and Beijing Institute of Technology in China.[82] Ericsson also holds research co-operations within several European research programs such as GigaWam and OASE.[83] Ericsson holds 33,000 granted patents and is the number-one holder of GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA, and LTE essential patents.[84] In 2021, the WIPO's annual World Intellectual Property Indicators report ranked Ericsson's number of patent applications published under the PCT System as 6th in the world, with 1,989 patent applications being published during 2020.[85] This position is up from their previous ranking as 7th in 2019 with 1,698 applications.[86]
Ericsson hosts a developer program called Ericsson Developer Connection designed to encourage development of applications and services.[87] Ericsson also has an open innovation initiative for beta applications and beta API's & tools called Ericsson Labs.[88] The company hosts several internal innovation competitions among its employees.[89]
In May 2022, it was announced that Ericsson and Intel are pooling R&D excellence to create high-performing Cloud RAN solutions. The organisations have pooled to launch a tech hub in California, USA. The hub focuses on the benefits that Ericsson Cloud RAN and Intel technology can bring to: improving energy efficiency and network performance, reducing time to market, and monetizing new business opportunities such as enterprise applications.[90]
Corruption[edit]
On 7 December 2019, Ericsson agreed to pay more than $1.2 billion (€1.09 billion) to settle U.S. Department of Justice FCPA criminal and civil investigations into foreign corruption. US authorities accused the company of conducting a campaign of corruption between 2000 and 2016 across China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kuwait and Djibouti. Ericsson admitted to paying bribes, falsifying books and records and failing to implement reasonable internal accounting controls in an attempt to strengthen its position in the telecommunications industry.[125][126][127]
In 2022, an internal investigation into corruption inside the company was leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.[128] It detailed corruption in at least 10 countries. Ericsson has admitted "serious breaches of compliance rules".[129]
The leak also revealed that some subcontractors working on behalf of Ericsson paid bribes to the Islamic State in order to continue operating the telecom network in occupied regions of Iraq.[130]
