SGS-Thomson Microelectronics

STMicroelectronics N.V. commonly referred as ST or STMicro is a multinational corporation and technology company of French-Italian origin.

ST was formed in 1987 by the merger of two government-owned semiconductor companies: Italian SGS Microelettronica (where SGS stands for Societa Generale Semiconduttori), and French Thomson Semiconducteurs, the semiconductor arm of Thomson.

SGS Microelettronica originated in 1972 from a previous merger of two companies:

  • ATES (Aquila Tubi e Semiconduttori), a vacuum tube and semiconductor maker, which in 1961 changed its name to Azienda Tecnica ed Elettronica del Sud;
  • Societa Generale Semiconduttori.

Thomson Semiconducteurs was created in 1982 by the French government’s widespread nationalization of industries. It included:

  • the semiconductor activities of the French electronics company Thomson;
  • in 1985 it bought Mostek, a US company founded in 1969 as a spin-off of Texas Instruments, from United Technologies;
  • Silec, founded in 1977;
  • Eurotechnique, founded in 1979 in Rousset, Bouches-du-Rhône as a joint-venture between Saint-Gobain of France and US-based National Semiconductor;
  • EFCIS, founded in 1977;
  • SESCOSEM, founded in 1969.

At the time of the merger of these two companies in 1987, the new corporation was named SGS-THOMSON but took its current name of STMicroelectronics in May 1998 following Thomson’s sale of its shares.

[Source: Wikipedia]