Thales Group

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The Thales Group is a major French electronics company delivering mission-critical information systems and services for the Aerospace, Defense, and Security markets. It is headquartered in Neuilly-sur-Seine (in the suburbs of Paris) and its stock is listed on the Euronext Paris.

The company changed its name to Thales from Thomson-CSF in December 2000 shortly after the £1.3bn acquisition of Racal Electronics plc, a UK defence electronics group. It is now partially state-owned by the French State, and has operations in more than 50 countries. It has 70,000 employees and generated over 13 billion euros in revenues in 2006. The Group is ranked as the 485th largest company by Fortune 500 Global and is the 9th largest defense contractor in the world.. 63% of its total sales are military sales.

The Thales Group is named after the Greek philosopher (Θαλῆς), and as such would be in English. However, the French owners tend to prefer their pronunciation of talɛs or sometimes [ˈtɑlɛs].

Areas of business

Thales has a worldwide presence. Its large presence in the UK (largely as a result of the Racal acquisition) has resulted in several high profile contracts. The company's design won the competition for the Royal Navy Future Carrier (CVF). It is part of the Airtanker consortium, the winning bid for the RAF's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft. Thales UK won the contract for the British Army UAV programme, Watchkeeper. It also produces the SWARM remote weapon station.

Thales often worked with DCNS and designed many ships used in the French navy.

Thales is also a major manufacturer of in-flight entertainment onboard airliners. Thales' primary competitors in this area of business include Panasonic Avionics Corporation, Rockwell Collins, and LiveTV (originally owned by Thales, now owned by JetBlue).

Major shareholders

History

Thales' predecessor, Thomson-CSF, evolved from Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH), which was established in 1893. However Thomson-CSF itself was established in 1968 when Thomson-Brandt (the renamed CFTH) merged its electronics arm with that of Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil (CSF).

Thales formed a joint venture with Raytheon in June, 2001 to combine their radar and communications systems divisions. Named ThalesRaytheonSystems, the firm is 50% owned by both parent companies.

In 2002 Thales set up the joint venture company Armaris with the French shipbuilder DCN to offer a total "bottom up" shipbuilding capability.

In 2003 Thales UK's design won the competition for the Royal Navy Future Carrier (CVF) and the company now participates in an alliance company with BAE Systems and the UK Ministry of Defence. This Thales design may form the basis of the Future French aircraft carrier which the company has agreed to build with DCN.

In 2004 Thales provided China with radio jamming technology and technical support. Although the contract was not specifically for the purpose of jamming foreign radio stations broadcasting to China, it now appears that this is what the ALLISS antennas are being used for.

In 2006 Thales were given the green light to buy out Australian Defence Industries, a major manufacturer of such military equipment as smokeless gunpowder and the Bushmaster IMV. As of September 06, all ADI branding has been replaced with Thales, and the website templates have been changed.

Alcatel deal

In April, 2006, Thales announced it would be acquiring Alcatel's space business (67% of Alcatel Alenia Space and 33% of Telespazio), and Alcatel's Rail Signalling Solutions division in a deal which also raised Alcatel's ownership of Thales to 21.66 percent. The French government would also decrease its ownership in Thales to 27.1 percent from 31.3 percent as part of the acquisition. According to an Alcatel Press Room Web page of April 5, 2006, the deal would also include the Systems Integration activities (those not dedicated to telecoms operators, and covering mainly the transport and energy sectors).

References

-Thales Group Profile

External links

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Last updated on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 09:49:00 PDT (GMT -0700)
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