Thales Group

The Thales Group () is a global electronics company serving aerospace, defence, and information technology markets worldwide.

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, and has operations in more than 30 countries and 65,000 employees, and generated 11.1 billion euros in revenues in 2002.

Thales Group is ranked as the 485th largest company by Fortune 500 Global and is the 9th largest defense contractor in the world.

History

For a full history prior to 2000 see the main article: Thomson-CSF

Thales' predecessor, Thomson-CSF, evolved from Compagnie Francaise 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).

In 2002 Thales set up the joint venture company Armaris with the French shipbuilder DCN. The new company will 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.

Alcatel deal

In April, 2006, Thales announced it would be acquiring Alcatel's space business (67% of Alcatel Alenia Space and 33% of Telespazio) 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 Transport Systems (TAS) activities, Alcatel's business division for signalling solutions for rail transport and urban metros as well as Alcatel's Systems Integration activities (those not dedicated to telecoms operators, and covering mainly the transport and energy sectors).

Korean affair

In March 2006, Bernard Favre d'Echallens, in Korea since 2000 as President and CEO of Thales Korea, is charged of spying Korean military secrets by a judge in Seoul. He should be judged in April and faces a 15 years sentence. In May a South Korean court dismissed the charges related to obtaining classified documents about radar equipment for the South Korean navy.

Areas of business

The firm has operated in South Korea for 30 years and is currently in a bid to supply radars for new navy frigates.

Thales presence in the UK (largely as a result of the Racal acquisition) has resulted in several high profile contracts. The company 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.

Thales is named after the Greek astronomer, and as such is correctly pronounced (THAY-leez). However, the French owners tend to prefer their pronunciation of (TA-luhs) or sometimes (TAR-luhs).

Major shareholders

French state: 27.1%
Alcatel: 21.6%
Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault: 5%

External links

Yahoo! - Thales Company Profile

Engineering companies of France | Defence companies of France | Electronics companies

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