Vodafone Project

Vodafone

Vodafone Group

Type

:-

Public limited company

Traded as

:-

LSE: VOD NASDAQ: VOD

Industry

:-

Telecommunications

Predecessor

:-

Racal Millicom (1982 to 1991) 1991 - Newbury, Berkshire, United Kingdom Headquarters London, United Kingdom (Head office)

Founded

:-

Newbury, Berkshire, United Kingdom (Registered office)

Area served

:-

Worldwide

Key people

:-

Gerard Kleisterlee (Chairman) Vittorio Colao (CEO)

Products

:-

Fixed line and mobile telephony, Internet services, digital television

Revenue

:-

£38.34 billion (2014)[1]

Operating income

:-

£-3.91 billion (2014)[1]

Profit

:-

£59.42 billion (2014)[1]

Total assets

:-

£121.84 billion (2014)[1]

Total equity

:-

£70.80 billion (2014)[1]

Number of employees

:-

92,812 (2014)[1]

Divisions

:-

Vodafone Global Enterprise

Subsidiaries

:-

List[show]

Website

:-

www.vodafone.com

Vodafone Group plc /ˈvoʊdəfoʊn/ is a British multinational telecommunications company headquartered in London and with its registered office in Newbury, Berkshire.[2] It is the world's 2nd-largest mobile telecommunications company measured by both subscribers and 2013 revenues (behind China Mobile), and had 434 million subscribers as of 31 March 2014. [3] Vodafone owns and operates networks in 21 countries and has partner networks in over 40 additional countries.[4] Its Vodafone Global Enterprise division provides telecommunications and IT services to corporate clients in over 65 countries. Vodafone has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It had a market capitalisation of approximately £89.1 billion as of 6 July 2012, the third-largest of any company listed on the London Stock Exchange .[5] It has a secondary listing on NASDAQ.

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1 Name 2 History  2.1 Evolution as a Racal Telecom brand: 1980 to 1991  2.2 Vodafone Group, then Vodafone Airtouchplc: 1991 to 2000  2.3 Vodafone Group plc: 2000 to present 3 Adverts 4 Operations  4.1 Africa and the Middle East  4.2 The Americas  4.3 Asia-Pacific  4.4 Europe  4.5 Vodafone Global Enterprise 5 Products and services  5.1 Mobile money transfer services  5.2 mHealth services  5.3 Vodafone Foundation 6 Corporate affairs  6.1 Senior management  6.2 Financial results 7 Criticisms 8 Surveillance Infrastructure 9 References 10 External links

Name The name Vodafone comes from voice data fone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones.

History The evolution of 'Vodafone' started in 1982 with the establishment of the 'Racal Strategic Radio Ltd' subsidiary of Racal Electronics plc – UK's largest maker of military radio technology, which formed a joint venture with Millicom called 'Racal', which evolved into the present day Vodafone. Evolution as a Racal Telecom brand: 1980 to 1991

Vodafone's original logo, used until the introduction of the speechmark logo in 1997 In 1980, Sir Ernest Harrison OBE, the then chairman of Racal Electronics plc.agreed to a deal with Lord Weinstock of General Electric Company plc to allow Racal to access some of GEC's tactical battle field radio technology. The head of Racal's military radio division – Gerry Whent was briefed by Ernest Harrison to drive the company into commercial mobile radio. Whent visited GE’s mobile radio factory in Virginia, USA the same year to understand the commercial use of military radio technology. Jan Stenbeck, head of a growing Swedish conglomerate, set up an American company, Millicom, Inc. and approached Racal’s Whent in July 1982 about bidding jointly for the UK’s second cellular radio licence. The two struck a deal giving Racal 60% of the new company, Racal-Millicom, Ltd, and Millicom 40%. Due to UK concerns about foreign ownership, the terms were revised, and in December 1982, the Racal-Milicom partnership was awarded the second UK mobile phone network license. Final ownership of RacalMillicom, Ltd was 80% Racal, with Millicom holding 15% plus royalties and venture firm Hambros Technology Trust holding 5%. According to the UK Secretary of State for Industry, "the bid submitted by Racal-Millicom Ltd… provided the best prospect for early national coverage by cellular radio. Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985 under the new name, Racal-Vodafone (Holdings) Ltd, with its first office based in the Courtyard in Newbury, Berkshire, and shorty thereafter Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited. On 29 December 1986, Racal Electronics issued shares to the minority shareholders of Vodafone worth GB£110 million; and Vodafone became a fully owned brand of Racal. On 26 October 1988, Racal Telecom, majority held by Racal Electronics; went public on the London Stock Exchange with 20% of its stock floated. The successful flotation led to a situation where the Racal's stake in Racal Telecom was valued more than the whole of

Racal Electronics. Under stock market pressure to realise full value for shareholders, Racal demerged Racal Telecom in 1991. Vodafone Group, then Vodafone Airtouchplc: 1991 to 2000 On 16 September 1991, Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group, with Gerry Whent as its CEO. In July 1996, Vodafone acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not already own for £30.6 million. On 19 November 1996, in a defensive move, Vodafone purchased Peoples Phone for £77 million, a 181 store chain whose customers were overwhelmingly using Vodafone's network. In a similar move the company acquired the 80% of Astec Communications that it did not own, a service provider with 21 stores. In January 1997, Gerald Whent retired and Christopher Gent took over as the CEO. The same year, Vodafone introduced its Speechmark logo, composed of a quotation mark in a circle, with the O's in the Vodafone logotype representing opening and closing quotation marks and suggesting conversation. On 29 June 1999, Vodafone completed its purchase of AirTouch Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Vodafone Airtouch plc. The merged company commenced trading on 30 June 1999. In order to gain anti-trust approval for the merger, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake in E-Plus Mobilfunk. The acquisition gave Vodafone a 35% share of Mannesmann, owner of the largest German mobile network. On 21 September 1999, Vodafone agreed to merge its U.S. wireless assets with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form Verizon Wireless. The merger was completed on 4 April 2000, just a few months prior to Bell Atlantic's merger with GTE to form Verizon Communications, Inc. In November 1999, Vodafone made an unsolicited bid for Mannesmann, which was rejected. Vodafone's interest in Mannesmann had been increased by the latter purchase of Orange, the UK mobile operator. Chris Gent would later say Mannesmann's move into the UK broke a "gentleman's agreement" not to compete in each other's home territory. The hostile takeover provoked strong protest in Germany, and a "titanic struggle" which saw Mannesmann resist Vodafone's efforts. However, on 3 February 2000, the Mannesmann board agreed to an increased offer of £112 billion, then the largest corporate merger ever. The EU approved the merger in April 2000 when Vodafone agreed to divest the 'Orange' brand, which was acquired in May 2000 by France Télécom. The conglomerate was subsequently broken up and all manufacturing related operations sold off. Vodafone Group plc: 2000 to present

The headquarters of Vodafone Romania in Bucharest

On 28 July 2000, the Company reverted to its former name, Vodafone Group plc. In 2001, the Company acquired Eircell, the largest wireless communications company in Ireland, from eircom. Eircell was subsequently rebranded as Vodafone Ireland. Vodafone then went on to acquire Japan's third-largest mobile operator J-Phone, which had introduced camera phones first in Japan. On 17 December 2001, Vodafone introduced the concept of "Partner Networks", by signing TDC Mobil of Denmark. The new concept involved the introduction of Vodafone international services to the local market, without the need of investment by Vodafone. The concept would be used to extend the Vodafone brand and services into markets where it does not have stakes in local operators. Vodafone services would be marketed under the dual-brand scheme, where the Vodafone brand is added at the end of the local brand. (i.e., TDC Mobil-Vodafone etc.)

In 2007, Vodafone entered into a title sponsorship deal with the McLaren Formula One team, which traded as "Vodafone McLaren Mercedes" until the sponsorship ended at the end of the 2013 season. In May 2011, Vodafone Group Plc bought the remaining shares of Vodafone Essar from Essar Group Ltd for $5 billion. On 1 December 2011, it acquired the Reading based Bluefish Communications Ltd – an ICT consultancy company. The acquired operations formed the nucleus of a new Unified Communications and Collaboration practice within its subsidiary – Vodafone Global Enterprise,[34] which will focus on implementing strategies and solutions in cloud computing, and strengthen its professional services offering. In April 2012, Vodafone announced an agreement to acquire Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) for £1.04 billion. Vodafone was advised by UBS AG, while Barclays and Rothschild advised Cable & Wireless. The acquisition will give Vodafone access to CWW's fibre network for businesses, enabling it to take unified communications solutions to large enterprises in UK and globally; and expand its enterprise service offerings in emerging markets. On 18 June 2012, Cable & Wireless' shareholders voted in favour of the Vodafone offer, exceeding the 75% of shares necessary for the deal to go ahead. On 24 June 2013, Vodafone announced it would be buying German cable company Kabel Deutschland. The takeover is valued at €7.7 billion, and was recommended over the bid of rival Liberty Global. On 2 September 2013, Vodafone announced it would be selling its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications for $130 billion, in one of the biggest deals in corporate history. In October 2013, Vodafone began its rollout of 4G to provincial New Zealand, with the launch of the system in holiday hotspots around Coromandel. In February 2014, Vodafone made an offer to acquire Spain’s largest cable operator, ONO, in a deal rumoured to be around €7 billion.

Adverts Since 2010, the adverts feature two bees named Jack and Mike who are voiced by Karl Theobald and Dan Antopolski. Other adverts feature Star Wars character Yoda. Idris Elba does voice over for adverts.

Operations Africa and the Middle East Networks in the Middle East and Africa Majority-owned DR Congo1, Egypt

Minority-owned Kenya

Kuwait

Ghana

Lesotho1

Mozambique1,

Qatar2

Tanzania1,

South Africa2 1

Partner networks

Bahrain Libya UAE

Majority stakes held through majority-owned Vodacom Group

2

Effective ownership is not majority, but full control exercised by the group.

Egypt:In November 1998, Vodafone Egypt network went live under the name ClickGSM. On 8 November 2006, the Company announced a deal with Telecom Egypt, resulting in further co-operation in the Egyptian market, and increasing its stake in Vodafone Egypt. After the deal, Vodafone Egypt was 55% owned by the group, while the remaining 45% was owned by Telecom Egypt. On 28 January 2011, Vodafone complied with Egyptian government instructions to suspend Internet service "in selected areas" during a period of anti-Mubarak protests. The company issued a statement that "Under Egyptian legislation, the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it." Vodafone also received public and media criticism for allowing the authorities to send mass pro-government messages via SMS over their network during the protests. One such message requested that "honest and loyal men" should "confront the traitors and criminals". Vodafone later issued a statement asserting that they had no choice but to allow the messages to be broadcast, and that they had complained to the Egyptian authorities about the practice.

Kuwait:On 18 September 2002, Vodafone signed a Partner Network Agreement with MTC group of Kuwait. The agreement involved the rebranding of MTC to MTC-Vodafone. On 29 December 2003, Vodafone signed another Partner Network Agreement with Kuwait's MTC

group. The second agreement involved co-operation in Bahrain and the branding of the network as MTC-Vodafone.

South Africa (Vodacom):On 3 November 2004, the Company announced that its South African affiliate Vodacom had agreed to introduce Vodafone's international services, such as Vodafone live! and partner agreements, to its local market. In November 2005, Vodafone announced that it was in exclusive talks to buy a 15% stake of VenFin in Vodacom Group, reaching agreement the following day. Vodafone and Telkom then had a 50% stake each in Vodacom. Vodafone now owns 57.5% of Vodacom after purchasing a 15% stake from Telkom. On 9 October 2008, the company offered to acquire an additional 15 per cent stake in Vodacom group from Telkom. The finalised details of the agreement were announced on 6 November 2008. The agreement called for Telkom to sell 15 per cent of its 50 per cent stake in Vodacom to the group, and demerge the other 35 per cent to its shareholder. Meanwhile, Vodafone has agreed to make Vodacom its exclusive sub-Saharan Africa investment vehicle, as well as continuing to maintain the visibility of the Vodacom brand. The transaction is closed in May/June 2009. On 18 May 2009, Vodacom entered the JSE Limited stock exchange in South Africa after Vodafone increased its stake by 15% to 65% to take a majority holding, despite disputes by local trade unions. In April 2011, Vodacom, rebranded themselves with the Vodafone logo.

Qatar:In December 2007, a Vodafone Group-led consortium was awarded the second mobile phone licence in Qatar under the name "Vodafone Qatar". Vodafone Qatar is located at QSTP, the Qatar Science & Technology Park

Ghana:-

On 3 July 2008, Vodafone agreed to acquire a 70% stake in Ghana Telecom for $900 million. The acquisition was consummated on 17 August 2008. The same group-led consortium won the second fixed-line licence in Qatar on 15 September 2008. On 15 April 2009, Ghana Telecom, along with its mobile subsidiary OneTouch, was rebranded as Vodafone Ghana.

U.A.E.:On 28 January 2009, the group announced a partner network agreement with Du, the second-largest operator of the United Arab Emirates. The agreement involved co-operation on international clients, handset procurement, mobile broadband etc.

Libya:On 24 February 2010, the group signed a partner network agreement with the second-largest operator in Libya, al Madar.

The Americas United States:In the United States, Vodafone previously owned 45% of Verizon Wireless in a joint venture with Verizon Communications,[dated info] the country's largest mobile carrier. However the Vodafone branding was not used, as the CDMA network was not compatible with the GSM 900/1800 MHz standard used by Vodafone's other networks and as Vodafone did not have management control over Verizon Wireless, on 2 September 2013 Vodafone announced the sale of its stake to Verizon Communications for around $130 billion. In 2004 Vodafone made an unsuccessful bid for the entirety of AT&T Wireless however Cingular Wireless, at the time a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth (both now part of AT&T Inc.), ultimately outbid Vodafone and took control of AT&T Wireless (the combined wireless carrier is now AT&T Mobility). In December 2014, Vodafone announced an agreement with T-Mobile US to launch a MVNO service using its network, set to launch in 2015.

Chile:-

On 11 May 2008, Vodafone sealed a trade agreement with the Chilean Entel PCS Chile, in which Entel PCS has access to the equipment and international services of Vodafone, and Vodafone will be one of the trademarks of Entel for the wireless business. This step will give the Vodafone brand access to a market of over 15 million people, currently divided among two companies: TelefonicaMovistar, and Entel PCS.

Brazil:On August 2013, Vodafone has started the MVNO operation in Brazil, as a corporative M2M operator.

Asia-Pacific Networks in Asia-Pacific Majority-owned Australia

Minority-owned Fiji

Partner networks Afghanistan

Armenia

India

Azerbaijan

Sri Lanka

New Zealand

Malaysia

Samoa

Singapore

Thailand

Taiwan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan

Vietnam

In July 1993, BellSouth New Zealand's network went live, and October 1993 Vodafone Australia's network also went live. This was followed in July 1994 by Vodafone Fiji's network going live. In November 1998, Vodafone purchased BellSouth New Zealand, which later became Vodafone New Zealand. In 1999, J-Phone launched the J-sky mobile internet service in response to DoCoMo's i-Mode service. In December 2002 J-Phone's 3G network went live. On 1 October 2003, J-Phone became 'Vodafone Japan', and J-Phone's mobile internet service J-Sky became Vodafone Live!. In March 2006, Vodafone sold Vodafone Japan to SoftBank. In October 2006, SoftBank changed Vodafone Japan's name to 'SoftBank Mobile'. On 3 November 2003, Singapore became a part of the community as M1 was signed as partner network.

In December 2004, Vodafone Australia agreed to deploy high-speed MPLS backbone network built by Lucent Worldwide Services using Juniper hardware.[47] Then in April 2005, SmarTone changed the name of its brand to 'SmarToneVodafone', after both companies signed a Partner Network Agreement. In August 2005, Vodafone launched 3G technology in New Zealand, and in October 2005, it began launching 3G technology in Australia. On 28 October 2005, the Company announced the acquisition of a 10 per cent stake in India's Bharti Enterprises, which operates the largest mobile phone network in India under the brand name airtel. On 22 December 2005, the Company announced the completion of the acquisition of the 10% stake in Bharti Enterprises of India.

The headquarters of Vodafone New Zealand in Auckland City

In January 2006, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka were added to the Vodafone footprint as Vodafone Group signed a partner network agreement with Telekom Malaysia. On 17 March 2006, Vodafone announced an agreement to sell all its interest in Vodafone Japan to SoftBank for £8.9 billion, of which £6.8 billion will be received in cash on closing of deal. Vodafone Japan later changed its name to SoftBank Mobile. In November 2010, Vodafone divested its remaining Softbank shares. On 9 October 2006, Vodafone New Zealand bought New Zealand's 3rd largest internet service provider, iHug, and on 1 November 2006, Vodafone Australia signed the Australian Football League (AFL)'s biggest individual club sponsorship deal with the Brisbane Lions for seasons 2007, 2008 and 2009.

On 6 February 2007, along with the partnership with Digicel Caribbean (see below), Samoa was added as a Partner Market. Then on 11 February 2007, the Company agreed to acquire a controlling interest of 67% in Hutch Essar for US$11.1 billion. At the same time, it agreed to sell back 5.6% of its airtel stake back to the Mittals. Vodafone would retain a 4.4% stake in airtel. On 21 September 2007, Hutch was rebranded to Vodafone in India. On 6 February 2007, Vodafone Group signed a three-year partnership agreement with Digicel Group. The agreement, which includes Digicel's sister operation in Samoa, will result to the offering of new roaming capabilities. The two groups will also become preferred roaming partners of each other. Along with Digicel's markets, the Vodafone brand is now present in 81 countries, regions, and territories. What is interesting to note, is that as well as being partners, Digicel and Vodafone are also rival operators in Fiji, where Digicel Fiji recently launched in October 2008, and Vodafone owns a minority (49%) stake in Vodafone Fiji. On 10 February 2008, Vodafone announced the launching of M-Paisa mobile money transfer service on Roshan's (Afghanistan's largest GSM operator) network: Afghanistan was added to the Vodafone footprint. On 5 September 2008, Vodafone purchased Australia's largest bricks and mortar mobile phone retailer Crazy John's adding 115 retail stores to its local operations. On 9 February 2009, Vodafone Australia announced a merger with 3/Hutchison via a joint venture company VHA Pty Ltd, which would offer products under the Vodafone brand. dtac in Thailand is signed as a partner network of the Group on 25 March 2009. On 19 June 2009, Vodafone-Hutchison Australia (VHA) announced the end of its outsourcing of retail operations. VHA committed to buying back and managing its entire retail operation, including 208 Vodafone-branded retail outlets Australia-wide. This project was slated to be completed by 1 September 2009. On 31 August 2009, VHA enabled an extended 900 MHz 3G UMTS network which functions outside their 2,100 MHz 3G network, boosting Vodafone's 3G population coverage from around 8% to around 94% on dual-band 900/2,100 MHz 3G UMTS devices. Nar Mobile in Azerbaijan was signed as a Partner Network on 22 July 2009, while Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan was signed on 12 November 2009. In February 2013, Vodafone together with China Mobile, has participated in bidding for one of the two newly opened Myanmar Mobile licences. In October 2013, it was reported by Reuters that Vodafone planned to invest as much as $2 billion (1.2 billion pounds) to buy out minority shareholders in Vodafone India.

At the beginning of September 2014, Vinaphone signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Vodafone.[52]

Europe Networks in Europe Majority-owned

Partner networks

Albania

Austria Belgium

Czech Republic

Bulgaria, Channel Islands

Germany

CroatiaCyprus

Greece

Denmark, Estonia

Hungary

Finland, Faroe Islands

Ireland

IcelandLatvia

Italy

Lithuania, Luxembourg

Malta

Macedonia, Norway

Netherlands

Russia Serbia

North Cyprus

Slovenia, Sweden

Portugal

Switzerland, Ukraine

Romania Spain Turkey

UK:Vodafone Hungary is a subsidiary of Vodafone Global mobile telephone company operating in Hungary, the company started to operate in 7 July 1999.[53] In February 2002, Radiolinja of Finland joined as a Partner Network. Radiolinja later changed its named to Elisa. Later that year, the Company rebranded Japan's J-sky mobile internet service as Vodafone live!, and on 3 December 2002, the Vodafone brand was introduced in the Estonian market following the signing of a Partner Network Agreement with Radiolinja (Eesti). Radiolinja (Eesti) later changed its name to Elisa.

On 7 January 2003, the Company signed a group-wide Partner agreement with mobilkom Austria. As a result, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia were added to the community. In April 2003, Og Vodafone was introduced in the Icelandic market, and in May 2003, Omnitel (Omnitel Pronto-Italia) was rebranded Vodafone Italy. On 21 July 2003, Lithuania was added to the community, with the signing of a Partner Network agreement with Bitė. In February 2004, Vodafone signed a Partner Network Agreement with Luxembourg's LuxGSM, and a Partner Network Agreement with Cyta of Cyprus. Cyta agreed to rename its mobile phone operations to Cytamobile-Vodafone. In April 2004, the Company purchased Singlepoint airtime provider from John Caudwell (Caudwell Group), and approx 1.5 million customers onto its base for £405million, adding sites in Stoke-on-Trent (England), to existing sites in Newbury (HQ), Birmingham, Warrington and Banbury. In November 2004, Vodafone introduced 3G services into Europe. In June 2005, the Company increased its participation in Romania's Connex to 99% [citation needed], and also bought the Czech mobile operator Oskar. On 1 July 2005, Oskar of the Czech Republic was rebranded as Oskar-Vodafone. Later that year, on 17 October 2005, Vodafone Portugal launched a revised logo, using new text designed by Dalton Maag, and a 3D version of the Speechmark logo, but still retaining a red background and white writing (or vice versa). Also, various operating companies started to drop the use of the SIM card pattern in the company logo. (The rebranding of Oskar-Vodafone and ConnexVodafone also does not use the SIM card pattern.) A custom typeface by Dalton Maag (based on their font family InterFace) formed part of the new identity. On 28 October 2005, Connex in Romania was rebranded as Connex-Vodafone, and on 31 October 2005, the Company reached an agreement to sell Vodafone Sweden to Telenor for approximately €1 billion. After the sale, Vodafone Sweden became a Partner Network. In December 2005, Vodafone won an auction to buy Turkey's second-largest mobile phone company, Telsim, for US$4.5 billion.[54] In December 2005, Vodafone Spain became the second member of the Group to adopt the revised logo: it was phased in over the following six months in other countries. In 2006, the Company rebranded its Stoke-on-Trent site as Stoke Premier Centre, a centre of expertise for the company dealing with Customer Care for its higher value customers, technical support, sales and credit control. All cancellations and upgrades started to be dealt with by this call centre. On 5 January 2006, Vodafone announced the completion of the sale of Vodafone Sweden to Telenor. On February 2006, the Company closed its Birmingham Call Centre. On 1 February 2006, Oskar Vodafone became Vodafone Czech

Republic, adopting the revised logo, and on 22 February 2006, the Company announced that it was extending its footprint to Bulgaria with the signing of Partner Network Agreement with Mobiltel, which is part of mobilkom Austria group.

The headquarters of Vodafone Ireland in Dublin

In April 2006, the Company announced that it had signed an extension to its Partner Network Agreement with BITE Group, enabling its Latvian subsidiary "BITE Latvija" to become the latest member of Vodafone's global partner community. Also in April 2006,

Vodafone Sweden changed its name to Telenor Sverige AB, and Connex-Vodafone became Vodafone Romania, also adopting the new logo. On 30 May 2006, Vodafone announced the then biggest loss in British corporate history (£14.9 billion), and plans to cut 400 jobs; it reported one-off costs of £23.5 billion due to the revaluation of its Mannesmann subsidiary. On 24 July 2006, the respected head of Vodafone Europe, Bill Morrow, quit unexpectedly, and on 25 August 2006, the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Belgium's Proximus for €2 billion. After the deal, Proximus was still part of the community as a Partner Network. On 5 October 2006, Vodafone announced the first single brand partnership with Og

Vodafone which would operate under the name Vodafone Iceland, and on 19 December 2006, the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Switzerland's Swisscom for CHF4.25 billion (£1.8 billion)., After the deal, Swisscom would still be part of the community as a Partner Network. Finally in December 2006, the Company completed the acquisition of Aspective, an enterprise applications systems integrator in the UK, signalling Vodafone's intent to grow a significant presence and revenues in the information and communication technologies (ICT) marketplace.

The Vodafone Lion on the Löwenparade in Munich, Germany

Early in January 2007, Telsim in Turkey adopted Vodafone dual branding as Telsim Vodafone, and on 1 April 2007, Telsim Vodafone Turkey dropped its original brand and became Vodafone Turkey. In addition, Vodafone Turkey also gives service in Northern Cyprus. On 1 May 2007, Vodafone added Jersey and Guernsey to the community, as Airtel was signed as Partner Network in both crown dependencies. In June 2007, the Vodafone live! mobile internet portal in the UK was relaunched. Front page was now charged for, and previously "bundled" data allowance was removed from existing contract terms.[56] All users were given access to the "full" web rather than a 'Walled Garden', and Vodafone became the first mobile network to focus an entire media campaign on its newly launched mobile internet portal in the UK. On 1 August 2007, Vodafone Portugal launched Vodafone Messenger, a service with Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. At the end of 2007, Vodafone

Germany was ranked 6th in Europe by subscriber numbers, whilst its Italian operation was listed as 10th. Vodafone UK was ranked 13th, whilst Spain was listed in 16th place. On 17 April 2008, Vodafone extended its footprint to Serbia as Vip mobile was added to the community as a Partner Network, and on 20 May 2008, the Company added VIP Operator as a Partner Network, thereby extending the global footprint to the Republic of Macedonia. In May 2008, Kall of the Faroe Islands rebranded as Vodafone Faroe Islands. On 30 October 2008, the company announced a strategic, non-equity partnership with Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) group of Russia. The agreement adds Russia, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to the group footprint. On 20 March 2009, it was announced that the group's Luxembourg partner has been changed to Tango: the agreement with LuxGSM was not renewed in favour of Tango, the Luxembourg unit of another partner network, Belgacom of Belgium. On 4 April 2011, Vodafone sold its 44% stake in SFR, the second largest operator in France, to Vivendi for €7.95 billion. In March 2013, the Spanish operations of Vodafone signed an agreement with Orange S.A. to co-invest €1 billion in the expansion of Spain's fibre-optic cable broadband network. This will enable Vodafone to reach an additional 6 million customers in Spain by 2017.

Vodafone Global Enterprise Main article: Vodafone Global Enterprise

A map showing the countries where Vodafone Global Enterprise has operations (coloured in red) Vodafone Global Enterprise is the business services division, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Vodafone Group. It was established in April 2007 to provide telecommunications and information technology services to large corporations. It

offers

integrated

communication

solutions

in

cloud

computing,

unified

communications and collaboration. Its services include domestic and international voice and data, Machine to Machine services, mobile email, mobile broadband, managed services, mobile payment and mobile recording. In December 2011, it acquired the Reading-based Bluefish Communications Ltd – an ICT consultancy company. The acquired operations will form the nucleus of a new Unified Communications and Collaboration practice within VGE, which will focus on implementing strategies and solutions in cloud computing, and strengthen its professional services offering. It operates in over 65 countries, operated by its "Northern Europe" (based in London, United Kingdom), "Central Europe", "Southern Europe and Africa", "Asia Pacific & SubSaharan Africa" (based in Singapore) and "Americas" geographical divisions. VGE's major customers include Deutsche Post, The Linde Group, Unilever, and Volkswagen Group.

Products and services

Vodafone shop selling a range of products in Leeds, England Products promoted by the Group include Vodafone live!, Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Modem, Vodafone Connect to Friends, Vodafone Eurotraveller, Vodafone Freedom Packs, Vodafone 710 and Amobee Media Systems. In October 2009, it launched Vodafone 360, a new internet service for the mobile, PC and Mac. This was discontinued in December 2011 after disappointing hardware sales.[74] This was after The Director of Internet Services resigned in September 2010 tweeting "5 days before I leave Vodafone. Freedom beckons."[75] In February 2010, Vodafone launched world's cheapest mobile phone known as Vodafone 150, will sell for below $15 (£10) and is aimed at the developing world. It will initially be launched in India, Turkey and eight African countries including Lesotho, Kenya and Ghana.[76] Mobile money transfer services In March 2007, Safaricom, which is part owned by Vodafone and the leading mobile communication provider in Kenya, launched a mobile payment solution developed by Vodafone. M-PESA is aimed at mobile customers who do not have a bank account, typically because they do not have access to a bank or their income is insufficient to justify a bank account. The M-PESA system allows customers to deposit and withdraw cash via local agents, and transfer money to other mobile phone users via SMS.

By February 2008, the M-PESA money transfer system in Kenya had gained 1.6 million customers. By 2011 there were fourteen million M-Pesa accounts by which held 40 percent of the country’s savings. Following M-PESA’s success in Kenya, Vodafone announced that it was to extend the service to Afghanistan. The service here was launched on the Roshan network under the brand M-Paisa with a different focus to the Kenyan service. M-Paisa was targeted as a vehicle for microfinance institutions' (MFI) loan disbursements and repayments, alongside business to business applications such as salary disbursement. The Afghanistan launch was followed in April 2008 by the announcement of further a further launch of M-PESA in Tanzania, South Africa and India. In February 2012, Vodafone announced a worldwide partnership with Visa. To introduce a Vodafone Mobile Wallet, initially in Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and the UK. "The Vodafone mobile wallet represents the next stage of the smartphone revolution," says Vittorio Colao, Vodafone's group CEO. This will enable Vodafone subscribers to pay for goods and services using their mobile phones instead of coins and banknotes. mHealth services In November 2009, Vodafone announced the creation of a new business unit focused on the emerging mHealth market (the application of mobile communications and network technologies to healthcare). One of its early success stories is with the Novartis-led "SMS for Life" project in Tanzania, for which Vodafone developed and deployed a text-message based system that enables all of the country’s 4,600 public health facilities to report their levels of anti-malarial medications so that stock level data can be viewed centrally in real-time, enabling timely re-supply of stock. During the SMS for Life pilot, which covered 129 health facilities over six months, stock-outs dropped from 26% to 0.8%, saving thousands of lives.

Medopad at the

Vodafone pavilion CeBIT 2014

Vodafone has also been active in mHealth from a philanthropic perspective. The Vodafone Group Foundation is a founder member of the mHealth Alliance, supporting the adoption of

mHealth through policy research and advocacy and the development of interoperable and sustainable mHealth solutions. Vodafone is a strategic partner with several mHealth companies including Numera/BlueLibris and Medopad. Medopad was showcased in the Vodafone Pavilion at CeBIT Global Conferences in March 2014 in Germany.

Vodafone Foundation The Vodafone Foundation is a recognised charity which supports and initiates projects which use mobile technology to benefit the vulnerable. It is described by Vodafone as ‘Mobile for Good’; using mobile technology to support good causes. They often work in collaboration with other charitable groups. Below are some examples of their initiatives: •

TECSOS – mobile phones have been adapted to allow victims of domestic violence to activate immediate contact with the emergency services if they are in danger

•

Paediatric Epilepsy Remote Monitoring System – a monitoring system that allows physicians to remotely make patient observations

•

Safe Taxi System – an initiative in Portugal that consists of technology that taxi drivers can use to alert police if they are in danger of being assaulted

•

Learning with Vodafone Solution – technology that allows teachers in India to use

graphical and multi-media content to enhance their teaching •

The World of Difference UK programme - successful applicants choose charities for

which they work either full-time for two months or part-time for four months (minimum 15 hours a week). The charities are provided with £2,500, with each winner receiving the balance as a salary after NI and tax have been paid.[90]

Corporate affairs

Part of the Vodafone campus in Newbury, Berkshire; Vodafone's registered address and UK headquarters, and its world headquarters until 2009

Senior management In a period just short of twenty years from its initial public offering, the Company had had just three Chief Executives. The fourth CEO, Vittorio Colao, stepped up from Deputy Chief Executive in July 2008. Each of his predecessors made a personal contribution to the development of the Company. Sir Gerald Whent, at that time an Executive with Racal Electronics plc, was responsible for the bid for a UK Cellular Network licence. The Mobile Telecoms division was de-merged, and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in October 1988 and Sir Gerald became Chief Executive of Racal Telecom plc. Over the next few years the company grew to become the UK's Market Leader, changing its name to Vodafone Group plc in the process. Sir Christopher Gent took over as Chief Executive in January 1997, after Sir Gerald's retirement. Sir Christopher was responsible for transforming Vodafone from a small UK operator into the global behemoth that it is today, through the merger with the American AirTouch and the takeover of Germany's Mannesmann, the Goldman Sachs chief advisor on the deal was Scott Mead.

ArunSarin was the driving force behind the Company's move into emerging markets such as Asia and Africa, through the purchases such as that of Turkish operator Telsim, and a majority stake in Hutchison Essar in India. Faced with increased competition, and penetration rates above 100% in the more mature European markets, he saw it necessary to diversify from being a mobile-only business into a company which provided all telecommunications services. This has seen Vodafone launch DSL and other fixed-line services in markets such as Germany and the UK.

Chief Executive

Tenure

Sir Gerald Whent

October 1988 – December 1996

Sir Christopher Gent

January 1997 – July 2003

ArunSarin

July 2003 – July 2008

Vittorio Colao

Since July 2008

Financial results Vodafone reports its results in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Vodafone has some large minority stakes, which are not included in its consolidated turnover. In order to provide additional information on the overall scale and growth trends of its business, it publishes "proportionate turnover" figures, and these are included in the tables below. For example, if a business in which it owns a 45% stake has turnover of £10 billion, that equals £4.5 billion of proportionate turnover for Vodafone. Proportionate turnover is not an official accounting measure, and Vodafone's proportionate turnover should not be compared with other companies' statutory turnover. Vodafone also produces proportionate customer number figures on a similar basis, e.g. if an operator in which it has a 30% stake has 10 million customers that equals 3 million proportionate Vodafone customers.

Year ended

TurnoverProfit before

Profit for theBasic epsProportionate

31 March

£m

(pence)

tax £m year £m

customers (m)

2014

38,346

(5,270)

59,420

42.10

434.0

2013

44,445

3,255

673

0.87

404.0

2012

46,417

9,549

7,003

13.74

446.5

2011

45,884

9,498

7,870 15.20

347.7

2010

44,472

8,674

8,618 16.44

341.1

2009

41,017

4,189

3,080 5.81

302.6

2008

35,478

9,001

6,756 12.56

260

2007

31,104

(2,383)

(5,297) (8.94)

206.4

2006*

29,350

(14,835)

(21,821)

2005

34,073

7,951

6,518 9.68

154.8

2004

36,492

9,013

6,112 8.70

133.4

(35.01)

170.6

*Losses for year to 31 March 2006 reflect write downs of assets, principally in relation to the Mannesmann acquisition. Proportionate turnover includes £7,100 million from discontinued operations.

Criticisms

UK Uncut protestors outside a Vodafone shop in Liverpool.

In September 2010, an investigation by Private Eye magazine revealed certain details of Vodafone's tax avoidance activities. It was reported that Vodafone routed the acquisition of Mannesmann through a Luxembourg subsidiary, set up to avoid paying tax on the deal, and continued to place its profits in Luxembourg. Following a long legal struggle with HMRC (during which a senior HMRC official, John Connors, switched sides to become head of tax at Vodafone), it was eventually agreed that Vodafone would pay £1.25 billion related to the acquisition. Based on Vodafone's accounts, experts have estimated the potential tax bill written off as a result of the negotiations was over £6 billion. The news of this legal tax avoidance sparked angry protests, beginning in October 2010 and ongoing as of April 2011, outside Vodafone shops across the UK, organised under the banner of UK Uncut. The first protests caused the simultaneous closure of over a dozen stores, including the flagship Oxford Street branch. In 2011, Private Eye magazine and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism alleged that Vodafone's Swiss branches were run by a single part-time bookkeeper. The report claimed hardly any business was done from there, indicating that the main purpose of the

Zug office was tax avoidance. The report claimed the money was borrowed from the Swiss branch of the Luxembourg company, allowing it to take advantage of Luxembourg’s laws, which exempts foreign branches of companies from tax, and Swiss laws, which almost completely exempt local branches of foreign companies. According to the expose, this would have otherwise generated a British tax bill on a little over £2 billion. It said Vodafone publishes a single, combined set of accounts for its Luxembourg subsidiaries and their Swiss branches. For the one company, profits worth £1.6 billion were taxed at less than one per cent in 2011, and the profits are likely to have been attributed to Switzerland. In its response to these allegations, Vodafone has said the Swiss branch has not been involved in Vodafone’s global financing for a number of years. It is, therefore, irrelevant in respect to global financing arrangements. Vodafone was also assessed a US$2.5 billion tax over its acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa's Indian assets in 2007, a demand that it contests. In a recent event dated 20 January 2012, the highest Indian court ruled that Vodafone is not liable for taxes and penalties of up to $4.4 billion (£2.8 billion). Vodafone was implicated in the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in Egypt's 2011 demonstrations. On 27 January, Vodafone, responsible for much of Egypt's telecommunication infrastructure, shut off all voice and data services for Egyptian citizens and businesses at the request of the Egyptian Government under Hosni Mubarak. The Daily Telegraph of the UK reported, "The Egyptian government’s action is unprecedented in the history of the internet." U.S.-based Internet intelligence firm Renesys stated, "in an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet."[97] Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao said the company was obliged by law to comply with the instructions of the Egyptian government. In the company’s annual general meeting, on 26 June, the campaign groups Access and FairPensions asked Vodafone to endorse a plan to prevent facing similar demands in the future. In Australia, particularly towards the end of 2010, Vodafone have been heavily criticised due to allegations of poor customer service and severe technical inadequacies, which earned them their nickname "Vodafail" – a website of the same name still exists. In response, they have developed a "new" network, and now provide a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. Vodafone UK, like many other operators, has been criticised for holding customers on regular monthly billed contracts liable for almost unlimited roaming costs when their phones

are stolen abroad, despite being seemingly able to terminate costs of pay as you go contracts without issue.

………………………………………………………………. Aircel From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the mobile network operator. For the comic book company, see Aircel Comics. For other uses, see Air cell. Aircel

Type Joint venture Industry

Telecommunications

Founded

In 1999 Founded By ChinnakannanSivasankaran

Headquarters Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Key people

Shaiq, COO[1]

AnupVikal, CFO[2]

Products

Mobile telephony, wireless broadband services

Revenue

US$ 1.159 billion (2012)[3]

Members

7.86 crore [4] (2014)

Parent Maxis Communications (74%)[5]

Slogan The joy of a little extra

Website

aircel.com

Aircel is an Indian mobile network operator headquartered in Chennai, which offers voice and data services ranging from postpaid and prepaid plans, 2G and 3G services, broadband wireless access (BWA), Long Term Evolution (LTE) to value-added services (VAS). In 2006, Aircel was acquired by Malaysia’s biggest integrated communications service provider Maxis (Maxis Communication Berhard) and is a joint venture with Sindya Securities and Investments Pvt Ltd – Maxis holds 74% equity in the company.[5] Aircel commenced operations in 1999 by ChinnakannanSivasankaran and today is the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu, Assam, Odisha, North-East India and Chennai. It is India's fifth-largest GSM mobile service provider and sixth largest mobile service provider (both GSM and CDMA),[6] with a subscriber base of over 79.62 million. It has a market share of 8% among wireless operators (including GSM, CDMA, and FWP operators) in the country.[7] Aircel also obtained permission from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to provide international long distance (ILD) and national long distance (NLD) telephony services. It also has the largest service in Tamil Nadu. Aircel became 5th largest telecom service provider in January 15 after the announcement of telecom minister that public operator BSNL lost so many customers and became 6th largest after Aircel . Aircel 79.62 million BSNL 78.12 million Tata Docomo 68 million (January 15) Contents •

1 Timeline and early history

•

2 Core business

o

2.1 3G

o

2.2 4G

o

2.3 Aircel Business Solutions

o

2.4 Other business initiatives

•

3 Cost cutting

•

4 Sponsorships and brand ambassadors

•

5 Share-holders

•

6 Controversies and acquisition rumours

•

7 See also

•

8 References

•

9 External links

Timeline and early history Aircel started as a regional player in Tamil Nadu in 1999.[8] Soon, it became the leading operator in Tamil Nadu. At one time, Aircel was the fastest growing operator in India.[8] Because of this, it attracted foreign investments

and Malaysian operator Maxis

Communications bought a 74 percent stake in the company in 2005 from its Indian owner ChinnakannanSivasankaran. In 2010, the company bought 3G and wireless broadband (BWA) spectrum in 13 and 8 circles respectively in the 2010 spectrum auction.[8] It paid US$1.44 billion ( 79.1 billion) for the 3G spectrum and US$0.76 billion ( 49.76 billion) for BWA.[8] Of this, the company raised $0.88 billion (

48.3 billion) from Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and

Barclays. It also took a $0.44 billion ( 24.2 billion) one-year bridge loan from HSBC, Punjab National Bank and Axis Bank.[8] The company, as of November 2012, has around 1 million 3G customers. It is yet to launch its LTE network. Aircel expects to launch it in the first quarter of 2013.[9][dated info] Core business 3G On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Aircel paid 65,000 million for spectrum in 13 circles: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, North East, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (East) &Uttarakhand and West Bengal.[10] Aircel has introduced new price plans for its consumers and are termed to be the cheapest in the country. Following the key players in 3G, Aircel also slashed its 3G tariff.[11] 4G On 11 June 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auction in India ended. Aircelpaid

34380 million for spectrum in eight circles: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar,

Jammu & Kashmir, North East, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.[12] It also has 3G spectrum in all these circles.

Aircel has launched 4G services in Tamil Nadu and Jammu & Kashmir in August 2014, becoming the only private telecom operator to offer all the three existing technologies of 2G, 3G and 4G in these markets .[13] Chinese equipment maker ZTE announced on 30 December 2013, that it had won a contract to deploy a 4G broadband network based on LTE technology for Aircel. The LTE network will be launched in Tamil Nadu, and expand to a few other business critical circles in the first stage.[14][15] On 16 July 2014, it launched 4G services in four circles Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Odisha.[16] Aircel Business Solutions Aircel Business Solutions (ABS), part of Aircel, sells enterprise solutions such as Multiprotocol Label Switching Virtual Private Networks (MPLS VPNs), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and managed video services on wireless platforms including WiMAX. Other business initiatives Aircel on 27 May 2011 launched the Apple iPhone 4 apart from BhartiAirtel, which is one of the most popular smartphones in the contemporary world.[17] Telecom operator Aircel announced that its partnership with Wikipedia Foundation to offer free mobile Wikipedia access to its customers. The alliance is aimed at making knowledge available on Wikipedia accessible to all Aircel customers in both rural and urban areas for free. This initiative is a part of the foundation’s Wikipedia Zero Programme to reach mobile internet users around the World[18] But from 2 March 2015, subscribers of Aircel no longer can access Wikipedia Zero. Cost cutting As a part of a major re-organization in its operations, the company decided to halt operations in five telecom circles, namely Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala and Punjab.[19] It also decided to cut 600 jobs.[20] This is part of a series of steps to cut costs and thereby make the company more efficient in the highly competitive Indian telecom market. As of November 2012, Aircel has closed down dealerships in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, UP west and Gujarat. Only online recharge facility is available in these circles. Aircel still continues its operations in Rajasthan and Punjab as of November 2012. It has more than 2.6 million customers in Rajasthan circle and is adding about 140,000 customers per month in this circle. As per the January 2015 subscription data published by TRAI, Aircel had a subscriber base stood at 79 million.[21] Sponsorships and brand ambassadors

Aircel is one of the sponsors of the Indian Premier League cricket team Chennai Super Kings and I-League side ShillongLajong FC. It is also the major sponsors for the Chennai Open (the only ATP tennis tournament in India) and the Professional Golf Tour of India. Aircel also spearheads the Save the Tiger campaign for protecting India's tigers. The brand ambassadors of Aircel include the Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Tamil actor Suriya. Aircel is also engaging with Mary Kom, the female boxer, Dhanush, another Tamil actor and Sameera Reddy, a Bollywood actress for their Celebrity Chat series.[22] It was announced on 22 Oct 2014 that Aircel will be the principal sponsor for Atlético de Kolkata FC of the Indian Super League. Share-holders Maxis, Aircel's majority stake holder at that time, raised 11.2 billion (USD 3.36 billion) for its shareholders (UTSB), making it the largest IPO in Malaysia, Southeast Asia and Latin America.[citation needed] Maxis has 74% stake and the remaining 26% is owned by Apollo Hospitals.[citation needed] Controversies and acquisition rumours Aircel is being investigated by CBI for alleged irregularities in the Maxis takeover. According to CBI, Aircel's previous owner C. Sivasankaran was forced to sell his stake to Maxis by the then Telecom Minister DayanidhiMaran in 2005. As a result, Maxis did a quid pro quo investment of Rs. 5 billion in a DTH company owned by the Maran family.[23] There were also rumours in September 2012 that the Russian company Sistema was in talks to acquire Aircel. However, that hasn't been confirmed by either of the companies.[24] Sistema is the parent company of MTS, which is a CDMA operator in India. Aircel was one among seven operators to receive notices from the Department of Telecommunications for not meeting radiation norms in their base tower stations in September 2012.[25] As a part of its cost cutting practices, Aircel started scaling down services in five circles. However, Aircel also shut down many cell sites[where?] which left many of its customers without coverage. Users had to travel to areas covered by Aircel in order to obtain a porting code.[26] …………………………….

Pizza Hut From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Pizza hut) [hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.

This article's factual accuracy is disputed. (June 2014)

This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. (October 2013)

This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience. (July 2014) This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2013)

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (October 2013)

Pizza Hut, Inc.

Type Wholly owned subsidiary

Industry

Restaurants

Founded

Wichita, Kansas (1958)

Founder

Dan and Frank Carney

Headquarters 7100 Corporate Drive Plano, TX 75024, U.S.[1]

Number of locations 11,139 worldwide (as of 2012) Products

Italian-American cuisine

pizza • pasta • Buffalo Wings

Number of employees160,000+

Parent PepsiCo (1977–97) Yum! Brands (1997–present)

Slogan The Flavor of NOW Website

order.pizzahut.com/home

Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise, known for pizza and side dishes, it is now corporately known as Pizza Hut, Inc. and is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., the world's largest restaurant company.[2] In 2012, the company had more than 6,000 Pizza Hut restaurants in the United States, and had more than 5,139 store locations in 94 other countries and territories around the world.[3] Contents •

1 Concept

•

2 History

•

3 Products

•

4 Advertising

•

5 Book It!

•

6 Controversy

•

7 See also

•

8 References

•

9 External links

Concept

Athens, Ohio: distinctive roof and older white sign used before 1999, typical of U.S. Pizza Hut restaurants Pizza Hut is split into several different restaurant formats; the original family-style dine-in locations; store front delivery and carry-out locations; and hybrid locations that offer carry-

out, delivery, and dine-in options. Many full-size Pizza Hut locations offer lunch buffet, with "all-you-can-eat" pizza, salad, bread sticks, and a special pasta. Additionally, Pizza Hut also has a number of other business concepts that are different from the store type; Pizza Hut "Bistro" locations are "Red Roofs" which offer an expanded menu and slightly more upscale options. A new, upscale concept was unveiled in 2004, called "Pizza Hut Italian Bistro". Unveiled at fifty locations nationwide, the Bistro is similar to a traditional Pizza Hut, except that new, Italian themed dishes are offered, such as penne pasta, chicken pomodoro, toasted sandwiches and other foods.[4] Instead of black, white, and red, Bistro locations feature a burgundy and tan motif.[5] Pizza Hut Bistros still serve the chain's traditional pizzas and sides as well. In some cases, Pizza Hut has replaced a "Red Roof" location with the new concept. "Pizza Hut Express" and "The Hut" locations are fast food restaurants. They offer a limited menu with many products not found at traditional Pizza Huts. These type of stores are often paired in a colocated location with a sibling brand such as WingStreet, KFC or Taco Bell, and are also found on college campuses, food courts, theme parks, bowling alleys, and in stores such as Target. Vintage "Red Roof" locations, designed by architect Richard D. Burke, can be found throughout the United States and Canada; several exist in the UK,[citation needed] Australia, and México. In his book Orange Roofs, Golden Arches, Phillip Langdon wrote that the Pizza Hut "Red Roof" architecture "is something of a strange object – considered outside the realm of significant architecture, yet swiftly reflecting shifts in popular taste and unquestionably making an impact on daily life. These buildings rarely show up in architectural journals, yet they have become some of the most numerous and conspicuous in the United States today."[6] Curbed.com reports, "Despite Pizza Hut's decision to discontinue the form when they made the shift toward delivery, there were still 6,304 'traditional units' standing as of 2004, each with the shingled roofs and trapezoidal windows signifying equal parts suburban comfort and strip-mall anomie." This building style was common in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The name "Red Roof" is somewhat anachronistic now, since many locations have brown roofs. Dozens of "Red Roofs" have closed or been relocated or rebuilt.[7] Many "Red Roof" branches have beer if not a full bar, music from a jukebox, and sometimes an arcade. In the mid 1980s, the company moved into other successful formats including delivery or carryout and the fast food "Express" model. Pizza Hut concepts

Pizza Hut Bistro in Indianapolis, Indiana

Pizza Hut in Islamabad, Pakistan

Pizza Hut in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Pizza Hut in Santiago, Chile

Pizza Hut in Angeles City, Philippines

History This section requires expansion with: succinct core corporate timeline. (July 2014)

Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 by two Wichita State University students, Frank and Dan Carney, as a single location in Wichita, Kansas.[8] The oldest continuously operating Pizza Hut in the world is in Manhattan, Kansas, in a shopping and tavern district known as Aggieville near Kansas State University. The first Pizza Hut restaurant east of the Mississippi was opened in Athens, Ohio in 1966 by Lawrence Berberick and Gary Meyers. Pizza Hut's international presence includes Canada and Mexico in North America, India,[9] [10] Bangladesh,[11][12] United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Ecuador[13] Nicaragua, Pakistan, and its Asian presence includes The Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, and Macau.[citation needed] Pizza Hut was one of the first American franchises to open in Iraq.[14] The company recently announced a rebrand in November 2014 to begin on November 19, 2014. The rebrand is the result of an effort to increase sales, which have dropped in the last

two years. The menu will also be expanded to introduce various items such as crust flavors and eleven new specialty pies. Work uniforms for employees will also be refreshed.[15] Products

Pizza Hut Product logo Pizza Hut experiments with new products frequently, discontinuing less successful ones. In North America, Pizza Hut has notably sold these: "Stuffed crust" pizza, with the outermost edge wrapped around a cylinder of mozzarella cheese; "Hand-Tossed", more like traditional pizzeria crusts; Thin 'N Crispy, a thin, crisp dough which was Pizza Hut's original style; Dippin' Strips pizza, a pizza cut into small strips that can be dipped into a number of sauces; and its largest product, the Bigfoot pizza. The Stuffed Crust pizza was introduced in March 26, 1995. By the end of the year it had become one of their most popular lines.[16] There are regional differences in the products and bases sold.[17] The company has localized to Southeast Asia with a baked rice dish called Curry Zazzle.[18][19] On May 9, 2008, Pizza Hut created and sold in Seattle, Denver, and Dallas, "The Natural", featuring organic ingredients. This was discontinued on October 27, 2009 in the Dallas market.[20] Pizza Hut developed a pizza for use as space food, which was delivered to the International Space Station in 2001.[21] It was vacuum sealed and about 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter to fit in the Station's oven.[21] It was launched on a Soyuz and successfully eaten by Yuri Usachov in orbit.[22] In recent years the chain has seen a down turn in profits. It was released in 2015 that the franchise would be pumping more capital into their London branches. High Street chain Pizza Hut is installing cocktail bars in its London branches as part of a £60 million bid to win back “the Nando’s generation”.[23] Advertising

The original Pizza Hut logo, used from 1958 until 1967

Logo from 1967 to 1999 (still in use at some older locations), inspired by the Red Roof building

Pizza Hut's very first ad in 1965 was "Putt Putt to the Pizza Hut". It shows a man in a suit and tie apparently ordering take-out and driving his 1965 Mustang JR to Pizza Hut while being chased by townspeople. He picks up his pizza and goes back to his house, when all of the townspeople who were chasing him start eating all the pizza except the man who ordered it. Frustrated, he calls Pizza Hut again. Until early 2007, Pizza Hut's main advertising slogan was "Gather 'round the good stuff", and was "Now You're Eating!" from 2008 to 2009. From 2009 to 2012, the advertising slogan was "Your Favorites. Your Pizza Hut." The advertising slogan is currently "Make it great," an updated version of the original "Makin' it great" slogan that was used from 1987 to 1993. In 1997, former Soviet Union Premier Mikhail Gorbachev starred in a Pizza Hut commercial to raise money for the Perestroyka Archives. Pizza Hut paid for their logo to appear on a Russian Proton rocket in 2000, which launched the Russian Zvezda module.[24]

Book It!

Pizza delivery moped in Hong Kong Pizza Hut has been a sponsor of the "Book It!" reading incentive program for children since the program's launch in 1984.[25] Students who read books according to the goal set by the classroom teacher, in any given month from October through March, are rewarded with a Pizza Hut certificate good for one free, one-topping Personal Pan Pizza. Some psychologists have criticized the program on the grounds that it may lead to overjustification and reduce children's intrinsic interest in reading.[26] However, a study of the program found that participation in the program neither increased nor decreased reading motivation.[26] The program's 25th anniversary was in 2009. The Book It! program in Australia ceased in 2002 when Pizza Hut in Australia was removing its dine-in stores as Australians opted for take away pizza instead of dine-in.[citation needed] Controversy In the United Kingdom, Pizza Hut was criticized in October 2007 for the high salt content of its meals, some of which were found to contain more than twice the daily recommended amount of salt for an adult. The meats that consumers demand for pizza toppings (ham, sausage, bacon, etc.) are, likewise, salty and fatty meats.[27] To meet the Food Standards Agency 2010 target for salt levels in foods, between 2008 and 2010 the company removed over 15% of salt across its menu.[28]

In 2010, Pizza Hut was criticized when its supplier of palm oil, Sinar Mas, was exposed to be illegally slashing and burning the Paradise Forests of Indonesia to plant palm oil plantations. [29] Pizza Hut's role in providing food-based rewards for the children's reading program Book It!, has been criticized by some psychologists on the grounds that it may lead to overjustification and reduce children's intrinsic interest in reading.[26] Book It! was also criticised by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) in 2007 who described it as "one of corporate America's most insidious school-based brand promotions." A pamphlet produced by the group argued that the program promoted junk food to a captive market, made teachers into promoters for Pizza Hut and undermined parents by making visits to the chain an integral part of bringing up their children to be literate.[30]

………………………………………..

Domino's Pizza From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Domino's" redirects here. For the gaming pieces, see Dominoes. Domino's

The current Domino's logo introduced in 2012. Type Public Traded as NYSE: DPZ

Industry

Restaurants

Founded

Ypsilanti, Michigan on June 10, 1960

Headquarters Domino Farms Office Park

Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan, United States

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Tom Monaghan, Founder

J. Patrick Doyle, CEO Products

Italian-American cuisine, Pizza, pasta, chicken wings, submarine sandwiches,

wraps, desserts

Revenue

$1.802 billion USD (2013)[1]

Number of employees220,000 (Dec 2013)[1]

Slogan Oh Yes We Did Website

www.dominos.com

Domino's i/ˌdɒmɨnoʊz ˈpiːtsə/ is an American restaurant chain and international franchise pizza delivery corporation headquartered at the Domino Farms Office Park (the campus being owned by Domino's Pizza co-founder Tom Monaghan) in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan, United States, near Ann Arbor, Michigan.[2][3] Founded in 1960, Domino's is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States (after Pizza Hut)[4] and the largest worldwide, with more than 10,000 corporate and franchised stores[5] in 70 countries.[6] Domino's Pizza was sold to Bain Capital in 1998 and went public in 2004. Contents •

1 Early years

•

2 International expansion

•

3 Sale of company

•

4 Current era

•

5 Innovations

•

6 Menu

•

7 Beverages

•

8 Corporate governance

o

8.1 Charitable activities

•

9 Advertising and sponsorship

o

9.1 30-minute guarantee

•

10 Franchises

•

11 See also

•

12 References

•

13 External links

Early years In 1960, Tom Monaghan and his brother, James, purchased DomiNick's, a small pizza store in Ypsilanti, Michigan, near Eastern Michigan University.[7] The deal was secured by a $500 down payment, and the brothers borrowed $900 to pay for the store.[8] The brothers planned to split the work hours evenly, but James didn't want to quit his job as a full-time mailman to keep up with the demands of the new business. Within eight months, James traded

his half of the business to Tom for the Volkswagen Beetle they used for pizza

deliveries.[8] By 1965, Tom Monaghan had purchased two additional pizzerias; he now had a total of three locations in the same county. Monaghan wanted the stores to share the same branding, but the original owner forbade him from using the DomiNick's name. One day an employee returned from a pizza delivery and suggested the name Domino's. Monaghan immediately loved the idea and officially renamed the business Domino's Pizza, Inc. in 1965. [8] The company logo originally had three dots, representing the three stores in 1965.[8] Monaghan planned to add a new dot with the addition of every new store, but this idea quickly faded, as Domino's experienced rapid growth.[8] Domino's Pizza opened its first franchise location in 1967[9] and by 1978 the company expanded to 200 stores.[10] In 1975, Domino's faced a lawsuit by Amstar Corporation, the maker of Domino Sugar, alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition. On May 2, 1980, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans found in favor of Domino's Pizza.[11] International expansion

Domino's outlet in Himayatnagar, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

On May 12, 1983, Domino's opened its first international store, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.[12] That same year, Domino's opened its 1,000th store overall. In 1985, they opened their first store in the United Kingdom in Luton.[13] Also in 1985, Domino's opened their first store in Tokyo, Japan. By 1995, Domino's had expanded to 1,000 international locations. In 1997, Domino's opened its 1,500th international location, opening seven stores in one day across five continents.[14] From 2007 to 2012, Domino's gradually established a presence in India with at least 1,000 locations by 2012.[15] By 2014 the company had grown to 6,000 international locations and was planning to expand to the pizza's birthplace, Italy. CEO Patrick Doyle in May 2014 said the company would concentrate on its delivery model there.[16] Sale of company In 1998, after 38 years of ownership, Domino's founder Tom Monaghan announced his retirement, sold 93 percent of the company to Bain Capital, Inc. for about $1 billion, and ceased being involved in day-to-day operations of the company.[17] A year later, the company named David A. Brandon CEO.[18] Current era

Domino's Pizza logo used from 1996 until mid-2010s in major English-speaking countries, and still use in many others)

The exterior of a Domino's Pizza store in Spring Hill, Florida.

The exterior of a Domino's Pizza store in Valdosta, Georgia with new 2015 signage. In 2004, after 44 years as a privately held company, Domino's began trading common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "DPZ".[19] Industry trade publication Pizza Today magazine named Domino's Pizza "Chain of the Year" in 2003, 2010, and 2011.[20][21][22] In a simultaneous celebration in January 2006, Domino's opened its 5,000th U.S. store in Huntley, Illinois, and its 3,000th international store in Panama City, Panama making 8,000 total stores for the system.[23] In August 2006, the Domino's location in Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland, became the first store in Domino's history to hit a turnover of $3 million (€2.35 million) per year.[24] As of September 2006, Domino's has 8,238 stores worldwide, which totaled $1.4 billion in gross income.[25] Innovations

In 2007, Domino's introduced its Veterans Delivering the Dream franchising program and also rolled out its online and mobile ordering sites.[10] In 2008, Domino's introduced the Pizza Tracker, an online application that allows customers to view the status of their order in a simulated "real time" progress bar.[26] The first Domino's with a dining room opened in Stephenville, Texas, giving the customers the option to either eat in or take their pizza home. Since 2005, the voice of Domino's Pizza's US phone ordering service 1-800-DOMINOS has been Kevin Railsback.[27] In a 2009 survey of consumer taste preferences among national chains by Brand Keys, Domino's was last — tied with Chuck E. Cheese's. In December that year, Domino's announced plans to entirely reinvent its pizza. It began a self-criticizing ad campaign in which consumers were filmed criticizing the then-current pizza's quality and chefs were shown developing a new pizza.[28][29] The new pizza was unveiled that same month. The following year, 2010 and Domino's 50th anniversary, the company hired J. Patrick Doyle as its new CEO and experienced a historic 14.3% quarterly gain. While admitted not to endure, the success was described by Doyle as one of the largest quarterly same-store sales jumps ever recorded by a major fast-food chain.[30][31] In 2012, Domino's Pizza removed the word "Pizza" from their logo, to emphasize their nonpizza products. At the same time, Domino's introduced a new logo that removed the blue rectangle and text under the domino in the logo, and changed the formerly all-red domino to be blue on the side with two dots and red on the side with one dot.[32][33] In February 2015 Domino's Pizza announced it would now just go by the name Domino's, explaining it better suited their more varied menu, including sandwiches and pastas. Menu

Domino's Pizza (Malaysia), Chicken Pepperoni, New York Crust.

A makeline at a Domino's The Domino's menu varies by region. The current Domino's menu in the United States features a variety of Italian-American entrees and side dishes. Pizza is the primary focus, with traditional, specialty, and custom pizzas available in a variety of crust styles and toppings. In 2011, Domino's launched artisan-style pizzas. Additional entrees include pasta, bread bowls, and oven-baked sandwiches. The menu offers chicken side dishes, breadsticks, as well as beverages and desserts.[34]

From its founding until the early 1990s, the menu at Domino's Pizza was kept simple relative to other fast food restaurants, to ensure efficiency of delivery.[35] Historically, Domino's menu consisted solely of one pizza in two sizes (12-inch and 16-inch), 11 toppings, and Coca-Cola as the only soft drink option.[36] The first menu expansion occurred in 1989, with the debut of Domino's deep dish or pan pizza. Its introduction followed market research showing that 40% of pizza customers preferred thick crusts. The new product launch cost approximately $25 million, of which $15 million was spent on new sheet metal pans with perforated bottoms.[37] Domino's started testing extra-large size pizzas in early 1993, starting with the 30-slice, yard-long "The Dominator".[38] Domino's tapped into a market trend toward bite-size foods with spicy Buffalo Chicken Kickers, as an alternative to Buffalo Wings, in August 2002. The breaded, baked, white-meat fillets, similar to chicken fingers, are packaged in a custom-designed box with two types of sauce to "heat up" and "cool down" the chicken.[39][40] In August 2003, Domino's announced its first new pizza since January 2000, the Philly Cheese Steak Pizza. The product launch also marked the beginning of a partnership with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, whose beef Check-Off logo appeared in related advertising.[41] Domino's continued its move toward specialty pizzas in 2006, with the introduction of its Brooklyn Style Pizza, featuring a thinner crust, cornmeal baked in to add crispness, and larger slices that could be folded in the style of traditional New York-style pizza.[42] In 2008, Domino's once again branched out into non-pizza fare, offering oven-baked sandwiches in four styles, intended to compete with Subway's toasted submarine sandwiches. Early marketing for the sandwiches made varied references to its competition, such as offering free sandwiches to customers named "Jared," a reference to Subway's spokesman of the same name.[43] The company introduced its American Legends line of specialty pizzas in 2009, featuring 40% more cheese than the company's regular pizzas, along with a greater variety of toppings.[44] That same year, Domino's began selling its BreadBowl Pasta entree, a lightly seasoned bread bowl baked with pasta inside, and the Lava Crunch Cake dessert, composed of a crunchy chocolate shell filled with warm fudge.[45] Domino's promoted the dessert by flying in 1,000 cakes to deliver at Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center near Mount St Helens in Washington State.[46] In 2010, shortly after the company's 50th anniversary, Domino's changed its pizza recipe "from the crust up", making significant changes in the dough, sauce, and cheese used in

their pizzas.[47] Their advertising campaign admitted to earlier problems with the public perception of Domino's product due to taste issues.[48][49] In September 2012, Domino's announced it was going to roll out a pan pizza on September 24, 2012.[50] Following this move, the Deep Dish pizza was discontinued after 23 years of being on the menu. In December 2013, Domino's Pizza, in Israel, unveiled its first vegan pizza, which uses a soy-based cheese substitute.[51][52] After a stock low point in late 2009, the company's stock had grown 233 percent by late 2011. Even as the American economy has suffered and unemployment has risen, Domino's has seen its sales rise dramatically through its efforts to rebrand and retool its pizza.[53] Beverages Domino's serves Coca-Cola products and is the only "Big Four" pizza chain to do so. Rivals Papa John's Pizza and Little Caesars sold Coca-Cola in the past, but both switched to Pepsi, in 2012 and 2007, respectively. Pizza Hut, due to its previous ownership by PepsiCo, has a lifetime contract to sell Pepsi products. Domino's Pizza in Mexico switched to Pepsi in November 2012 and Domino's Pizza in Pakistan is with Pepsi as well. Corporate governance

Domino's Pizza corporate headquarters within the Domino's Farms Office Park. Domino's management is led by J. Patrick Doyle, CEO from March 2010, formerly president of Domino's USA. Previous chief executive David Brandon, made the athletic director of the University of Michigan in January 2010, remains chairman.[54] Among 11 executive vice presidents are Michael Lawton, CFO; Steve Akinboro, Team USA; Scott Hinshaw, Franchise Operations and Development; and Kenneth Rollin, General Counsel.[55] Domino's operations are overseen by a board of directors led by Brandon. Other members of the board are Andrew Balson, Diana Cantor, Mark Nunnelly, Robert Rosenberg and Bud Hamilton.[56] Charitable activities In 2001, Domino's launched a two-year national partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. That same year, company stores in New York City and Washington D.C. provided more than 12,000 pizzas to relief workers following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. Through a matching funds program, the corporation donated $350,000 to the American Red Cross' disaster relief effort.[14] In 2004,

Domino's began a partnership with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, participating in the hospital's "Thanks and Giving" campaign since the campaign began in 2004, and raising more than $1.3 million in 2006.[57] Advertising and sponsorship

ArieLuyendyk's Lola-Chevrolet which won the 1990 Indianapolis 500 for Doug Shierson Racing. In the 1980s, Domino's Pizza was well known for its advertisements featuring the Noid. That concept was created by Group 243 Inc. who then hired Will Vinton Studios to produce the television commercials that they created. The catchphrase associated with the commercials was "Avoid the Noid." Due to a glitch on the Domino's website, the company gave away nearly 11,000 free medium pizzas in March 2009. The company had planned the campaign for December 2008 but dropped the idea and never promoted it. The code was never deactivated though and resulted in the free giveaway of the pizzas across the United States after someone discovered the promotion on the website by typing in the word "bailout" as the promotion code and then shared it with others on the Internet. Domino's deactivated the code on the morning of March 31, 2009 and promised to reimburse store owners for the pizzas.[58] Domino's sponsored CART's Doug Shierson Racing, which was driven by ArieLuyendyk and won the 1990 Indianapolis 500. In 2003, Domino's teamed up with NASCAR for a multi-year partnership to become the "Official Pizza of NASCAR."[59] Domino's also sponsored Michael Waltrip Racing and driver David Reutimann during the 2007 season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. 30-minute guarantee Starting in 1973, Domino's Pizza had a guarantee that customers would receive their pizzas within 30 minutes of placing an order or they would receive the pizzas free. The guarantee was reduced to $3 off in the mid 1980s. In 1992, the company settled a lawsuit brought by the family of an Indiana woman who had been killed by a Domino's delivery driver, paying the family $2.8 million. In another 1993 lawsuit, brought by a woman who was injured when a Domino's delivery driver ran a red light and collided with her vehicle, the woman was awarded nearly $80 million, but accepted a payout of $15 million.[60] The guarantee was dropped that same year because of the "public perception of reckless driving and irresponsibility", according to then-CEO Tom Monaghan.[60]

In December 2007, Domino's introduced a new slogan, "You Got 30 Minutes", alluding to the earlier pledge but stopping short of promising delivery in half an hour.[61] The company continues to offer the 30 minute guarantee for orders placed in its stores situated in Colombia, India, Vietnam, and Turkey. In Malaysia and Singapore, a refund is instead substituted with a "Free Regular Pizza Voucher".[62][63] In India, the guarantee is for ₹300 ($5) and is valid for an order of less than 4 pizzas. Franchises

Countries with Domino's Pizza Domino's Pizza currently has locations in 73 countries. It has its stores in 5,700 cities worldwide (2,900 international and 2,800 in the US). Domino's has 10,988 stores as of the first quarter of 2014, with 774 in the UK, 4,986 in the US, and 715 in India.[64][65] In most cases, Domino's has master franchise agreements with one company per country, but three companies have acquired multiple master franchise agreements, covering a number of countries: •

The rights to own, operate, and franchise branches of the chain in Australia, New

Zealand, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Monaco are currently owned by Australian Domino's Pizza Enterprises, having bought the master franchises from the parent company in 1993 (Australian and New Zealand franchises) and 2006 (European franchises). •

The master franchises for the UK and Ireland were purchased in 1993 by the British

publicly listed Domino's Pizza Group, which acquired the master franchise for Germany in 2011 and Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg in August 2012 by buying the Swiss master franchise holder, with an option to acquire the Austrian master franchise as well.[66] [67][68] •

The master franchises for India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh are currently

owned by the Indian company Jubilant FoodWorks. India has become the largest international market for Domino's outside its home market. Indian pizza flavors like paneer pizza, chicken tikka masala pizza, and kheema do pyaza pizza are selling internationally. •

The rights to own, operate, and franchise branches of the chain in Paraguay is

currently owned by GrupoVierci,[69] opening the first restaurant in 2014.[70] ……………………

Wipro From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article appears to contain a large number of buzzwords. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article if you can. (March 2015)

Wipro Limited

"Applying Thought" Type Public

Traded as BSE: 507685

NSE: WIPRO NYSE: WIT BSE SENSEX Constituent CNX Nifty Constituent

Industry

IT services, IT consulting

Founded

Mumbai, Maharashtra (in 1945)

Founder

M.H. Premji[1]

Headquarters Bangalore,India

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

AzimPremji

(Chairman) Services

Revenue

IT, business consulting and outsourcing services

437.6 billion (US$7.3 billion) (2013-14)[2]

Operating income 89.3 billion (US$1.49 billion) (2013-14)[2]

Profit 78.4 billion (US$1.3 billion) (2013-14)[2]

Total assets 502.3 billion (US$8.37 billion) (Mar 2014)[2]

Total equity 344.9 billion (US$5.75 billion) (Mar 2014)[2]

Number of employees154,297 (Q2, 2014-15)[3][4]

Website

www.wipro.com

Wipro Limited (Western India Products Limited[1]) is an Global multinational IT Consulting and System Integration services company headquartered in Bangalore, India.[5][6] As of December 2014, the company has 154,297 employees servicing over 900 large enterprise & Fortune 1000 corporations with a presence in 61 countries.[7] On 31 January 2015, its market capitalisation was approximately 1.63 trillion ($26.3 billion), making it one of India's largest publicly traded companies and seventh largest IT services firm in the World.[8] To focus on core IT Business, it demerged its non-IT businesses into a separate company named Wipro Enterprises Limited with effect from 31 March 2013.[9] The demerged companies are consumer care, lighting, healthcare and infrastructure engineering which contributed approximately 10% of the revenues of Wipro Limited in previous financial year. [10][11] Recently Wipro has also identified Canada, Brazil, Australia & South Africa as rapidly growing markets globally and has committed to strengthen the presence in the respective countries over the next 5 years. The IT Giant has also picked up a minority stake in Opera Solutions &DrivestreamInc, a USbased Big Data and Oracle cloud applications systems integrator respectively, with development centers in Mumbai &Chennai."As a strategic partner in Drivestream, we will build an integrated cloud solutions stack for our customers," Wipro said in a statement on Wednesday from Virginia, US, where Drivestream is headquartered.Promoted by nonresident Indian Gopal Krishna as a management and IT consulting firm, Drivestream specialises in migrating the enterprise business processes of large and medium-sized businesses to the cloud.[12] Contents •

1 History

o

1.1 Early formative years

o

1.2 1966–1992

o

1.3 1994–2000

o

1.4 2001–present

•

2 Wipro Group of Companies

o

2.1 Wipro Ltd.



2.1.1 Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting



2.1.2 Wipro Infrastructure Engineering



2.1.3 Wipro GE Medical Systems Limited

•

3 Sustainability at Wipro

•

4 Listing and shareholding

•

5 Employees

•

6 Awards and recognitions

•

7 See also

•

8 References

•

9 External links

History Early formative years The company was incorporated on 29 December 1945, in Mumbai by Mohamed Premji as 'Western India Vegetable Products Limited',[13] later abbreviated to 'Wipro'. It was initially set up as a manufacturer of vegetable and refined oils in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India under the trade names of Kisan, Sunflower and Camel.[1][14] The company logo still contains a sunflower to reflect products of the original business. In 1966, after Mohamed Premji’s death, his son AzimPremji returned home from Stanford University and took over Wipro as its chairman at the age of 21.[15][16] During the 1970s and 1980s, the company shifted its focus to new business opportunities in the IT and computing industry, which was at a nascent stage in India at the time. On 7 June 1977, the name of the company changed from Western India Vegetable Products Limited, to Wipro Products Limited.[14] The year 1980 marked the arrival of Wipro in the IT domain. In 1982, the name was changed from Wipro Products Limited to Wipro Limited.[17] Meanwhile Wipro continued to expand in

the consumer products domain with the launch of "Ralak" a tulsi-based family soap and "Wipro Jasmine", a toilet soap.[14] 1966–1992 In 1988, Wipro diversified its product line into heavy-duty industrial cylinders and mobile hydraulic cylinders.[14] A joint venture company with the United States' General Electric in the name of Wipro GE Medical Systems Pvt. Ltd. was set up in 1989 for the manufacture, sales, and service of diagnostic and imaging products.[18] Later, in 1991, tipping systems and Eaton hydraulic products were launched. The Wipro Fluid Power division, in 1992, developed expertise to offer standard hydraulic cylinders for construction equipment and truck tipping systems. The market saw the launch of the "Santoor" talcum powder and "Wipro Baby Soft" range of baby toiletries in 1990.[18] 1994–2000 In 1994, Wipro set up an overseas design centre, Odyssey 21, for undertaking projects and product developments in advanced technologies for overseas clients. Wipro Infotech and Wipro Systems were amalgamated with Wipro in April that year.[18] Five of Wipro's manufacturing and development facilities secured the ISO 9001 certification during 1994–95. In 1999, Wipro acquired Wipro Acer.[19] Wipro became a more profitable, diversified corporation with new products such as the Wipro SuperGenius personal computers (PCs). In 1999, the product was the one Indian PC range to obtain US-based National Software Testing Laboratory (NSTL) certification for the Year 2000 (Y2K) compliance in hardware for all models.[20] Wipro Limited joined hands with a global telecom major KPN (Royal Dutch telecom) to form a joint venture company “Wipro Net Limited” to provide internet services in India.[16] The year 2000 was the year Wipro launched solutions for convergent networks targeted at Internet and telecom solution providers in the names of Wipro OSS Smart and Wipro WAP Smart.[21] In the same year, Wipro got listed on New York Stock Exchange.[22] In early 2000 Wipro Vice Chairman Vivek Paul and AzimPremji approached KPMG Consulting Vice Chairman Keyur Patel and CEO Rand Blazer to form an mega-outsourcing joint venture between the two organizations. 2001–present In February 2002, Wipro became the first software technology and services company in India to be certified for ISO 14001 certification.[23] Wipro also achieved ISO 9000 certification to become the first software company to get SEI CMM Level 5 in 2002.[24][25] Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting Group entered the market of compact fluorescent lamps,

with the launch of a range of CFL, under the brand name of Wipro Smartlite.[26] As the company grew, a study revealed that Wipro was the fastest wealth creator for 5 years (1997–2002).[27][28] The same year witnessed the launch of Wipro’s own laptops with Intel's Centrino mobile processor.[29] Wipro also entered into an exclusive agreement with the owners of Chandrika for marketing of their soap in select states in India.[30][31] It set up a wholly owned subsidiary company viz. Wipro Consumer Care Limited to manufacture consumer care and lighting products.[32] In 2004 Wipro joined the billion dollar club.[33] It also partnered with Intel for i-shiksha.[34][35] The year 2006 saw Wipro acquire cMango Inc., a US-based technology infrastructure Consulting firm[36][37] Enabler, and a Europe based retail solutions provider.[38] In 2007, Wipro signed a large deal with Lockheed Martin. [39][40] It also entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Oki Techno Centre Singapore Pte Ltd (OTCS)[40][41] and signed an R&D partnership contract with Nokia Siemens Networks in Germany.[42][43] The year 2008 saw Wipro’s foray into the clean energy business with Wipro Eco Energy.[44][45] In April 2011, Wipro signed an agreement with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for the acquisition of their global oil and gas information technology practice of the commercial business services business unit. [46][47] The year 2012 saw Wipro make its 17th acquisition in IT business when it acquired Australian analytics product firm Promax Applications Group (PAG) for $35 million.[48][49] Wipro is the No. 1 employer of H-1B visa professionals in the United States in 2012.[50] In 2012 Wipro Ltd. announced the demerger of its Consumer Care & Lighting (incl Furniture business), Infrastructure Engineering (Hydraulics & Water business), and Medical Diagnostic Product & Services business into a separate company to be named Wipro Enterprises Ltd. [51][52] Wipro's scheme of arrangement for demerger turned effective from 31 March 2013. [53][54] Wipro Group of Companies Wipro Ltd. Wipro Limited is a global company provider of comprehensive IT solutions and services, including Systems Integration, Consulting, Information Systems outsourcing, IT-enabled services, and R&D services. It is also a value added reseller of desktops, servers, notebooks, storage products, networking solutions and packaged software for international brands.[55] Wipro entered into the technology business in 1981 and has over 140,000 employees and clients across 54 countries today.[56] IT revenues stood at $6.2 billion for the year ended 31 March 2013, with a repeat business ratio of over 95%.[57][58]

The business model at Wipro Technologies Ltd is an industry-aligned customer-facing model[59][60][61] which gives greater understanding of customers’ businesses to build industry specific solutions. Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCLG), a business unit of Wipro Limited operates in the FMCG segment offering a wide range of consumable commodities. Established in 1945, the first product to be introduced by WCCLG was vegetable oil, later popularised under the brand name "Sunflower Vanaspati". It offers personal care products, such as Wipro Baby Soft and Wipro Safewash, toilet soaps like Santoor and Chandrika as well as international brands like Yardley.[62] Its portfolio of lighting solutions includes products like Smartlite CFL, [63] LED, emergency lights and more.[64] Through its customer-centric products and acquisitions, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting has become a fast-growing company in the FMCG segment.[65][66][67] Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Wipro Infrastructure Engineering is the hydraulics business division of Wipro Limited and has been in the business of manufacturing hydraulic cylinders, truck cylinders, and their components and solutions since 1976. This division delivers hydraulic cylinders to international OEMs and represents the Kawasaki, Sun Hydraulics[68] and Teijin Seiki range of hydraulic products in India.[69] It has entered into partnerships with companies like Kawasaki[70][71] and aerospace giant EADS.[72] The commitment to quality has made Wipro Infrastructure Engineering the second largest independent manufacturer of cylinders in the world.[73][74] The company has recently ventured into water treatment systems and solutions to cater to the needs of various industries.[75] Wipro GE Medical Systems Limited Wipro GE Medical Systems Limited is Wipro’s joint venture with GE Healthcare South Asia. It is engaged in the research and development of advanced solutions to cater to patient and customer needs in healthcare. This partnership, which began in 1990,[76] today includes offerings like gadgets and equipment for diagnostics, healthcare IT solutions and services to help healthcare professionals combat cancer, heart disease, and other ailments. There is complete adherence to Six Sigma quality standards in all products.[77][78][79] Sustainability at Wipro Wipro’s approach to sustainability is structured on enabling itself, as an organisation, and its customers to be more ecologically sustainable. It is driven by issues considered important to employees, India current and future generations, customers, investors, suppliers, and the

community as a whole. Wipro has been ranked 1st in the 2010 Asian Sustainability Rating (ASRTM) of Indian companies[80] and is a member of the NASDAQ Global Sustainability Index[81] as well as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.[82] In November 2012 Guide to Greener Electronics, Greenpeace ranked Wipro first with a score of 7.1/10.[83] Listing and shareholding Listing: Wipro's equity shares are listed on Bombay Stock Exchange where it is a constituent of the BSE SENSEX index,[84] and the National Stock Exchange of India where it is a constituent of the S&P CNX Nifty.[85] The American Depositary Shares of the company are listed at the NYSE since October 2000.[86] Shareholding: On 30 September 2013, 73.51% of the equity shares of the company were owned by the promoters: AzimPremji, his family members, partnership firms in which he is a partner and Trusts formed by him/his family. The remaining 26.49% shares are owned by others.[87] Shareholders (as on 30-September-2013)

Shareholding[87]

Promoter group led by AzimPremji 73.51% Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) Indian Public 05.31% Bodies Corporate

03.89%

Mutual Funds/UTI 01.90% NRI 01.04% Trusts/Others 00.84% American Depositary Shares 01.93% Total

100.0%

08.82%

Employees At the end of FY 2013-14, its employee strength was 147,452. Its global workforce consists of 98 nationalities working from 61 countries, 175+ cities across 6 continents.[3] Approx. 8.5% of its workforce is non-Indian. The average age of a Wipro employee is 29 years. The attrition rate for 2013-14 was 15.1%. During 2012-13, the company incurred 180 billion on employee benefit expenses. Awards and recognitions •

In May 2013, it was ranked 812th on the Forbes Global 2000 list.[88]

•

Wipro was ranked 2nd in the Newsweek 2012 Global 500 Green companies.[89]

•

It was recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the World’s Most Ethical

(WME) Companies in 2013, for the second year in a row.[90][91] •

Wipro received the 'NASSCOM Corporate Award for Excellence in Diversity and

Inclusion, 2012', in the category 'Most Effective Implementation of Practices & Technology for Persons with Disabilities'.[92][93] •

In 2012, it was awarded the highest rating of Stakeholder Value and Corporate

Rating 1 (SVG 1) by ICRA Limited.[94] •

It received National award for excellence in Corporate Governance from the Institute

of Company Secretaries of India during the year 2004.[95] •

In 2014, Wipro was ranked 52nd among India's most trusted brands according to the

Brand Trust Report, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory.[96] …………………

icrosoft From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Microsoft Corporation

Front lobby entrance of building 17, one of the largest buildings on Microsoft's main campus, Redmond Type Public

Traded as •

NASDAQ: MSFT

•

Dow Jones Industrial Average Component

•

NASDAQ-100 Component

•

S&P 500 Component

Industry

Computer software

Consumer electronics Computer hardware

Founded

Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. (April 4, 1975; 39 years ago)

Founder

Bill Gates, Paul Allen

Headquarters Microsoft Redmond Campus, Redmond, Washington, U.S.

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

•

John W. Thompson (Chairman)

•

SatyaNadella (CEO)

•

Bill Gates (founder, technology advisor)

Products

•

•

Office

•

Servers

•

Skype

•

Visual Studio

•

Dynamics

•

Azure

•

Xbox

•

Surface

•

Mobile

•

more...

Services

•

•

Bing

•

OneDrive

•

MSDN

•

Outlook.com

•

TechNet

Revenue

Windows

MSN

US$ 86.83 billion (2014)[1]

Operating income US$ 27.76 billion (2014)[1]

Net income

US$ 22.07 billion (2014)[1]

Total assets US$ 172.38 billion (2014)[1]

Total equity US$ 89.78 billion (2014)[1]

Number of employees128,076 (June 2014)[2]

Subsidiaries List of Microsoft subsidiaries

Website

Microsoft.com

Footnotes / references [3]

Microsoft

Corporation

/ˈmaɪkrɵsɒːft/[4]

is

an

American

multinational

corporation

headquartered in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer web browser. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup. It is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues.[5] It is also one of the world's most valuable companies.[6] Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market

with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The

company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created three billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s,

it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date .[7] As of 2013, Microsoft is market dominant in both the IBM PC-compatible operating system and office software suite markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including Internet search (with Bing), the video game industry (with the Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles), the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows Phone OS). In June 2012, Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers. With the acquisition of Nokia's devices and services division to form Microsoft Mobile Oy, the company re-entered the smartphone hardware market, after its previous attempt, Microsoft Kin, which resulted from their acquisition of Danger Inc.[8] Contents •

1 History

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1.1 1972–83: Founding and company beginnings

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1.2 1984–94: Windows and Office

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1.3 1995–2005: Internet and the 32-bit era

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1.4 2006–10: Windows Vista, mobile, and Windows 7

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1.5 2011–present: Rebranding, Windows 8, Surface and Nokia devices

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2 Businesses

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2.1 Windows Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division

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2.2 Business Division

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2.3 Entertainment and Devices Division

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3 Culture

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4 Criticism

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5 Corporate affairs

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5.1 Financial

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5.2 Environment

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5.3 Marketing

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5.4 Lay off

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5.5 Cooperation with the United States Government

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5.6 Logo

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6 See also

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7 References

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8 External links

History Main articles: History of Microsoft and History of Microsoft Windows 1972–83: Founding and company beginnings

Paul Allen (l.) and Bill Gates (r.) on October 19, 1981, in a sea of PCs after signing a pivotal contract. IBM called Microsoft in July 1980 inquiring about programming languages for its upcoming PC line;[9]:228 after failed negotiations with another company, IBM gave Microsoft a contract to develop the OS for the new line of PCs.[10] Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion in computer programming, were seeking to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. In 1972 they founded their first company named Traf-O-Data, which offered a rudimentary computer that tracked and analyzed automobile traffic data. Allen went on to pursue a degree in computer science at the University of Washington, later dropping out of school to work at Honeywell. Gates began studies at Harvard.[11] The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems's (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer. Allen suggested that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device; after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didn't actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter. Although they developed the interpreter on a simulator and not the actual device, the interpreter worked flawlessly when they demonstrated the interpreter to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 1975; MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC.[9]:108, 112–114 They officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as the CEO.[12] Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," the combination of the words microprocessor and software, as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article.[13] [14] In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, "ASCII Microsoft".[15] The company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979.[12]

Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, called Xenix.[16] However, it was MS-DOS that solidified the company's dominance. After negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft in November 1980 to provide a version of the CP/M OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC).[17] For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, which IBM rebranded to PC DOS. Following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to reverse engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles, but no such restriction applied to the operating systems. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOS's available software selection, Microsoft eventually became the leading PC operating systems vendor.[10][18]:210 The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press.[9]:232 Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in February after developing Hodgkin's disease.[9]:231 1984–94: Windows and Office

Windows Timeline While jointly developing a new OS with IBM in 1984, OS/2, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a graphical extension for MS-DOS, on November 20, 1985.[9]:242–243, 246 Microsoft moved its headquarters to Redmond on February 26, 1986, and on March 13 the company went public;[19] the ensuing rise in the stock would make an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.[20] Due to the partnership with IBM, in 1990 the Federal Trade Commission set its eye on Microsoft for possible collusion; it marked the beginning of over a decade of legal clashes with the U.S. Government.[21] Microsoft released its version of OS/2 to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on April 2, 1987;[9]:243–244 meanwhile, the company was at work on a 32-bit OS, Microsoft Windows NT, using ideas from OS/2; it shipped on July 21, 1993, with a new modular kernel and the Win32 application programming interface (API), making porting from 16-bit (MS-DOS-based) Windows easier. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2 partnership deteriorated.[22] In 1990, Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office. The software bundled separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.[9]:301 On May 22 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0 with a streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the Intel 386 processor.[23] Both Office and Windows became dominant in their respective areas.[24][25] Novell, a Word competitor from 1984–1986, filed

a lawsuit years later claiming that Microsoft left part of its APIs undocumented in order to gain a competitive advantage.[26] On July 27, 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division filed a Competitive Impact Statement that said, in part: "Beginning in 1988, and continuing until July 15, 1994, Microsoft induced many OEMs to execute anti-competitive "per processor" licenses. Under a per processor license, an OEM pays Microsoft a royalty for each computer it sells containing a particular microprocessor, whether the OEM sells the computer with a Microsoft operating system or a non-Microsoft operating system. In effect, the royalty payment to Microsoft when no Microsoft product is being used acts as a penalty, or tax, on the OEM's use of a competing PC operating system. Since 1988, Microsoft's use of per processor licenses has increased."[27] 1995–2005: Internet and the 32-bit era

Bill Gates giving his deposition in 1998 for the United States v. Microsoft trial. Once the U.S. Department of Justice 1993 took over from the Federal Trade Commission, a protracted legal wrangling between Microsoft and the department ensued, resulting in various settlements and possible blocked mergers. Microsoft would point to companies such as AOL-Time Warner in its defense.[21] Following Bill Gates's internal "Internet Tidal Wave memo" on May 26, 1995, Microsoft began to redefine its offerings and expand its product line into computer networking and the World Wide Web.[28] The company released Windows 95 on August 24, 1995, featuring preemptive multitasking, a completely new user interface with a novel start button, and 32-bit compatibility; similar to NT, it provided the Win32 API.[29][30]:20 Windows 95 came bundled with the online service MSN (which was originally planned to be a competitor to the Internet), and for OEMs Internet Explorer, a web browser. Internet Explorer was not bundled with the retail Windows 95 boxes because the boxes were printed before the team finished the web browser, and instead was included in the Windows 95 Plus! pack.[31] Branching out into new markets in 1996, Microsoft and NBC Universal created a new 24/7 cable news station, MSNBC.[32] Microsoft created Windows CE 1.0, a new OS designed for devices with low memory and other constraints, such as personal digital assistants.[33] In October 1997, the Justice Department filed a motion in the Federal District Court, stating that Microsoft violated an agreement signed in 1994 and asked the court to stop the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.[9]:323–324 Bill Gates handed over the CEO position on January 13, 2000, to Steve Ballmer, an old college friend of Gates and employee of the company since 1980, creating a new position

for himself as Chief Software Architect.[9]:111, 228[12] Various companies including Microsoft formed the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance in October 1999 to, among other things, increase security and protect intellectual property through identifying changes in hardware and software. Critics decry the alliance as a way to enforce indiscriminate restrictions over how consumers use software, and over how computers behave, a form of digital rights management; for example the scenario where a computer is not only secured for its owner, but also secured against its owner as well.[34][35] On April 3, 2000, a judgment was handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft,[36] calling the company an "abusive monopoly";[37] it settled with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2004.[19] On October 25, 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, unifying the mainstream and NT lines under the NT codebase.[38] The company released the Xbox later that year, entering the game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo.[39] In March 2004 the European Union brought antitrust legal action against the company, citing it abused its dominance with the Windows OS, resulting in a judgment of €497 million ($613 million) and to produce new versions of Windows XP without Windows Media Player, Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N.[40][41] 2006–10: Windows Vista, mobile, and Windows 7

CEO Steve Ballmer at the MIX event in 2008. In an interview about his management style in 2005, he mentioned that his first priority was to get the people he delegates to in order. Ballmer also emphasized the need to continue pursuing new technologies even if initial attempts fail, citing the original attempts with Windows as an example.[42] Released in January 2007, the next version of Windows, Windows Vista, focused on features, security, and a redesigned user interface dubbed Aero.[43][44] Microsoft Office 2007, released at the same time, featured a "Ribbon" user interface which was a significant departure from its predecessors. Relatively strong sales of both titles helped to produce a record profit in 2007.[45] The European Union imposed another fine of €899 million ($1.4 billion) for Microsoft's lack of compliance with the March 2004 judgment on February 27, 2008, saying that the company charged rivals unreasonable prices for key information about its workgroup and backoffice servers. Microsoft stated that it was in compliance and that "these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved".[46] 2007 also saw the creation of a multi-core unit at Microsoft, as they followed in the steps of server companies such as Sun and IBM.[47] Bill Gates retired from his role as Chief Software Architect on June 27, 2008, while retaining other positions related to the company in addition to being an advisor for the company on

key projects.[48] Azure Services Platform, the company's entry into the cloud computing market for Windows, launched on October 27, 2008.[49] On February 12, 2009, Microsoft announced its intent to open a chain of Microsoft-branded retail stores, and on October 22, 2009, the first retail Microsoft Store opened in Scottsdale, Arizona; the same day the first store opened, Windows 7 was officially released to the public. Windows 7's focus was on refining Vista with ease of use features and performance enhancements, rather than a large reworking of Windows.[50][51][52] As the smartphone industry boomed beginning in 2007, Microsoft struggled to keep up with its rivals Apple and Google in providing a modern smartphone operating system. As a result, in 2010, Microsoft revamped their aging flagship mobile operating system, Windows Mobile, replacing it with the new Windows Phone OS; along with a new strategy in the smartphone industry that has Microsoft working more closely with smartphone manufacturers, such as Nokia, and to provide a consistent user experience across all smartphones using Microsoft's Windows Phone OS. It used a new user interface design language, codenamed "Metro", which prominently used simple shapes, typography and iconography, and the concept of minimalism. Microsoft is a founding member of the Open Networking Foundation started on March 23, 2011. Other founding companies include Google, HP Networking, Yahoo, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom and 17 other companies. The nonprofit organization is focused on providing support for a new cloud computing initiative called Software-Defined Networking.[53] The initiative is meant to speed innovation through simple software changes in telecommunications networks, wireless networks, data centers and other networking areas.[54] 2011–present: Rebranding, Windows 8, Surface and Nokia devices

General design principle behind the Start screen in Windows 8.1, Windows Phone and Xbox One

Microsoft Surface tablet Following the release of Windows Phone, Microsoft underwent a gradual rebranding of its product range throughout 2011 and 2012—the corporation's logos, products, services, and websites adopted the principles and concepts of the Metro design language.[55] Microsoft previewed Windows 8, an operating system designed to power both personal computers and tablet computers, in Taipei in June 2011.[56] A developer preview was released on

September 13, and was replaced by a consumer preview on February 29, 2012.[57] On May 31, 2012, the preview version was released. On June 18, 2012, Microsoft unveiled the Surface, the first computer in the company's history to have its hardware made by Microsoft.[58][59] On June 25, Microsoft paid US $1.2 billion to buy the social network Yammer.[60] On July 31, 2012, Microsoft launched the Outlook.com webmail service to compete with Gmail.[61] On September 4, 2012, Microsoft released Windows Server 2012.[62] In July 2012, Microsoft sold its 50% stake in MSNBC.com, which it had run as a joint venture with NBC since 1996.[63] On October 1, Microsoft announced its intention to launch a news operation, part of a new-look MSN, at the time of the Windows 8 launch that was later in the month.[64] On October 26, 2012, Microsoft launched Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface. [59][65] Three days later, Windows Phone 8 was launched.[66] To cope with the potential for an increase in demand for products and services, Microsoft opened a number of "holiday stores" across the U.S. to complement the increasing number of "bricks-and-mortar" Microsoft Stores that opened in 2012.[67] On March 29, 2013, Microsoft launched a Patent Tracker.[68] The Kinect, the motion sensing input devices by Microsoft, which was first introduced in November 2010 was upgraded for the 2013 release of the eighth-generation Xbox One. Its capabilities were revealed in May 2013. The new Kinect uses an ultra-wide 1080p camera, it can function in the dark due to an infrared sensor, it employs higher-end processing power and new software, it can distinguish between fine movements (such as a thumb movements), and the device can determine a user's heart rate by looking at his/her face.[69] Microsoft filed a patent application in 2011 that suggests that the corporation may use the Kinect camera system to monitor the behavior of television viewers as part of a plan to make the viewing experience more active. On July 19, 2013, Microsoft stocks suffered its biggest one-day percentage sell-off since the year 2000 after its fourth-quarter report raised concerns among the investors on the poor showings of both Windows 8 and the Surface tablet; with more than 11 percentage points declining Microsoft suffered a loss of more than US$32 billion.[70] For the 2010 fiscal year, Microsoft had five product divisions: Windows Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division, Microsoft Business Division, and Entertainment and Devices Division. • Xbox One console • Xbox 360 Kinect sensor

John W. Thompson has been appointed the chairman of Microsoft, taking over from Bill Gates. On September 3, 2013, Microsoft agreed to buy Nokia's mobile unit for $7 billion.[71] Also in 2013, Amy Hood became the CFO of Microsoft.[72] The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) was launched in October 2013 and Microsoft is part of the coalition of public and private organizations that also includes Facebook, Intel and Google. Led by Tim Berners-Lee, the A4AI seeks to make Internet access more affordable so that access is broadened in the developing world, where only 31% of people are online. Google will help to decrease internet access prices so that they fall below the UN Broadband Commission's worldwide target of 5% of monthly income.[73] In line with the maturing PC business, in July 2013 Microsoft announced that it would reorganize the business into 4 new business divisions by function: Operating System, Apps, Cloud and Devices. All previous divisions will be diluted into new divisions without any workforce cut.[74] On February 4, 2014, Steve Ballmer stepped down as CEO of Microsoft and was succeeded by SatyaNadella, who previously led Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise division.[75] On the same day, John W. Thompson took on the role of chairman, with Bill Gates stepping down from the position to become more active within the company as Technology Advisor.[76] On April 25, 2014, Microsoft acquired Nokia Devices and Services and formed a new subsidiary, Microsoft Mobile Oy. On September 15, 2014, Microsoft acquired the video game development company Mojang for $2.5 billion, best known for its wildly popular flagship game Minecraft.[77] Businesses This section is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (January 2015) Windows Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division

Toronto Microsoft Store The company's Client division produces the flagship Windows OS line such as Windows 8; it also produces the Windows Live family of products and services. Server and Tools produces the server versions of Windows, such as Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as a set of development tools called Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Silverlight, a web application

framework, and System Center Configuration Manager, a collection of tools providing remote-control abilities, patch management, software distribution and a hardware/software inventory. Other server products include: Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database management system, Microsoft Exchange Server, for certain business-oriented e-mail and scheduling features, Small Business Server, for messaging and other small businessoriented features; and Microsoft BizTalk Server, for business process management. Microsoft provides IT consulting ("Microsoft Consulting Services") and produces a set of certification programs handled by the Server and Tools division designed to recognize individuals who have a minimal set of proficiencies in a specific role; this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers ("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator" and "Microsoft Certified Database Administrator"). Microsoft Press, which publishes books, is also managed by the division. The Online Services Business division handles the online service MSN and the search engine Bing. Business Division

The Commons, located on the campus of the company's headquarters in Redmond The Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office including Microsoft Office 2010, the company's line of office software. The software product includes Word (a word processor), Access (a relational database program), Excel (a spreadsheet program), Outlook (Groupware, frequently used with Exchange Server), PowerPoint (presentation software), Publisher (desktop publishing software) and Sharepoint. A number of other products were added later with the release of Office 2003 including Visio, Project, MapPoint, InfoPath and OneNote. The division also develops enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for companies under the Microsoft Dynamics brand. These include: Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Microsoft Dynamics SL. They are targeted at varying company types and countries, and limited to organizations with under 7,500 employees.[78] Also included under the Dynamics brand is the customer relationship management software Microsoft Dynamics CRM, part of the Azure Services Platform. Entertainment and Devices Division See also: Microsoft Mobile Oy The Entertainment and Devices Division produces the Windows CE OS for embedded systems and Windows Phone for smartphones.[79] Microsoft initially entered the mobile market through Windows CE for handheld devices, eventually developing into the Windows

Mobile OS and now, Windows Phone. Windows CE is designed for devices where the OS may not directly be visible to the end user, in particular, appliances and cars. The division also produces computer games, via its in-house game publisher Microsoft Studios, that run on Windows PCs and other systems including titles such as Age of Empires, Halo and the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, and houses the Macintosh Business Unit which produces Mac OS software including Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac. Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division designs, markets, and manufactures consumer electronics including the Xbox 360 game console, the handheld Zune media player, and the television-based Internet appliance MSN TV. Microsoft also markets personal computer hardware including mice, keyboards, and various game controllers such as joysticks and gamepads. Culture Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft magazines such as Microsoft Systems Journal (MSJ) are available through the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). MSDN also offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more expensive subscriptions usually offer access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft software.[80][81] In April 2004 Microsoft launched a community site for developers and users, titled Channel 9, that provides a wiki and an Internet forum.[82] Another community site that provides daily videocasts and other services, On10.net, launched on March 3, 2006. [83] Free technical support is traditionally provided through online Usenet newsgroups, and CompuServe in the past, monitored by Microsoft employees; there can be several newsgroups for a single product. Helpful people can be elected by peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status, which entitles them to a sort of special social status and possibilities for awards and other benefits.[84] Noted for its internal lexicon, the expression "eating our own dog food" is used to describe the policy of using pre-release and beta versions of products inside Microsoft in an effort to test them in "real-world" situations.[85] This is usually shortened to just "dog food" and is used as noun, verb, and adjective. Another bit of jargon, FYIFV or FYIV ("Fuck You, I'm [Fully] Vested"), is used by an employee to indicate they are financially independent and can avoid work anytime they wish.[86] The company is also known for its hiring process, mimicked in other organizations and dubbed the "Microsoft interview", which is notorious for off-the-wall questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?".[87] Microsoft is an outspoken opponent of the cap on H1B visas, which allow companies in the U.S. to employ certain foreign workers. Bill Gates claims the cap on H1B visas makes it difficult to hire employees for the company, stating "I'd certainly get rid of the H1B cap" in 2005.[88] Critics of H1B visas argue that relaxing the limits would result in increased

unemployment for U.S. citizens due to H1B workers working for lower salaries.[89] The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, a report of how progressive the organization deems company policies towards LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) employees, rated Microsoft as 87% from 2002 to 2004 and as 100% from 2005 to 2010 after they allowed gender expression.[90] Criticism Main article: Criticism of Microsoft

BadVista and Defective by Design groups protest against Windows Vista Criticism of Microsoft has followed the company's existence because of various aspects of its products and business practices. Ease of use, stability, and security of the company's software are common targets for critics. More recently, Trojan horses and other exploits have plagued numerous users due to faults in the security of Microsoft Windows and other programs. Microsoft is also accused of locking vendors into their products, and not following and complying with existing standards in its software.[91] Total cost of ownership comparisons of Linux as well as OS X to Windows are a continuous point of debate. The company has been in numerous lawsuits by several governments and other companies for unlawful monopolistic practices. In 2004, the European Union found Microsoft guilty in a highly publicized anti-trust case. Additionally, Microsoft's EULA for some of its programs is often criticized as being too restrictive as well as being against open source software. Microsoft has been criticized (along with Yahoo, AOL, Google and others) for its involvement in censorship in the People's Republic of China.[92] Microsoft has also come under criticism for outsourcing jobs to China and India.[93][94][95] There were reports of poor working conditions at a factory in southern China that makes some of Microsoft's products.[96] Corporate affairs The company is run by a board of directors made up of mostly company outsiders, as is customary for publicly traded companies. Members of the board of directors as of September 2014 are: John W. Thompson, Dina Dublon, Bill Gates, Maria Klawe, David Marquardt, Mason Morfit,[97] SatyaNadella, Charles Noski, Helmut Panke and John W. Stanton.[98] Board members are elected every year at the annual shareholders' meeting using a majority vote system. There are five committees within the board which oversee more specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues with the company including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the

company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposing mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters including nomination of the board; and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws.[99]

Five year history graph of NASDAQ: MSFT stock on July 17, 2013[100] When Microsoft went public and launched its initial public offering (IPO) in 1986, the opening stock price was $21; after the trading day, the price closed at $27.75. As of July 2010, with the company's nine stock splits, any IPO shares would be multiplied by 288; if one was to buy the IPO today given the splits and other factors, it would cost about 9 cents.[9]:235– 236[101][102] The stock price peaked in 1999 at around $119 ($60.928 adjusting for splits). [103] The company began to offer a dividend on January 16, 2003, starting at eight cents per share for the fiscal year followed by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the subsequent year, switching from yearly to quarterly dividends in 2005 with eight cents a share per quarter and a special one-time payout of three dollars per share for the second quarter of the fiscal year.[103][104] Though the company had subsequent increases in dividend payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock remained steady for years.[104][105] One of Microsoft's business tactics, described by an executive as "embrace, extend and extinguish," initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own version which is then incompatible with the standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot use Microsoft's new version.[106] Various companies and governments sue Microsoft over this set of tactics, resulting in billions of dollars in rulings against the company.[107][36][41] Microsoft claims that the original strategy is not anti-competitive, but rather an exercise of its discretion to implement features it believes customers want.[108] Financial

Microsoft Store Standard and Poor's and Moody's have both given a AAA rating to Microsoft, whose assets were valued at $41 billion as compared to only $8.5 billion in unsecured debt. Consequently, in February 2011 Microsoft released a corporate bond amounting to $2.25 billion with relatively low borrowing rates compared to government bonds.[109] For the first time in 20 years Apple Inc. surpassed Microsoft in Q1 2011 quarterly profits and revenues due to a slowdown in PC sales and continuing huge losses in Microsoft's Online

Services Division (which contains its search engine Bing). Microsoft profits were $5.2 billion, while Apple Inc. profits were $6 billion, on revenues of $14.5 billion and $24.7 billion respectively.[110] Microsoft's Online Services Division has been continuously loss-making since 2006 and in Q1 2011 it lost $726 million. This follows a loss of $2.5 billion for the year 2010.[111] On July 20, 2012, Microsoft posted its first quarterly loss ever, despite earning record revenues for the quarter and fiscal year, with a net loss of $492 million due to a writedown related to the advertising company aQuantive, which had been acquired for $6.2 billion back in 2007.[112] As of January 2014, Microsoft's market capitalization stood at $314B,[113] making it the 8th largest company in the world by market capitalization.[114] On November 14, 2014, Microsoft overtook Exxon Mobil to become the 2nd most valuable company by market capitalization, behind only Apple Inc. Its total market value was over $410B - with the stock price hitting $50.04 a share, the highest since early 2000.[115] In 2015 Reuters reported that Microsoft Corp had earnings abroad of $76.4 billion which were untaxed by the IRS. Under U.S. law corporations don't pay income tax on overseas profits until the profits are brought into the United States[116] Environment In 2011, Greenpeace released a report rating the top ten big brands in cloud computing on their sources of electricity for their data centers. At the time, data centers consumed up to 2% of all global electricity and this amount was projected to increase. Phil Radford of Greenpeace said "we are concerned that this new explosion in electricity use could lock us into old, polluting energy sources instead of the clean energy available today,"[117] and called on "Amazon, Microsoft and other leaders of the information-technology industry must embrace clean energy to power their cloud-based data centers."[118] In 2013, Microsoft agreed to buy power generated by a Texas wind project to power one of its data centers. [119] Microsoft is ranked on the 17th place in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics (16th Edition) that ranks 18 electronics manufacturers according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.[120] Microsoft's timeline for phasing out BFRs and phthalates in all products is 2012 but its commitment to phasing out PVC is not clear. As yet (January 2011) it has no products that are completely free from PVC and BFRs.[121] Microsoft's main U.S. campus received a silver certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program in 2008, and it installed over 2,000 solar panels

on top of its buildings in its Silicon Valley campus, generating approximately 15 percent of the total energy needed by the facilities in April 2005.[122] Microsoft makes use of alternative forms of transit. It created one of the world's largest private bus systems, the "Connector", to transport people from outside the company; for oncampus transportation, the "Shuttle Connect" uses a large fleet of hybrid cars to save fuel. The company also subsidises regional public transport as an incentive.[122][123] In February 2010 however, Microsoft took a stance against adding additional public transport and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to a bridge connecting Redmond to Seattle; the company did not want to delay the construction any further.[124] Microsoft was ranked number 1 in the list of the World's Best Multinational Workplaces by the Great Place to Work Institute in 2011.[125] Marketing

Windows 8 Launch Event in Akihabara, Tokyo in 25 October 2012 In 2004, Microsoft commissioned research firms to do independent studies comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Windows Server 2003 to Linux; the firms concluded that companies found Windows easier to administrate than Linux, thus those using Windows would administrate faster resulting in lower costs for their company (i.e. lower TCO).[126] This spurred a wave of related studies; a study by the Yankee Group concluded that upgrading from one version of Windows Server to another costs a fraction of the switching costs from Windows Server to Linux, although companies surveyed noted the increased security and reliability of Linux servers and concern about being locked into using Microsoft products.[127] Another study, released by the Open Source Development Labs, claimed that the Microsoft studies were "simply outdated and one-sided" and their survey concluded that the TCO of Linux was lower due to Linux administrators managing more servers on average and other reasons.[128] As part of the "Get the Facts" campaign, Microsoft highlighted the .NET trading platform that it had developed in partnership with Accenture for the London Stock Exchange, claiming that it provided "five nines" reliability. After suffering extended downtime and unreliability[129] [130] the LSE announced in 2009 that it was planning to drop its Microsoft solution and switch to a Linux based one in 2010.[131][132] In 2012, Microsoft hired a political pollster named Mark Penn, whom the New York Times called "famous for bulldozing" his political opponents [133] as Executive Vice-President, Advertising and Strategy. Penn created a series of negative ads targeting one of Microsoft's

chief competitors, Google. The ads, called "Scroogled", attempt to make the case that Google is "screwing" consumers with search results rigged to favor Google's paid advertisers, that Gmail violates the privacy of its users to place ad results related to the content of their emails and shopping results which favor Google products. Tech publications like Tech Crunch have been highly critical of the ad campaign,[134] while Google employees have embraced it.[135] Lay off In July 2014, Microsoft announced plans to lay off 18,000 employees. Microsoft employed 127,104 people as of June 5, 2014, making this about a 14 percent reduction of its workforce as the biggest Microsoft lay off ever. It will include 12,500 professional and factory personnel. Previously, Microsoft has laid off 5,800 jobs in 2009 in line with US financial crisis.[136][137] In September 2014, Microsoft laid off 2,100 people, including 747 people in the SeattleRedmond area, where the company is headquartered. The firings came as a second wave of the layoffs that were previously announced. This brings the total number to over 15,000 out of the 18,000 expected cuts.[138] In October 2014, Microsoft revealed that it was almost done with the elimination of 18,000 employees which is its largest ever layoff sweep. Cooperation with the United States Government Microsoft provides information about reported bugs in their software to intelligence agencies of the United States government, prior to the public release of the fix. A Microsoft spokesperson has stated that the corporation runs several programs that facilitate the sharing of such information with the U.S. government.[139] Following media reports about PRISM, NSA's massive electronic surveillance program, in May 2013, several technology companies were identified as participants, including Microsoft. [140] According to leaks of said program, Microsoft joined the PRISM program in 2007.[141] However, in June 2013, an official statement from Microsoft flatly denied their participation in the program: We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis. In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data, we don't participate in it.[142] During the first six months in 2013, Microsoft had received requests that affected between 15,000 and 15,999 accounts.[143] In December 2013, the company made statement to

further emphasis the fact that they take their customers' privacy and data protection very seriously, even saying that "government snooping potentially now constitutes an "advanced persistent threat," alongside sophisticated malware and cyber attacks".[144] The statement also marked the beginning of three-part program to enhance Microsoft's encryption and transparency efforts. In July 1, 2014, as part of this program they opened the first (of many) Microsoft Transparency Center, that provides "participating governments with the ability to review source code for our key products, assure themselves of their software integrity, and confirm there are no "back doors."[145] Microsoft has also argued that the United States Congress should enact strong privacy regulations to protect consumer data.[146] Logo Microsoft adopted the so-called "Pac-Man Logo", designed by Scott Baker, in 1987. Baker stated "The new logo, in Helvetica italic typeface, has a slash between the o and s to emphasize the "soft" part of the name and convey motion and speed."[147] Dave Norris ran an internal joke campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O, nicknamed the blibbet, but it was discarded.[148] Microsoft's logo with the "Your potential. Our passion." tagline below the main corporate name, is based on a slogan Microsoft used in 2008. In 2002, the company started using the logo in the United States and eventually started a TV campaign with the slogan, changed from the previous tagline of "Where do you want to go today?".[149][150][151] During the private MGX (Microsoft Global Exchange) conference in 2010, Microsoft unveiled the company's next tagline, "Be What's Next.".[152] On August 23, 2012, Microsoft unveiled a new corporate logo at the opening of its 23rd Microsoft store in Boston indicating the company's shift of focus from the classic style to the tile-centric modern interface which it uses/will use on the Windows Phone platform, Xbox 360, Windows 8 and the upcoming Office Suites.[153] The new logo also includes four squares with the colors of the then-current Windows logo which have been used to represent Microsoft's four major products: Windows (blue), Office (red), Xbox (green), and Bing (yellow).[154] However this logo is not completely new—it was featured in Windows 95 commercials from the mid-1990s.[155][156] • 1985–1987 • 1987–2006

• 2006–2011 • 2011–2012 • 2012–present •

1987 – Microsoft "Pac-Man" logo, designed by Scott Baker and used from 1987 to

2012 with the 1994–2002 slogan "Where do you want to go today?".[149][150] •

2006–2011 – Microsoft logo as of 2006–2011, with the slogan "Your potential. Our

passion."[150] •

2011–2012 – Logo by Microsoft with the slogan "Be what's next."[152]

•

2012–present – Introduced on August 23, 2012, to symbolize the "world of digital

motion" and Microsoft's "diverse portfolio of products".[157]