How old are European tech companies? How many years have some of the most important companies in the EU existed? The graph reveals many surprises because Nokia and Ericsson prove to have three times the years of third and fourth ranked companies (Capgemini and SAP). And even an age 10 times higher than that of other companies in the rankings.
Nokia is 155 years old and Ericsson 145, an almost unusual record for a tech company. And their birth has its roots in legend, suffice it to say that the name Nokia was inspired by the Nokianvirta river, along which, in 1865 the mining engineer Knut Fredrik Idestam opened a pulp factory near Tampere in Finland. Or that Ericsson was founded in 1876 in central Stockholm as a telegraph repair shop from Lars Magnus Ericsson, a 30-year-old who has previously worked in a telegraph equipment company for the Swedish government agency Telegrafverket.
Today Nokia Corporation is a multinational made up of two divisions: Nokia Technologies, which deals with research and development for new technologies, consumer products and brand licenses and patents, and Nokia Networks, which represents the “core business” of the company and deals with software and services for network infrastructures. And it has a turnover of 24 billion with 100,000 employees.
Colossal dimensions also for Ericsson which operates in 180 countries in the supply of communication technologies and services, software and infrastructures in the ICT field to telecommunications operators, public administration and other industries. And which in size and turnover (100,000 employees and 20.8 billion in turnover) is very similar to Nokia.
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