Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (lit. 'Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson'), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one of the leaders in 5G.[2] Ericsson has over 57,000 granted patents,[3] and it is the inventor of Bluetooth technology.[4]
The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in information and communications technology for telecommunications service providers and enterprises, including, among others, cellular 4G and 5G equipment, and Internet Protocol (IP) and optical transport systems. The company employs around 100,000 people and operates in more than 180 countries.[5] The company is listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm under the ticker symbols ERIC.A and ERIC.B and on the American Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ERIC.
The company was founded in 1876 by Lars Magnus Ericsson[6] and is jointly controlled by the Wallenberg family through its holding company Investor AB, and the universal bank Handelsbanken through its investment company Industrivärden. The Wallenbergs and the Handelsbanken sphere acquired its voting-strong A-shares, and thus the control of Ericsson, after the fall of the Kreuger empire in the early 1930s.[7][8]
History
Foundation
Lars Magnus Ericsson began his association with telephones in his youth as an instrument maker. He worked for a firm that made telegraph equipment for the Swedish government agency Telegrafverket. In 1876, at the age of 30, he started a telegraph repair shop with help from his friend Carl Johan Andersson in central Stockholm and repaired foreign-made telephones. In 1878, Ericsson began making and selling his own telephone equipment. His telephones were not technically innovative. In 1878, he agreed to supply telephones and switchboards to Sweden's first telecommunications operating company, Stockholms Allmänna Telefonaktiebolag.[6]
International expansion
As production grew in the late 1890s, and the Swedish market seemed to be reaching saturation, Ericsson expanded into foreign markets through a number of agents. The UK (Ericsson Telephones Ltd.) and Russia were early markets, where factories were later established to improve the chances of gaining local contracts and augment the output of the Swedish factory. In the UK, the National Telephone Company was a major customer; by 1897 sold 28% of its output in the UK.
Corporate governance
As of 2016, members of the board of directors of LM Ericsson were: Leif Johansson, Jacob Wallenberg, Kristin S. Rinne, Helena Stjernholm, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Börje Ekholm, Ulf J. Johansson, Mikael Lännqvist, Zlatko Hadzic, Kjell-Åke Soting, Nora Denzel, Kristin Skogen Lund, Pehr Claesson, Karin Åberg and Roger Svensson.[79]
Research and development
Ericsson has structured its R&D in three levels depending on when products or technologies will be introduced to customers and users.[80] Its research and development organization is part of 'Group Function Technology' and addresses several facets of network architecture: wireless access networks; radio access technologies; broadband technologies; packet technologies; multimedia technologies; services software; EMF safety and sustainability; security; and global services.[81] The head of research since 2012 is Sara Mazur.[82]
Group Function Technology holds research co-operations with several major universities and research institutes including Lund University in Sweden, Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary and Beijing Institute of Technology in China.[83] Ericsson also holds research co-operations within several European research programs such as GigaWam and OASE.[84]
Products and services
Ericsson's business includes technology research, development, network systems and software development, and running operations for telecom service providers.[81][91] and software[92][93] Ericsson offers end-to-end services for all major mobile communication standards,[94] and has three main business units.[95]
Business Area Networks
Divested businesses
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Ericsson) was a joint venture with Sony that merged the previous mobile telephone operations of both companies. It manufactured mobile telephones, accessories and personal computer (PC) cards. Sony Ericsson was responsible for product design and development, marketing, sales, distribution and customer services. On 16 February 2012, Sony announced it had completed the full acquisition of Sony Ericsson,[118][119] after which it changed name to Sony Mobile Communications, and nearly a year later it moved headquarters from Sweden to Japan.
Mobile phones
As a joint venture with Sony, Ericsson's mobile telephone production was moved into the company Sony Ericsson in 2001. The following is a list of mobile phones marketed under the brand name Ericsson.
- Ericsson GS88 – Cancelled mobile telephone Ericsson invented the "Smartphone" name for
Corruption
On 7 December 2019, Ericsson agreed to pay more than $1.2 billion (€1.09 billion) to settle U.S. Department of Justice FCPA criminal and civil investigations into foreign corruption. US authorities accused the company of conducting a campaign of corruption between 2000 and 2016 across China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kuwait and Djibouti. Ericsson admitted to paying bribes, falsifying books and records and failing to implement reasonable internal accounting controls in an attempt to strengthen its position in the telecommunications industry.[125][126][127]
In 2022, an internal investigation into corruption inside the company was leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.[128] It detailed corruption in at least 10 countries. Ericsson has admitted "serious breaches of compliance rules".[129]
See also
- Cedergren
- Damovo
- Ericsson Nikola Tesla
- Erlang (programming language)
- Investor AB
- List of networking hardware vendors
- List of Sony Ericsson products
- Red Jade
- Tandberg Television
Further reading
- John Meurling; Richard Jeans (1994). A switch in time: AXE – creating a foundation for the information age. London: Communications Week International. ISBN 0-9524031-1-0.
- John Meurling; Richard Jeans (1997). The ugly duckling. Stockholm: Ericsson Mobile Communications. ISBN 91-630-5452-3.
- John Meurling; Richard Jeans (2000). The Ericsson Chronicle: 125 years in telecommunications. Stockholm: Informationsförlaget. ISBN 91-7736-464-3.
- The Mobile Phone Book: The Invention of the Mobile Telephone Industry. ISBN 0-9524031-0-2.
- Mobile media and applications – from concept to cash: successful service creation and launch. ISBN 0-470-01747-3.
- Anders Pehrsson (1996). International Strategies in Telecommunications. London: Routledge Research. ISBN 0-415-14829-4.
External links
- General reference to all chapters on the Ericsson history:
- Ericsson Logo
References
- Annual Report 2025 Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, retrieved 26 March 2026^
- Ericsson Nips Huawei, Nokia in Gartner's 5G Vendor Ranking SDxCentral, SDxCentral, LLC, 24 February 2021, retrieved 5 June 2021^
- Ericsson Annual Report 2020