The story
In June 2006, smart card providers Gemplus and Axalto merged to become Gemalto (a portmanteau of the original company names.) Axalto was a Schlumberger IPO spin-off in 2004.
Between the merger and 2015, Gemalto completed a series of acquisitions: the Leigh Mardon's personalization center (Taiwan), Multos International, NamITech in South Africa, NXP mobile services business, the mobile software provider O3SIS, Trusted Logic (the secure software platform provider), Serverside (personalization of bank cards with digital images generated by end users), XIRING's banking activity, Netsize (a mobile communications service and commerce enabler), Valimo Wireless, a provider in mobile authentication, the internet banking security specialist Todos AB in Sweden, Cinterion the German specialist of machine-to-machine (M2M), SensorLogic (an M2M service delivery platform provider), Plastkart in Turkey, Ericsson’s mobile payment platform IPX, the information security company SafeNet and Buzzinbees, the automatic SIM activation expert.
Axalto and Schlumberger
Schlumberger began its chip card activities in February 1979 when it licensed and marketed certain chip card technologies developed and patented by Roland Moreno, who is generally credited with the invention of the chip card.
Schlumberger developed the first telephone chip cards for France Telecom and the Swedish telecommunications operator Telia in the early 1980s. The company developed ties with telecommunications operators in several countries, and played a role in industry-wide efforts to develop new digital mobile communication standards, particularly the GSM transmission standard (Global System for Mobile Communication). Schlumberger designed its first SIM card in the early 1990s for the launch of GSM in Europe, and this led to the use of microprocessor card technology for access and security for mobile telephony worldwide, in 3 billion handsets today.
In the early 1980s, the French banking sector decided to migrate from the magnetic stripe card-based payment system to a more modern and secure microprocessor card-based system. Schlumberger received its first contract in June 1981 to provide GIE Cartes Bancaires, the French credit/debit card issuers’ association, with 5,000 microprocessor cards and 200 associated POS terminals. The microprocessor card-based payment system subsequently became standard in France and eventually led to a global standard known as EMV, set up by Europay, MasterCard and Visa.
Schlumberger experienced internal and external growth since the launch of its chip card operations in the early 1980s through the 1990s and 2000s, both in terms of revenue and product portfolio, particularly with the substantial growth in GSM-based mobile telecommunications. Acquisitions of regional companies in card production and personalization included Cowells (United Kingdom), Malco (United States), Printer (Mexico) and Cardtech (Brazil), followed by Solaic in 1996 and Bull-CP8 from Bull in 2001, in France and China.
In 2003, Schlumberger created Axalto as a division to consolidate into one company all of its card and POS terminal activities, which until then had been managed by several subsidiaries and joint ventures of the Schlumberger group. Subsequently, Axalto was listed on the Euronext Paris market on May 18, 2004.
Gemplus
Founded by Marc Lassus, Daniel Le Gal, Philippe Maes, Jean-Pierre Gloton and Gilles Lisimaque, Gemplus started its operations in 1988 as a supplier of prepaid phonecards. Because of its presence in the market of the prepaid phonecards during the 1990s, the company developed ties with the telecommunications industry along with Schlumberger.
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Prior to 1999, the business was conducted through Gemplus S.C.A., a French limited partnership. In December 1999, Gemplus Associates, the general partner of Gemplus S.C.A., merged into Gemplus S.C.A., which became a joint stock company, Gemplus SA. In February 2000, the corporate structure was reorganized and a new holding company, Gemplus International SA, a Luxembourg corporation, was created. Texas Pacific Group became a shareholder of Gemplus at the time of its equity contribution in February 2000.
In December 2000, the company completed an initial public offering of its capital stock, in the form of ordinary shares traded on the Eurolist of Euronext Paris, and ADSs traded on the U.S. NASDAQ exchange. In 2004, the company completed the planned reorganization of its corporate structure by transferring most of the subsidiaries of Gemplus SA to Gemplus International SA.
In April 2005, Gemplus acquired Setec Oy, a company headquartered in Finland that, among other things, supplies conventional and electronic travel passports to various government agencies and products involving secure printing.
In June 2006, smart card providers Axalto and Gemplus merged to become Gemalto.
Android patent lawsuit
In October 2010, Gemalto filed a lawsuit against Google, Samsung, HTC and Motorola over the Android operating system in the Eastern District of Texas. Gemalto said that Android phones had memory-utilization features that it had first developed and patented, and accused the defendant companies of infringing three of its patents. Ars Technica quoted ING analysts who estimated that winning this lawsuit could potentially bring the company royalty receipts amounting to 30-50 million Euros per annum. However, in June 2014, a panel of judges in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of the defendants that Android phones don't infringe on those patents.
Acquisition by Thales
In December 2017, Gemalto was the subject of a bid from the Thales Group for €4.8 billion. This was subsequently approved by the board of directors subject to international clearance. The acquisition was completed in April 2019 after Thales agreed to offload the Thales General Purpose HSM (hardware security module) unit, nCipher (which it had acquired in July 2008) to Entrust Datacard in June 2019. This was as part of the agreement with EU competition commission for the necessary regulatory clearance to the acquisition.
Corruption
In February 2023, Gemalto was the subject of a judicial investigation for "corruption" and "criminal association" concerning a dozen government contracts in six countries on the African continent.[1]
From Wikipedia’s article on Gemalto, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5