Siemens AG Totally Explained

Everything about Siemens Ag totally explained

Siemens AG is Europe's largest engineering conglomerate. Siemens' international headquarters are located in Berlin and Munich, Germany. The company is a conglomerate of six major business divisions: Automation & Control, Power, Transportation, Medical, Information & Communication, and Lighting. On November 28, 2007, Siemens reorganised its operations into three Sectors: Industry, Energy and Healthcare with a total of 15 Divisions. Worldwide, Siemens and its subsidiaries employ approximately 400,000 people in nearly 190 countries and reported global revenue of €72,448 million in fiscal year 2007
   In 1881, a Siemens AC Alternator driven by a watermill was used to power the world's first electric street lighting in the town of Godalming, United Kingdom. The company continued to grow and diversified into electric trains and light bulbs. In 1890, the founder retired and left the company to his brother Carl and sons Arnold and Wilhelm. Siemens & Halske (S&H) was incorporated in 1897.
   In 1919, S&H and two other companies jointly formed the Osram lightbulb company. A Japanese subsidiary was established in 1923.
   During the 1920s and 1930s, S&H started to manufacture radios, television sets, and electron microscopes.

Ardnacrusha Hydro Power Station

In the 1930s Siemens constructed the Ardnacrusha Hydro Power station on the River Shannon in the then Irish Free State, and it was a world first for its design. The company is remembered for its desire to raise the wages of its under-paid workers only to be overruled by the Cumann na nGaedhael government.

World War II Era

Preceding World War II Siemens was involved in the secret rearmament of Germany. During the Second World War, Siemens supported the Hitler regime, contributed to the war effort and participated in the "Nazification" of the economy. Siemens had many factories in and around notorious extermination camps such as Auschwitz and used slave labor from concentration camps to build electric switches for military uses. In one example, almost 100,000 men and women from Auschwitz worked in a Siemens factory inside the camp, supplying the electricity to the camp. The crematorium ovens at Buchenwald bear the Siemens label.

Post-war

In the 1950s and from their new base in Bavaria, S&H started to manufacture computers, semiconductor devices, washing machines, and pacemakers. Siemens AG was incorporated in 1966. The company's first digital telephone exchange was produced in 1980. In 1988 Siemens and GEC acquired the UK defense and technology company Plessey. Plessey's holdings were split, and Siemens took over the avionics, radar and traffic control businesses — as Siemens Plessey.
   In 1991, Siemens acquired Nixdorf Computer AG and renamed it Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG. In 1997 Siemens introduced the first GSM cellular phone with colour display. Also in 1997 Siemens agreed to sell the defence arm of Siemens Plessey to British Aerospace (BAe) and a UK government agency, the Defence Analytical Services Agency (DASA). BAe and DASA acquired the British and German divisions of the operation respectively.
   In 1999, Siemens' semiconductor operations were spun off into a new company known as Infineon Technologies. Also, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG formed part of Fujitsu Siemens Computers AG in that year. The retail banking technology group became Wincor Nixdorf.
   In February 2003, Siemens reopened its office in Kabul.
   In 2004, Siemens took over the mantle of official Formula One timekeeper, replacing TAG Heuer.
   In November, 2005, Siemens signed a 12 year agreement with the Walt Disney Company to sponsor attractions in its Florida and California parks.
   In 2006, Siemens announced the purchase of Bayer Diagnostics, which was incorporated into the Medical Solutions Diagnostics division officially on 1 January 2007.
   In March 2007 a Siemens board member was temporarily arrested and accused of illegally financing a business-friendly labour association which competes against the union IG Metall. He has been released on bail. Offices of the labour union and of Siemens have been searched. Siemens denies any wrongdoing.
   In April 2007, the Fixed Networks, Mobile Networks and Carrier Services divisions of Siemens merged with Nokia’s Network Business Group in a 50/50 joint venture, creating a fixed and mobile network company called Nokia Siemens Networks. Nokia delayed the merger due to bribery investigations against Siemens.
   In October 2007, a court in Munich found that the company had bribed public officials in Libya, Russia, and Nigeria in return for the awarding of contracts; four former Nigerian Ministers of Communications were among those named as recipients of the payments. The company admitted to having paid the bribes and agreed to pay a fine of 201 million euros. In December 2007, the Nigerian government canceled a contract with Siemens due to the bribery findings.

Chief Executives

Werner von Siemens (1847-1890)
Wilhelm von Siemens (1890-1919)
Carl Friedrich von Siemens (1919-1941)
Hermann von Siemens (1941-1956)
Ernst von Siemens (1956-1968)
Gerd Tacke (1968-1971)
Bernhard Plettner (1971-1981)
Karlheinz Kaske (1981-1992)
Heinrich von Pierer (1992-2005)
Klaus Kleinfeld (2005-2007)
Peter Löscher (2007-present)

Corporate affairs

Management

Peter Löscher (formerly of Merck) is the current president and the CEO as of July 1, 2007.. He succeeded Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld after the scandal charges of bribery against Siemens. Gerhard Cromme is the current chairman of the supervisory board of Siemens AG. He succeeded Dr. Heinrich v. Pierer on 4/26/2007.

2007 Price fixing fine

In January 2007 Siemens was fined €396 million by the European Commission for rigging EU electricity markets through a cartel involving 11 companies, among which ABB, Alstom, Fuji, Hitachi Japan, AE Power Systems, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Schneider, Areva, Toshiba and VA Tech . According to the Commission, "between 1988 and 2004, the companies rigged bids for procurement contracts, fixed prices, allocated projects to each other, shared markets and exchanged commercially important and confidential information.". The investigation has found questionable payments of roughly €1.3 billion, or $1.9 billion, from 2002 to 2006 that have triggered a broad range of inquiries in Germany, the United States and many other countries.
In May 2007 a German court convicted two former executives of paying about €6 million in bribes from 1999 to 2002 to help Siemens win natural gas turbine supply contracts with Enel, an Italian energy company. The contracts were valued at about €450 million. Siemens was fined €38 million.
Siemens has tightened its internal controls, and implemented strict compliance and anti-corruption measures throughout the company.

Organization structure

Since 1 January 2008, the company is divided into 3 sectors and a total of 15 divisions.

Industry Sector

Industry Automation
Drive Technologies
Building Technologies
1. Building Automation (HVAC)
2. Fire Control
3. Security
Industry Solutions
1. Water Technologies
Mobility
Osram

Energy Sector

Fossil Power Generation
Renewable Energy
Oil & Gas
Service Rotating Equipment
Power Transmission
Power Distribution

Healthcare Sector

Imaging & IT
Workflow & Solutions
Diagnostics

Key business areas and subsidiary companies before 2008

Siemens' six operational business areas before 2008 were: Automation & Control (Automation & Drives

, Industrial Solutions & Services

, Siemens Building Technologies

), Power (Power Generation, Power Transmission & Distribution

), Transportation (Transportation Systems

, Siemens VDO

), Medical (Siemens Medical Solutions), Information & Communication (Siemens Communications, Siemens IT Solutions and Services), and Lighting (OSRAM GmbH, OSRAM Sylvania).
The company is also active in Financing (Siemens Financial Services), Real Estate (Siemens Real Estate), Home Appliances (BSH), Water Technologies (SWT), Computers (Fujitsu Siemens Computers), and Business Services.

Recently acquired companies

Atecs Mannesmann AG (2001) including Mannesmann Dematic, Mannemann Sachs, Mannesmann VDO Automotive, Mannesmann Demag Krauss-Maffei

Danfoss Flow Division (2003)

Bonus Energy (2004) — now Siemens Wind Power A/S

[ndX Software (2004)

Chrysler Group’s Huntsville Electronics Corporation (2004)

USFilter Corporation (2004) — now Siemens Water Technologies Corp.

Woodlands Technology (2004)

Photo-Scan (2004)

DASAN (South Korea - 2004)

Alstom Industrial Turbine Business (2005)

Jet Turbine Services (2005)

Transmitton (2005) — now Siemens Transportation Systems UK

Shaw Power (2005)

Chantry Networks (2005)

Myrio (USA/Canada - 2005)

CTI Molecular Imaging (2005)

Evoline (2005)

VA Tech Group (Austria - 2005)

Power Technologies International (2005) — now Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution, Inc.

AN Windenergie GmbH (2005) — now Siemens Wind Power GmbH

Bayer AG -Diagnostic branch (2006)

Controlotron, USA (2004)

Wheelabrator Air Pollution Control, USA (200?); now Siemens Environmental Systems and Services

Diagnostic Products Corp. (2006) — now Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics

Bewator AB (Sweden - 2005) Security

Vai Ingdesi Automation (Argentine - 2007) Industrial Automation

Kadon Electro Mechanical Services Ltd. (2006)— now TurboCare Canada Ltd.

Kühnle, Kopp, & Kausch AG (2006) — now Siemens Turbomachinery Equipment GmbH

Opto Control (2006)

UGS Corp. (2007)

Dade Behring (2007)

S/D Engineers, Inc. (2007)

VistaScape Security Systems (2006)