NEC

NEC, formally known in Japan as Nippon Denki Kabushiki Gaisha, is a multinational company, headquartered in Tokyo. Employing 152,922 people, it describes itself as “one of the worlds leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of a diversified global base of customers.” To achieve that goal it provides a variety of electronics products and services to include personal computers and peripherals, computer storage, networking equipment and services, and semiconductors. It also manufactures and sells consumer goods such as refrigerators, air conditioners, microwave ovens, and washers. In the year ending March 2008, it announced that its revenues totaled $46.172 billion and its profits totaled $227 million. According to iSuppli Applied Marketing Intelligence, NEC Semiconductors ranked number 13 in the world with 2.1 percent world market share.

The company is organized into three major sections: IT Solutions, Network Solutions, and Electronic Devices. IT Solutions provides both computer hardware and software as well as services. Network Solutions designs and implements network systems to include mobile and wireless systems. Electronic Devices provides semiconductors, displays, and other electronic equipment.

NEC (an abbreviation for Nippon Electric Company) is a very old company. It came into existence in 1898 and was initially a joint partnership with the American Western Electric Company. NEC was the first Japanese company formed with foreign capital; it made and maintained telephone equipment, first phones and switches, and then switchboards. While NEC provided equipment for domestic consumption, it also made equipment for export, starting in 1904, sending equipment to China and then to Korea. The company did not expand in a smooth fashion but rather in fits and starts in direct response to the Japanese government's timetable for providing telephone service to the islands. When the government decided upon expansion, NEC expanded as well. Whenever the government called a temporary halt to installing services, NEC had to pause as well. It was during these pauses that NEC began the practice of importing electric appliances for sale in Japan.

Starting in the mid-1920s, NEC began developing a radio communications business, first broadcasting with imported U.S. equipment in 1925. NEC expanded into developing radio transmitters that were sold in both Japan and China. NEC also developed a method [Page 1189]for transmitting photographs by radio, first accomplishing this in 1928.

As was the case with many industries, NEC was taken over by the government during World War II and was run directly by the Army. The NEC factories were severely damaged during U.S. bombing raids and were not able to reopen until 1946. As the 1950s opened, NEC began developments in several areas commencing with research, development, and manufacture of transistors. The company also made radio broadcasting equipment for export, began developing computers (a transistorized model appeared in 1959), and underwater communications cable.

NEC appeared in the United States and Switzerland. In 1978 the first NEC factory in the United States opened. In the 1980s, NEC entered semiconductor chip production, personal computers (entering this market in 1982) while continuing to manufacture telephone systems, and also made consumer goods such as vidéocassette recorders, televisions, and printers. In this period, NEC was also heavily engaged in the design, development, and manufacture of supercomputers. It was this last area that not only brought a great deal of favorable attention, but also unfavorable notice, namely from the U.S. government.

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