ST-Ericsson was formed on 3 February 2009 when STMicroelectronics and Ericsson completed the merger of
Ericsson Mobile Platforms and
ST-NXP Wireless into a 50/50 joint venture. On 20 August 2008, STMicroelectronics and Ericsson announced their interest to merge their wireless semiconductor businesses. ST contributed its multimedia and connectivity products as well as its 2G/
EDGE platform and
3G offering. Ericsson contributed its 3G and
3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) platform technology. The merger followed an existing strategic co-operation between Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless. Ericsson also had a venture with
Sony called
Sony Ericsson during 2001–2012. On 11 December 2012, ST-Ericsson was on the brink of shutdown after its parent company
STMicroelectronics decided to move out of the JV, citing loss of market share due to ST-Ericsson failing to attain
Break-even. Since ST-Ericsson came into being in 2009,
STMicroelectronics has slipped from 5 to 7 in global semiconductor firms' rakings. On 5 August 2013 Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) announced the closing of the transaction for the split up of ST-Ericsson. This follows the announcement the companies made on 18 March 2013 on the chosen strategic option for the future of the joint venture. Effective 2 August 2013 Ericsson has taken on the design, development and sales of the LTE multimode thin modem solutions, including 2G, 3G and 4G interoperability. ST has taken on the existing ST-Ericsson products, other than LTE multimode thin modems, and the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) connectivity solution sold to a third party, and related business as well as certain assembly and test facilities. Some of EMPs customers were Flextronics, HTC, LG, NEC, Sagem, Sharp and of course Sony Ericsson. The main focus in the company was for the eight years it existed, to develop a platform for
UMTS. Their main development centers were situated in
Lund, Sweden and with other three developments centers in
Basingstoke (UK),
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina (US), and
Nuremberg (Germany). In addition, it had R&D, sales and customer support teams in Tokyo (Japan), Shanghai (China), Taipei (Taiwan), Seoul (South Korea), Grimstad (Norway) and Nuremberg (Germany). It provided mobile terminal technology to customers who wanted to develop and produce mobile phones for the
GPRS,
EDGE and
WCDMA mobile standards. EMP and, Ericsson as a whole, donated resources to standardization bodies such as
3GPP,
OMA, JCP and
OMTP. == Portfolio and mobile products ==