Ascom
| Ascom Holding AG
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| ISIN | CH0011339204 |
| founding | 1987 |
| Seat |
Baar , Canton of Zug , Switzerland
|
| management | Jeannine Pilloud (Chair of the Management Board . Valentin Chapero Chairman of the Board of Directors ) |
| Number of employees | 1,292 |
| sales | 282.9 million CHF (2019) |
| Branch | telecommunications |
| Website | www.ascom.com |
| As of December 31, 2019 | |
The Ascom Holding AG is a listed Swiss group for telecommunication and service. It emerged in 1987 from the merger of the three companies Autophon , Hasler Holding and Zellweger Telecommunications and is based in Baar . Ascom registered shares are listed on the Swiss stock exchange SIX Swiss Exchange listed .
activities
The company has branches in 18 countries and employs around 1,300 people worldwide. Ascom has been focusing on wireless solutions (wireless systems for internal communication in companies and public institutions) since the beginning of October 2016 . Due to the sale of the previous Ascom Network Testing division , the corresponding goodwill had to be written off. This resulted in an extraordinary annual loss of CHF 145 million for 2016.
Ascom Wireless Solutions offers wireless on-site communication solutions. The systems and services from Wireless Solutions aim to optimize business processes for customers in the following market segments: hospitals, retirement and nursing homes, industrial companies, retail, hotels as well as security systems and prisons. The offer concentrates mainly on four areas of application: voice transmission or telephony (voice), data transmission as professional messaging, alarming and localization.
Holger Cordes, who was managing director from 2016 to 2019, had the particular task of developing a viable software platform for on-site communication solutions in the healthcare sector. In 2019, however, the hardware share of sales was still 78 percent. After disappointing results during the first half of 2019, Cordes was replaced by Jeannine Pilloud . On November 7, 2019, it was communicated that Jeannine Pilloud would concentrate on the operative business. She is therefore stepping down as President and member of the Board of Directors with immediate effect and remains CEO. Valentin Chapero , a former CEO of hearing aid manufacturer Sonova, will take over the presidency of the Board of Directors .
history
Ascom's predecessor companies, namely Autophon , Zellweger and Hasler , were, together with Siemens and Alcatel , suppliers to the state post and telecommunications companies ( PTT ) for decades with a de facto purchase guarantee. This divided its orders year after year so that all providers were sufficiently busy. In addition, Ascom was the preferred contractor for the Swiss Army .
When major technological upheavals were announced in telecommunications and telephony was digitized, Ascom lost its position as the leading supplier of telephone exchanges and telephone sets. In addition to the rapid technological changes, there were political changes: Swisscom was separated from the PTT, and the monopoly for telephone sales fell. Desk phones and cell phones are mostly made in Asia today and can be bought anywhere.
Ascom never achieved a breakthrough in mobile communications, nine company managers in 25 years could not prevent the ambitious telecommunications company from having to sell numerous divisions and currently only exist in a highly specialized niche. Ascom is still active internationally in 17 countries. The number of employees has fallen sharply since the merger. In 1997 the company still employed around 11,600 people and had sales of almost 3 billion Swiss francs . In 2002, the reduction measures at Ascom were criticized on various occasions in the Swiss press. Swissinfo quotes the Berner Zeitung , which wrote of a “textbook example of a failed merger”. Also , the federal government , the Tages-Anzeiger and other Swiss newspapers evaluated the impact of the merger negative.
Web links
- Ascom website
- Christoph Zürcher: Ascom. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ascom CEO resigns - Chairman Jeannine Pilloud takes over. In: moneycab.com. August 5, 2019, accessed August 5, 2019 .
- ^ A b Ascom: Jeannine Pilloud concentrates on operational business. Retrieved November 8, 2019 (Swiss Standard German).
- ↑ a b c [1] , accessed on March 14, 2020
- ↑ Jürg Müller: Ascom is shrinking to a dwarf - the story of a startup going backwards. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 23 August 2016, p. 27.
- ↑ Giorgio V. Müller: Ascom's "last" failure - Résumé a failed diversification. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 14, 2017, p. 28.
- ↑ Giorgio V. Müller: Ascom interim boss should save the traditional company. NZZ, August 15, 2019, accessed on August 15, 2019
- ^ Christoph Zürcher: Ascom. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ↑ a b Felix Münger: Shrinking course raises questions . In: Swissinfo . June 15, 2002. Retrieved April 9, 2013.