NEC

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Original synthesis to sit alongside the encyclopedia article below. Not part of Wikipedia; verify facts on Wikipedia when precision matters.

NEC (formerly Nippon Electric Company) is a Tokyo-headquartered Japanese multinational technology and electronics corporation, one of the oldest and largest domestic suppliers of critical public infrastructure, enterprise IT, and communications solutions operating across global markets.

Key moments

1899Founded as a joint venture between US firm Western Electric and local Japanese stakeholders to produce domestic telephone infrastructure
1920sDiversified manufacturing operations to include radio communications and public broadcast equipment
1970sLaunched its first line of Japanese-developed mainframe computers, opened regional operating subsidiaries across North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia
2002Formalized rebranding to the single NEC global brand, consolidating its sprawling group of affiliated operating companies under unified identity standards
2010sGrew to become one of the world's leading commercial vendors of facial recognition and biometric identity verification systems for public sector and transport use cases

NEC operates across multiple non-overlapping technology verticals rather than focusing on consumer-facing hardware, creating a unique competitive positioning distinct from many peer Japanese electronics conglomerates. Its long history of public sector partnerships has locked in long-term recurring contracts that are less vulnerable to short-term market fluctuations than consumer product cycles.

Competes directly with Fujitsu and Hitachi on domestic Japanese public sector IT, public safety, and national telecom network upgrade contracts, holding a dominant share in many local government digital transformation projects
Faces global competition from network vendors including Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei on 5G and next-gen telecom infrastructure deployments, while differentiating via integrated biometric identity features not commonly offered by rival suppliers
In the biometrics and facial recognition space, competes with niche specialized players and larger US tech platforms including Amazon AWS Rekognition, with a decades-long public track record of independent accuracy testing for government use cases
Holds a rare dedicated footprint in aerospace and satellite systems as a long-term primary supplier to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), a segment most generalist IT peers do not participate in at comparable scale

Overview

NEC Corporation

area served
native name	日本電気株式会社
native name lang	ja
romanized name	Nippon Denki Kabushiki gaisha
former name	Nippon Electric Company, Limited (1899–1983, in English)
type	Public
isin	JP3733000008‡R1R‡
traded as	tyo: 6701

key people	Takashi Niino‡R2R‡ (chairman) Takayuki Morita (president)

industry	Information technology Electronics

products	Telecommunications equipment · Servers · Supercomputers · Software · Artificial satellites · Consumer electronics · Machine tools

services	Cloud computing

revenue	¥3.48 trillion (2024)‡R3R‡

operating income	¥185.01 billion (2024)‡R3R‡

net income	¥149.52 billion (2024)‡R3R‡

assets	¥4.23 trillion (2024)‡R3R‡

equity	¥2.09 trillion (2024)‡R3R‡

num employees	105,246 (2024)‡R3R‡

subsid	Avaloq CSG International Japan Aviation Electronics (24%) NEC Brasil NEC Corporation of America NEC Europe NEC Laboratories America NEC Software Solutions NEC Solution Innovators NEC X Netcracker Technology

homepage	nec.com

founded	July 17, 1899 (as Nippon Electric Company, Limited) in Tokyo, Japan

hq location	NEC Supertower

location city	Shiba, Minato, Tokyo

location country	Japan

NEC Corporation (日本電気株式会社) is a Japanese multinational information technology corporation headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.[4] It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) platform, and telecommunications equipment and software[5][6] to business enterprises, communications services providers and to government agencies. It is one of the five largest defense contractors in Japan.[7]

NEC was one of the world's largest personal computer and semiconductor manufacturers from the 1980s to the 2000s,[8][9] but has largely withdrawn from manufacturing since the beginning of the 21st century, having spun off its PC business to Lenovo and its semiconductor business to Renesas Electronics and Elpida Memory.

NEC is a member of the Sumitomo Group.

History

Overview

Kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda established Nippon Electric Limited Partnership on 31 August 1898, by using facilities that it had bought from Miyoshi Electrical Manufacturing Company. Iwadare acted as the representative partner; Maeda handled company sales. Western Electric, which had an interest in the Japanese phone market, was represented by Walter Tenney Carleton.[10] Carleton was also responsible for the renovation of the Miyoshi facilities.[11] It was agreed that the partnership would be reorganized as a joint-stock company when the treaty would allow it. On 17 July 1899, the revised treaty between Japan and the United States went into effect. Nippon Electric Company, Limited was organized the same day as Western Electric Company to become the first Japanese joint-venture with foreign capital.[12] Iwadare was named managing director. Ernest Clement and Carleton were named as directors. Maeda and Mototeru Fujii were assigned to be auditors. Iwadare, Maeda, and Carleton handled the overall management.

Operations

As of July 2018, NEC has 6 larger business segments—Public, Enterprise, Network Services, System Platform, Global, and Others.[77] It has renamed its Telecom Carrier business to Network Service.

Principal subsidiaries of NEC include:

NEC Corporation of America
Netcracker Technology
NEC Display Solutions of America (A Sharp-owned company as of July 2020)
NEC Europe
KMD
Avaloq

Products

Defense products include: Food

NEC MobilePro – a handheld computer running Windows CE

NEC Aspire hybrid small business phone system
Electric vehicle batteries[78] (Automotive Energy Supply Corporation, a joint-venture between Nissan, NEC Corporation and NEC TOKIN)
NEC mobile phone (see NEC e616)
NEC America MultiSync Monitors and Fax devices1
NEC digital cinema projector
NEC Home Electronics (USA), Inc. / NEC MultiSpeed laptop PCs, MultiSync series PC monitors and Data Projectors
NEC Home Electronics (USA), Inc. / TV, Projection TV, VCRs and Home Audio (CD, Amplifiers, Receivers)

Achievements

Achievements of NEC include:

the discovery of single-walled carbon nanotubes by Sumio Iijima[84]
the invention of the widely used MUX-scan design for test methodology (contrast with the IBM-developed level-sensitive scan design methodology)
the world's first demonstration of the one-qubit rotation gate in solid state devices.
As for mobile phones, NEC pioneered key technologies like color displays, 3G support, dual screens and camera modules.[85]
Developed a facial recognition system able to detect and distinguish human faces through medical masks.[86]

Sponsorships

NEC was the main (title) sponsor of the Davis Cup competition until 2002, when BNP Paribas took over the sponsorship.[87]

NEC between 1982 and 2012 sponsored the NEC Cup, a Go tournament in Japan.

NEC between 1986 and 2003 sponsored the NEC Shun-Ei, a Go tournament for young players in Japan.

NEC sponsored the English football club Everton from 1985 to 1995. The 1995 FA Cup Final triumph was Everton's final game of the decade-long NEC sponsorship, and Danka took over as sponsors.[88]

NEC first time signed the deal to sponsor Sauber F1 Team from 2011 season until 2014 season.[89]

Sports teams

These started as works teams, but over the years came to include professional players:

NEC also used to own Montedio Yamagata of the football (soccer) J. League, but as of 2009 just sponsors them along with other local companies.

The following team is defunct.

NEC Red Rockets (women's volleyball)
NEC Green Rockets (men's rugby union)

NEC Blue Rockets (men's volleyball)

External links

References

NetCracker Technology is a brand of NEC Co. (NEC1) Allbrands.markets, retrieved 10 July 2024^
NEC Corporate profile Management retrieved 2024-01-01^
Full Year Consolidated Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2024

NEC

BrandAI briefing

History

Overview

Operations

Products

Achievements

Sponsorships

Sports teams

See also

External links

References

1919–1938

1938–1945

1945–1980

1980–2000

Personal computers

Brazil business

Video games

2000–present

Laptops

Telephones and unified communications systems

Supercomputers