Gemalto

Gemalto was an international digital security company providing software applications, secure personal devices such as smart cards and tokens, e-wallets and managed services. It was formed in June 2006 by the merger of two companies, Axalto and Gemplus International. Gemalto N.V.'s revenue in 2018 was €2.969 billion. The company was purchased by Thales Group in April 2019 and is now operating as Thales DIS (Digital Identity and Security). Gemalto was until its acquisition the world's largest manufacturer of SIM cards. Thales DIS is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and has subsidiaries and group companies in several countries. It has approximately 15,000 employees in 110 offices along with 24 production sites, 47 personalization centers, and 35 R&D centers in 47 countries. In June 2006, smart card providers Gemplus and Axalto merged to become Gemalto (a portmanteau of the original company names.) Axalto was a Schlumberger IPO spin-off in 2004. Between the merger and 2015, Gemalto completed a series of acquisitions: the Leigh Mardon's personalization center (Taiwan), Multos International, NamITech in South Africa, NXP mobile services business, the mobile software solution provider O3SIS, Trusted Logic (the secure software platform provider), Serverside (personalization of bank cards with digital images generated by end users), XIRING's banking activity, Netsize (a mobile communications service and commerce enabler), Valimo Wireless, a provider in mobile authentication, the internet banking security specialist Todos AB in Sweden, Cinterion the German specialist of machine-to-machine (M2M), SensorLogic (an M2M service delivery platform provider), Plastkart in Turkey, Ericsson’s mobile payment platform IPX, the information security company SafeNet and Buzzinbees, the automatic SIM activation expert. Schlumberger began its chip card activities in February 1979 when it licensed and marketed certain chip card technologies developed and patented by Roland Moreno, who is generally credited with the invention of the chip card.