STMicroelectronics is the world’s fifth largest semiconductor company with net revenues of US$9.84 billion in 2008. The Company’s sales are well balanced among the semiconductor industry’s five major high-growth sector......STMicroelectronics is the world’s fifth largest semiconductor company with net revenues of US$9.84 billion in 2008. The Company’s sales are well balanced among the semiconductor industry’s five major high-growth sectors (approximate percentage of ST’s sales in 2008 (1)): Communications (36%), Consumer (17%), Computer (16%), Automotive (15%) and Industrial (17%). According to the latest industry data from iSuppli, ST holds market leadership in many fields. For example, the Company is the leading producer of application-specific analog chips and power conversion devices. It is the #1 supplier of semiconductors for the Industrial market, set-top box applications, and MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) chips for portable and consumer devices, including game controllers and smart phones. ST also occupies leading positions in fields as varied as automotive integrated circuits (#3), chips for computer peripherals (#3), and the rapidly expanding market for MEMS overall (#5). Product Portfolio ST aims to be the leader in multimedia convergence and power applications, offering one of the world’s broadest product portfolios, including application-specific products containing a large proprietary IP (Intellectual Property) content and multi-segment products that range from discrete devices to high-performance microcontrollers, secure smart card chips and MEMS devices. The Company provides solutions for a wide array of Digital Consumer applications, with a particular focus on set-top boxes, digital TVs and digital audio, including radio. In the Computer Peripherals arena, ST provides leading solutions in data storage, printing, visual display units, power management for PC motherboards, and power supplies. A wide range of ST’s ASSPs (Application Specific Standard Products) power sophisticated Automotive systems such as engine control, vehicle safety equipment, door modules, and in-car infotainment The Company also supplies industrial integrated circuits (IC) for factory automation systems, chips for lighting, battery chargers and power supplies, as well as chips for advanced Secure Access applications. ST pioneered and continues to refine the use of platform-based design methodologies for complex ICs in demanding applications such as mobile multimedia, set-top boxes and computer peripherals. The balanced portfolio approach allows ST to address the needs of all microelectronics users, from global strategic customers for whom ST is the partner of choice, for major System-on-Chip (SoC) projects to local enterprises that need fully-supported general-purpose devices and solutions. To maximize the benefit of scale that is becoming increasingly important in some semiconductor markets, ST has recently architected the emergence of two new industry leaders. In the memory field, ST, Intel and Francisco Partners formed a joint venture, Numonyx, dedicated to providing non-volatile memory solutions, for a wide variety of consumer and industrial applications. ST holds a 48% share in Numonyx. In the wireless arena, ST and NXP combined their key wireless semiconductor operations in a joint venture ST subsequently bought NXP’s minority stake in the venture and merged its wireless operations with Ericsson Mobile Platforms to create ST-Ericsson, a 50/50 joint venture focusing on semiconductors and platforms for mobile applications. Research & Development and Manufacturing Since its creation, ST has maintained an unwavering commitment to R&D and in 2008 spent over US$2B--approximately 22% of the Company’s 2008 revenues--in R&D. ST is one of the industry’s most innovative companies it owns close to 19,000 patents and pending patent applications and in 2008 filed 556 new patent applications around the world. ST’s process technology portfolio includes advanced CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) logic including embedded memory variants, mixed-signal, analog and power processes. In advanced CMOS, ST is a partner in the IBM consortium for the development of next-generation process technologies, including 32nm and 22nm CMOS process development, design enablement and advanced research adapted to the manufacturing of 300mm silicon wafers. ST and IBM also cooperate at ST’s Crolles 300mm facility in the development of value-added CMOS derivative SoC technologies. ST has a worldwide network of front-end (wafer fabrication) and back-end (assembly and test and packaging) plants. ST’s principal wafer fabs are presently located in Agrate Brianza and Catania (Italy), Crolles, Rousset and Tours (France), and Singapore. The wafer fabs are complemented by highly efficient assembly and test facilities located in China, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco and Singapore. Alliances From its birth, ST has established a worldwide network of strategic alliances, including product development with key customers, technology development with customers and other semiconductor manufacturers, and equipment- and CAD-development alliances with major suppliers. These industrial partnerships are complemented by a wide range of research programs conducted with leading u