STMicroelectronics N.V., incorporated in the Netherlands on May 21, 1987, was formed by the merger of SGS Microelectronics of Italy and Thomson Semiconductor of France. They are a global independent semiconductor company that designs, develops, manufactures and sells a wide range of products, including discrete and standard commodity components, application-specific integrated circuits (" ASIC's "), fully custom devices and semi-custom devices and applications-specific standard products (" ASSP's ") for analog, digital and mixed-signal applications. In addition, they are involved in the manufacturing value chain of smart card products, including production and sales of two silicon chips and smart cards.
