Flex (company)

Flex Ltd.
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: FLEX
Industry
Founded 1969 (1969) (as Flextronics, Inc.)
Founder
  • Joe McKenzie
  • Barbara Ann McKenzie
Headquarters San Jose, California, United States (operations); Singapore (legal domicile)
Number of locations
 100
Key people
  • Michael D. Capellas
  • (Chairman of the Board)
  • Michael M. McNamara
  • (CEO)
  • Christopher E. Collier
  • (CFO)
Revenue
  • Increase US$ 25.44 billion
  • (FY MAR 31 2018)
  • Increase US$ 643.72 million
  • (FY MAR 31 2018)
  • Increase US$ 428.53 million
  • (FY MAR 31 2018)
Total assets
  • Increase US$ 13.72 billion
  • (FY MAR 31 2018)
Total equity
  • Increase US$ 3.02 billion
  • (FY MAR 31 2018)
Number of employees
  • ~200,000
  • (FY MAR 31 2018)
Website Flex.com
Footnotes / references
[1]

Flex Ltd.[2] (previously known as Flextronics International Ltd. or Flextronics) is an American multinational technological manufacturer. It is the third[3] largest global electronics manufacturing services (EMS), original design manufacturer (ODM) company by revenue, behind only Taiwan's Pegatron to original equipment manufacturers.

The corporate headquarters are located in Singapore and administrative in San Jose, California.[4][5][6] The company has manufacturing operations in over 40 countries, totalling approximately 200,000 employees.

History

Flextronics' Singapore headquarters in August 2006.
Logo used until 2015.

In 1969, the company was founded in Silicon Valley as Flextronics, Inc. by Joe McKenzie. In 1980, the company was sold to Bob Todd, Joe Sullivan and Jack Watts. In 1981, Flextronics became a publicly held company.

In 1990, the company returned to being a private company in a leveraged buyout and was renamed as Flextronics International, Ltd. with Singapore as its new base. In 1993, the company received venture capital funding through Sequoia Capital,[7] and became a public held company again in 1994. The company closed its contract electronic manufacturing plant in Richardson, Texas in 1996. The company acquired two companies in Hong Kong, Astron Group and FICO Plastics Ltd. and a Swedish-based company, Ericsson Business Networks. In 2000, the company ranked third on "100 Best-Managed Companies" by IndustryWeek. In 2005, the company purchased the manufacturing division of Nortel Networks, and Solectron in 2007. In 2006 Flextronics took over a part of the production of Lego, but in 2009 Lego decided to end relations with Flextronics and purchase the production facilities in Mexico and Hungary. On 4 June 2007, Flextronics offered to purchase Solectron for US$3.6 billion and thus making Solectron a subsidiary of Flextronics. The acquisition of Solectron was completed by end of October 2007, earlier than anticipated.

On 18 March 2009, Flextronics was invited to ring the NASDAQ stock market opening bell, signifying the day's start of trading and celebrated 15-year NASDAQ-listed anniversary. Mike McNamara (CEO) and a group of top executives represented the company at the ringing of the bell.[8] On 25 August 2009, Flextronics announced that it was chosen by LG Electronics (LGE), a global provider of advanced digital products and applied technologies, to manufacture 19, 22, 26, 32, and 37-inch LCD television receivers at its Ciudad Juárez, Mexico facility for distribution to the North and South American markets.[9] On 2 September 2009, Flextronics announced that Multek received Danaher Test and Measurement's 2009 Outstanding Supplier Award. The award was given based on quality, delivery performance, engineering support and cost for work with two of Danaher's business units, Tektronix and Fluke.[10]

On 15 September 2010, Flextronics announced that it had been chosen by Brammo, Inc., a global leader in the electric motorcycle business, to be its manufacturing partner for the production and distribution of plug-in electric motorcycles and components. The partnership represented an expansion of Flextronics' Automotive Division's portfolio for battery-powered vehicles and complemented its expertise in high voltage and energy recuperation for the automotive market.[11][12] In 2010, the company signed an agreement with Lenovo to provide manufacturing for Europe. That same year, Flextronics also signed an agreement with Brammo to provide acquisition and manufacturing in North America, Asia and Europe.

In 2012, Flextronics incubated Elementum, a start-up supply chain management (SCM) company based in Mountain View, California. In 2014, Elementum was spun off from Flextronics as its own separate entity.[13]

In 2014, Flextronics was named as the manufacturer of the Fitbit Force by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission in the context of a complete recall of the product due to rashes developing on the wrists of its users.[14]

In July 2015 the company announced that it will change the company name from Flextronics to just Flex.[15] In November 2015, Flex, acquired Wink smart home platform to bring the Intelligence of Things "Home". Flex has been a strategic partner to Wink, serving as their primary supplier of hardware and firmware, including the Wink Hub and Wink Relay, which include core intellectual property developed within Flex.[16]

In August 2016, the state of Massachusetts and the city of Boston offered the company more than $3 million in public aid to entice the company to open its Flex Boston Innovation Center on the South Boston waterfront. The 17,000 square feet (1,600 m2) facility will employ 25 people and be located in a former military storehouse in the Seaport, now called the Innovation and Design Building.[17]

In July 2017, Flex sold Wink to i.am+ for $38.7M

Lab IX

In 2013, Flextronics launched Lab IX, an accelerator program based out of Milpitas (where the company also has an R&D centre), which will award $500,000 to each selected company to grow their ideas and bring it to market.

The focus of Lab IX is to find start-ups that are less than three years old, have less than $5 million in funding – "early stage disruptive companies incorporating hardware and software innovation". In addition to a capital injection, Lab IX will also provide access to Lab IX and Flextronics' engineers and designers, including IDEO, access to manufacturing and prototyping equipment – some $30 million in the R&D centre alone. Those who look like they may be progressing to the next stage of their development get access to Flextronics' network of factories for manufacturing, procurement network and marketing network.[18]

Controversies

Breach of contracts

Flextronics was sued what was apparent in breach of contract with Beckman Coulter Inc., a medical device maker. The case dates from 1997, when Beckman Coulter entered into an agreement with Dovatron, a unit of the Dii Group, to provide circuit boards for a Beckman blood analyser. Flextronics acquired the Dii Group in 1999 and, according to Beckman, shortly thereafter Flextronics refused to provide the circuit boards unless it bought other electronic components from the company.

Beckman filed suit in early 2001, seeking $2.2 million in damages, which were cited as the costs incurred in having to retool one of its plants to manufacture the circuit boards in-house.[19][20]

At the end of trial, Flextronics paid $23 million for the damages.[21]

Leak of USB charger confidential shipment data

A former Flextronics executive pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud and security fraud by providing confidential information related to USB charger shipment data used for U.S. based iPhones and iPods for the third and fourth quarters of 2009.[22]

References

  1. ↑ "US SEC: Form 10-K Flex Ltd". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  2. ↑ "People and Company-wide Culture". flex.com. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  3. ↑ "The MMI Top 50 Press Release". Manufacturing Market Insider. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  4. ↑ "Flextronics moves US HQ to America". The Business Journals. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  5. ↑ "Flextronics International". Fortune. 21 July 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 December 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  7. ↑ "Sequoia – Flextronics". Sequoia Capital. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  8. ↑ "Flextronics International". Companieshistory.com. 9 July 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  9. ↑ "Flextronics Selected by LG Electronics to Manufacture Assorted LCD TV Products for North and South American Markets". PR Newswire. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  10. ↑ "Multek Wins Danaher Test and Measurement's 2009 Outstanding Supplier Partnership Award". PR Newswire. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  11. ↑ Miles, Matthew. "Brammo Partners with Flextronics – Industry News". CycleWorld Magazine. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
  12. ↑ Williams, Christina (16 September 2010). "Brammo teams with Flextronics". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  13. ↑ Gage, Deborah (4 February 2014). "Flextronics Spins Off Startup to Put Supply Chain Software in the Cloud". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  14. ↑ "Fitbit Recalls Force Activity Tracking Wristband - CPSC.gov". Cpsc.gov. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  15. ↑ "Flextronics Officially Changes Name to Flex". PR Newswire. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  16. ↑ "Flex to Bring the Intelligence of Things 'Home' with Wink Acquisition". PR Newswire. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  17. ↑ Chesto, Jon (16 August 2016). "$3.3m package coaxes Flextronics into opening city innovation center". Boston Globe. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
  18. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid. "Hardware Giant Flextronics Is Launching Lab IX, An Accelerator That Gives $500K To Each Hardware Startup". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  19. ↑ "Callahan & Blaine Wins $934 Million for Beckman Coulter". Callahan & Blaine. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  20. ↑ "California Jury Awards Beckman Coulter $934 Million". Mddionline.com. 1 November 2003. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  21. ↑ Thurm, Scott (28 November 2003). "Flextronics Will Pay $23 Million To Beckman to Settle a Lawsuit". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  22. ↑ Dignan, Larry. "Apple's weak link on secrets: Contract equipment manufacturing? – ZDNet". ZDNet. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
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