page_title: Thales Group
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Thales Group / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Le centre de R&amp;D de Thales à Palaiseau, sur le campus de l'Ecole polytechnique (Paris-Saclay).English: The research center of Thales, near the Ecole polytechnique, in the scientific cluster of Paris-Saclay, France.
context_page_description: Thales Group is a French multinational company that designs and builds electrical systems and provides services for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security markets. The company is headquartered in Paris' business district, La Défense and its stock is listed on the Euronext Paris.
  The company changed its name to Thales from Thomson-CSF in December 2000 shortly after the acquisition of Racal Electronics plc, a UK defence electronics group. It is partially state-owned by the French government, and has operations in more than 56 countries. It has 80,000 employees and generated €18.4 billion in revenues in 2019. As of 2017, it is also the 8th largest defence contractor in the world and 55% of its total sales are military sales.
  The CEO of Thales Group is Patrice Caine since December 2014.
context_section_description: Thales' predecessor, Thomson-CSF, evolved from Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH), which was established in 1893. However Thomson-CSF itself was established in 1968 when Thomson-Brandt (then renamed CFTH) merged its electronics arm with that of Compagnie générale de la télégraphie sans fil (CSF).
  Thales formed a joint venture with Raytheon in June 2001 to combine their radar and communications systems divisions. Named ThalesRaytheonSystems, the firm is 50% owned by both parent companies. The joint venture was restructured in 2016 to switch focus exclusively on NATO agencies and NATO member states.
  In 2002 Thales set up the joint venture company Armaris with the French shipbuilder DCN to offer a total "bottom up" shipbuilding capability.
  In 2002, Thales Broadcast Multimedia, a former subsidiary of Thales, provided China with standard short-wave radio-broadcasting equipment designed for general public radio broadcasting. Although the contract was not at all for the purpose of jamming foreign radio stations broadcasting to China, it now appears that this is what the ALLISS antennas are being used for.
  In 2003 Thales UK's design won the competition for the Royal Navy Future Carrier (CVF) and the company now participates in an alliance company with BAE Systems and the UK Ministry of Defence.
  Thales Navigation, a division that produced GPS units, was sold to private equity group Shah Capital Partners in 2006 for $170 million and renamed Magellan.
caption: The research centre of Thales in the business cluster of Paris-Saclay, France.
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