Hitachi

Hitachi, Ltd.

Company type	Public Kabushiki gaisha
Traded as	TYO: 6501
Industry	Conglomerate
Founded	1910 (1910) (Hitachi, Ibaraki)
Founder	Namihei Odaira
Headquarters	Chiyoda, Tokyo , Japan
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Takashi Kawamura (Chairman) Hiroaki Nakanishi (President)
Products	Electronics, industrial machinery, telecommunications equipment, power plants, information systems, automotive components, materials, construction equipment
Services	Consulting, financial services
Revenue	¥9.665 trillion (2012)[1]
Operating income	¥412.28 billion (2012)[1]
Net income	¥347.17 billion (2012)[1]
Total assets	¥9.418 trillion (2012)[1]
Total equity	¥1.771 trillion (2012)[1]
Number of employees	323,540 (2012)[2]
Website	www.hitachi.com

Hitachi, Ltd. (株式会社日立製作所, Kabushiki-gaisha Hitachi Seisakusho) (Japanese pronunciation: [çiꜜtatɕi]) is a Japanese multinational engineering and electronics conglomerate company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent of the Hitachi Group (Hitachi Gurūpu) and forms part of the DKB Group of companies. Hitachi is a diversified company and has 11 business segments: Information and Telecommunication Systems, Electrical Systems, Social and Industrial Systems, Automotive Systems, Electronic Component Devices, Construction, and Financial services.

Hitachi is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX indices. It is ranked 38th in the 2012 Fortune Global 500 and 129th in the 2012 Forbes Global 2000.

Hitachi was founded in 1910 by electrical engineer Namihei Odaira. The company's first product was Japan's first 5-horsepower electric induction motor, initially developed for use in copper mining. Odaira's company soon became the domestic leader in electric motors and electric power industry infrastructure. ^[3]

The company began as an in-house venture of Fusanosuke Kuhara's mining company in Hitachi, Ibaraki prefecture. Odaira moved headquarters to Tokyo in 1918. Long before that, he coined the company’s toponymic name by superimposing two kanji characters: hi meaning “sun” and tachi meaning “rise”. The young company's national aspirations were conveyed by its original brand mark, which evoked Japan's imperial rising sun flag.

Hitachi America, Ltd. was established in 1959.^[4] Hitachi Europe, Ltd. was established in 1982.^[5]

In March 2011, Hitachi agreed to sell its hard disk drive subsidiary, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, to Western Digital for a combination of cash and shares worth US$4.3 billion.^[6] The transaction was completed in March 2012.^[7]

Hitachi entered talks with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in August 2011 about a potential merger of the two companies, in what would have been the largest merger between two Japanese companies in history.^[8][9] The talks subsequently broke down and were suspended.^[10]

In October 2012, Hitachi agreed to acquire the United Kingdom-based nuclear energy company Horizon Nuclear Power, which plans to construct up to six nuclear power plants in the UK, from E.ON and RWE for £700 million.^[11][12]

In November 2012, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries agreed to merge their thermal power generation businesses into a joint venture to be owned 65% by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and 35% by Hitachi.^[13][14] The joint venture is planned to begin operations in 2014.^[13][14]

• System integration
• Outsourcing services
• Software
• Disk array subsystems
• Servers
• Mainframe computers
• Telecommunications equipment
• ATMs

• Nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric power plants
• Wind Power Generation Systems

• Industrial Machinery and Plants
• Escalators
• Elevators
• Railway Vehicles and Systems

• LCDs
• Semiconductor manufacturing equipment
• Power tools
• Test and measurement equipment
• Medical electronics equipment

• Hydraulic Excavators
• Mining Dump Trucks
• Wheel Loaders
• Mechanical & Hydraulic Cranes

• Wires and cables
• Copper products
• Semiconductor and Display Related Materials
• Circuit boards and materials
• Specialty steels
• Magnetic materials and components
• High grade casting components and materials

• Engine Management Systems
• Drive Control Systems
• Electric Powertrain Systems
• Car Information Systems

• Hard Disk Drives
• Information Storage Media
• LCDs
• Batteries

• Optical disc drives
• Plasma and LCD Televisions
• LCD projectors
• Room air conditioners
• Refrigerators
• Washing machines
• Air conditioning equipment

• Leasing
• Loan Guarantees

• Logistics
• Property management

Hitachi Consulting is an international management and technology consulting firm with headquarters in Dallas, Texas. It was founded in 2000 and currently employs approximately 4,000 people across the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, India, Spain, Portugal and Germany.

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi which provides hardware, software and services to help companies manage their digital data. Its flagship products are the Virtual Storage Platform (for enterprise storage), Hitachi Unfied Storage VM for large sized companies, Hitachi Unified Storage for small and mid-sized companies, Hitachi Content Platform (cloud architecture), Hitachi Command Suite (for storage management), Hitachi TrueCopy (for remote replication), and the Hitachi NAS Platform, powered by BlueArc.

Hitachi manufactures many types of electronic products including TVs, Camcorders, Projectors and Recording Media under its own brand name.

Hitachi Plant Technologies, Ltd., along with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, manufacture, sale, servicing, and execution of social and industrial infrastructure machinery, mechatronics, air-conditioning systems, industrial plants, and energy plant equipment in Asia and internationally.

Hitachi Rail is involved in designing and manufacturing the many models of Shinkansen vehicles, including the current model, the N700 Series Shinkansen.^[15] Several different models of the N700, including the 700T for Taiwan High Speed Rail.

Hitachi currently markets a general purpose train known as the "A-train", which utilises double-skin friction stir welded aluminium body construction. The A-train concept can be customised to form a commuter train like the automated 3000 series train for the Nanakuma Line, a limited express train like the E257 series, or a high-speed train such as the Class 395 operating in the UK.^[15] In June 2008, Hitachi also submitted a contender for the UK's Intercity Express Programme.^[16]

Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries agreed to cooperate in the field of international intra-city railway systems market in 2010.^[17]

Hitachi Works is the oldest member of the Hitachi Group and consists of three factories: Kaigan, Hitachi-LG Yamate, and Rinkai Works. Yamate Works, the oldest of the three factories, was founded in 1910 by Namihei Odaira as an electrical equipment repair and manufacturing facility. This facility was named Hitachi, after the Hitachi Mine near Hitachi, Ibaraki, and is regarded as the ancestral home of Hitachi, Ltd.

Many management trainees intern at Hitachi Works before being permanently assigned to other Hitachi divisions. Senior management personnel are often participants in rotations at Hitachi Works for a few years as their career develops towards eventual head office stature. As a result, many of the senior managers of Hitachi Ltd have passed through Hitachi Works.

Spin-off entities from Hitachi Works include Hitachi Cable (1956) and Hitachi Canadian Industries (1988).

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) manufactures computer hard drives. There are 3 main ranges: Hitachi Travelstar, Hitachi Deskstar, and Hitachi Ultrastar.

On March 7, 2011 Hitachi Global Storage Technologies was purchased by Western Digital Corporation for $3.5 billion in cash and $750 million in Western Digital common stock.^[18]

Hitachi Printing Systems was established in 1980 and was acquired by Ricoh in 2004, becoming Ricoh Printing Systems, Ltd.

In August 2011 it was announced that Hitachi would donate an electron microscope to each of five universities in Indonesia (the University of North Sumatra in Medan, the Indonesian Christian University in Jakarta, Padjadjaran University in Bandung, General Soedirman University in Purwokerto and Muhammadiyah University in Malang).^[19]

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