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Thales S.A., Trade name Thales Group (), is a French multinational aerospace and defence industry corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aerospace and military systems, devices and equipment but also operates in the cybersecurity and formerly civil ground transportation sectors. The company is headquartered in Paris' business district, La Défense, and its stock is listed on Euronext Paris.
Founded as Thomson-CSF in 1968, the group was rebranded Thales in 2000 due to the company's desire to simplify and improve the group's brand.
Thales is partially owned by the French state and operates in more than 68 countries. In 2023, the company generated €18,42 billion in revenue and was the 17th largest defence contractor in the world, with 53% of its total revenue generated from its military activities.
In October 1999, Samsung Electronics announced a 50-50 joint venture with the global French defense contractor. The joint venture, based in South Korea, would be led by a CEO appointed by Samsung Electronics and will take over the entire defense business that Samsung Electronics has been conducting, which employed 697 people and generated sales of KRW 163.1 billion (US$134.5 million) the previous year. The new company would now market Samsung Electronics' defense communication equipment, satellite communication systems and terminals, fire control systems, radar guidance equipment including detection and tracking devices, and gunner's sights; and would begin overseas exports through Thomson's sales network. Samsung stated that the two parent companies also intended to combine their respective areas of competitive advantage to jointly develop and sell next-generation products.
In June 2001, Thales formed ThalesRaytheonSystems, an equal-ownership joint venture with Raytheon combining their radar and communication systems divisions. It was restructured in 2016 to sell exclusively to NATO agencies and 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. Also 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. Though the contract was not for this purpose, it later appeared that China used these ALLISS antennas for jamming foreign radio broadcasts to China.
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 United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence.
Thales Navigation, a division that produced satellite navigation units, was sold to private equity group Shah Capital Partners in 2006 for $170 million and renamed Magellan.
In April 2006, Thales announced it would acquire Alcatel-Lucent's space business (67% of Alcatel Alenia Space and 33% of Telespazio) and Alcatel's Rail Signalling Solutions division, in a deal which raised Alcatel's ownership of Thales to 21.66 percent. The French government would also decrease its ownership in Thales to 27.1 percent from 31.3 percent as part of the acquisition. The deal would also include the Systems Integration activities (those not dedicated to telecoms operators, and covering mainly the transport and energy sectors). In January 2007, the 1.7 billion Euro deal ($2.24 billion) was approved.
In 2008, Thales acquired British hardware security module vendor nCipher.
In December 2008, Alcatel agreed to sell a 20.8% stake in French engineering group Thales SA to Dassault Aviation SA for €1.57 billion ($2.27 billion).
In 2012, SYSGO was taken over by the Thales Group of France. It was a German IT company that supplies operating systems and services for embedded systems with high safety and security-related requirements, using Linux.
In 2014, Alcatel-Lucent initiated talks to sell its cybersecurity unit to Thales. The deal was signed in October of that year.
In 2016, Thales acquired Vormetric, a data security company, for $400M.
In 2017, it acquired Guavus and bid €4.76B for digital security company Gemalto.
In 2018, Thales committed to divesting nCipher as a condition for its acquisition of Gemalto; in June 2019 it divested nCipher to Datacard Group.
In 2023, Thales acquired cybersecurity company, Imperva, from Thoma Bravo for $3.6B. The acquisition was completed in December 2023.
It is also present in Eurosam as Thomson-CSF was a founder of the consortium along with Aérospatiale and Alenia Aeronautica. In February 2004, Thales was awarded a contract for a new command and control system for the French Navy, the SIC 21, that will be fitted on the Charles de Gaulle, many vessels and shore locations.
Additionally, the initially planned French aircraft carrier PA2 involved Thales as the main designer of the ship. However, the project was cancelled in 2013.
Thales is also working on X-ray imaging, finances, energy and operating commercial satellites.
By 2012, the company is mainly composed of five branches: Defense, Security, Space, Aerospace and Ground transportation.
Among the EU-supported projects Thales participates in are:
Thales Air Defence produces a range of short-range missile systems such as the Starstreak surface-to-air missile or Lightweight Multi-role Missile (LMM).
In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, major arms manufacturers, including Thales, reported a sharp increase in interim sales and profits.
In November 2017, Thales acquired a UK radar provider called Aveillant which produces software-defined holographic radar technology, which can detect small targets such as drones.
In February 2018, Thales won on a A$1.2 billion ($946 million) contract with Airservices Australia and the Australian Department of Defence to unify Australia's civil and military airspace under a single air traffic control system, named "OneSKY".
In Denmark, Thales now owns 100% of the "East-west Consortium" contracted for a nationwide travel card (Danish: "Rejsekort").
In India, Thales was selected in December 2014 by the New Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to deliver a completely automatic fare collection system, as well as ticketing equipment. Thales has also been contracted by Hyderabad Metro Rail since 2017 to provide train control automation and communication services for the metro in Hyderabad.
In 2014, the company was tasked with equipping the public transport system of Bordeaux, France, with a contactless ticketing and revenue collection system, to be installed by February 2017. However, due to delays, the system is not expected to be operational until 2019.
In 2017, Thales was involved in a train collision in Singapore, resulting from a compatibility issue between the old signalling system's interface, and the new one. The accident resulted in 38 minor injuries. A similar incident occurred in March 2019 in Hong Kong on the Tsuen Wan line.
In Vietnam, the company was awarded a €265 million contract in 2017 to deliver the telecommunications system for the currently constructed Line 3 of the Hanoi metro. Running behind schedule by one year, the metro line is stated to be launched in 2023.
In Turkey, the Thales team delivered the first High Speed Line in the country in 2009, and has completed more than of the Ankara Istanbul High Speed Line.
Effective 31 May 2024, the ground transportation division was sold off to Hitachi Rail. The deal was made at $2.5 billion.
Thales also produces and installs ticketing and communications systems for via its ticketing and revenue collection division. In November 2016, Thales announced its intention to divest from its transport ticketing, revenue collection, road toll and car park management business. The company entered into negotiations with Paris-based Latour Capital, but the negotiations ended in 2017 after Latour Capital announced this business was "not aligned closely enough with its investment priorities." After subsequent talks with China investors failed, Thales abandoned the divestment.
On 22 January 2020, the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg ruled that both the Thales Group and Zuma could be criminally tried for alleged illegal arms dealings which Thales was allowed to undergo in South Africa. Zuma is said to have allowed these illegal Thales arms dealings when he was the nation's deputy president and is also believed to have partaken in them as well.
Sofradir, a joint venture of Thales and Safran, supplied infrared detectors beyond 2016, with 258 of these remaining to be delivered.
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