| Solectron Corporation | |
| Type: | Public company |
| Fate: | liquidated by Flextronics[1] |
| Successor: | Flex Ltd. |
| Foundation: | 1977 |
| Defunct: | 2007 |
| Industry: | Electronics Manufacturing Services, product design and after sales services |
| Products: | Consumer Electronics, Routers, Switches, TVs |
| Revenue: | (2006)[2] |
Solectron Corporation was an American electronics manufacturing company for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Solectron's first customer designed and distributed an electronic controller for solar energy equipment. The name "Solectron" was a portmanteau of the words "solar" and "electronics".[3]
Solectron had sales of around $12 billion a year, and employed 70,000 people in 23 countries.[4] The company was acquired by Flex on October 15, 2007.[5]
Solectron was established in 1977 to provide outsourced manufacturing services to third parties. It was a major manufacturer, but you would have not found its name on any products. Solectron founders Roy Kusumoto and Prabhat Jain saw a growing number of electronics companies in California's Silicon Valley. There was a need to provide printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) services, handling the manufacturing overflow from OEMs. Solectron aimed to provide high-tech companies the ability for their products to be produced and delivered more quickly and efficiently than their competition, and believed that their customers needed a greater level of service for assembly and manufacture of printed circuit boards, cellular phones, along the entire product supply chain.[6]
In 2007, Flextronics announced they buy Solectron for 3.6 billion dollars.[7]