Bull SAS (also known as Groupe Bull, Bull Information Systems, or simply Bull) is a French

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

headquartered in Les Clayes-sous-Bois, in the western suburbs of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The company has also been known at various times as Bull General Electric, Honeywell Bull, CII Honeywell Bull, and Bull HN. Bull was founded in 1931, as H.W. Egli - Bull, to capitalize on the

punched card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a stiff paper-based medium used to store digital information via the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Developed over the 18th to 20th centuries, punched cards were widel ...

technology patents of Norwegian engineer Fredrik Rosing Bull (1882–1925). After a reorganization in 1933, with new investors coming in, the name was changed to Compagnie des Machines Bull (CMB). Bull has a worldwide presence in more than 100 countries and is particularly active in the defense, finance, health care, manufacturing, public, and telecommunication sectors.

History

Origins

On 31 July 1919, Norwegian engineer Fredrik Rosing Bull filed a patent for a "combined sorter-recorder-tabulator of punch cards" machine that he had developed with financing from the Norwegian insurance company Storebrand. Storebrand integrated his device into its operations in 1921. The following year Bull sold his second machine to the Danish insurer Hafnia who had learned of the technology through an article in an insurance trade magazine. At the time of Bull's death from cancer in 1925 at the age of 43, a dozen of his machines had been sold to different companies throughout Europe. The commercial and technical development of the machines continued under the direction of Bull's childhood friend and long-time collaborator Reidar Knutsen along with his brother Kurt Andréas Knutsen. As the business grew, several outside investors were brought in, leading to the incorporation of the company H.W. Egli Bull in 1931. In 1933, more investors joined and the company changed its name to Compagnie des Machines Bull, a name it would keep until 1964.

Growth

The company has undergone many takeovers and mergers since its formation.Pierre Mounier-Kuhn, "Bull - A Worldwide Company Born in Europe", ''Annals of the History of Computing'', 1989, vol. 11/4. In particular, it has had various ownership relations with

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

, Honeywell, and NEC from the 1960s through the 1980s; and with

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

, Debeka, and France Télécom more recently. It acquired Honeywell Information Systems in the late 1980s, and later also had a share of Zenith Data Systems and Packard Bell. Bull was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...

in 1982 and was merged with most of the rest of the French computer industry. Groupe Bull bought Zenith Electronics in late December 1989. It kept Zenith Data Systems' headquarters and plants in Chicago and St. Joseph, Michigan. In 1993 the French Government initiated the process of privatization, which was completed in the period 1995-97 when the company was re- privatised. In August 2014, the French IT company Atos announced that it had acquired a controlling stake in Bull SA through a tender offer launched in May. Atos announced plans in October, 2014 to buy out or squeeze out the remaining share and bondholders. Bull launched the Hoox m2, the first integrally secured European smartphone, which in June 2014 was approved for use with data classified as "Restricted Information" ("''Diffusion Restreinte''") by the Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d'information (ANSSI). The Hoox range of secure mobiles and smartphones ensures confidentiality of voice, SMS, e-mail and data communication.

Products and services

Hardware

* Supercomputers * servers (

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

and

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

), Escala servers ( AIX) and mainframes GCOS (design, manufacturing, distribution) * Data storage and backup systems, cloud computing infrastructure * Mobile/smart phones (Hoox)

Software and services

* Open source
Novaforge.org portal
* Information technology consulting and services, custom solutions development for clients * Systems integration * Human resource and social welfare management systems *

Managed services Managed services is the practice of outsourcing the responsibility for maintaining, and anticipating need for, a range of processes and functions, ostensibly for the purpose of improved operations and reduced budgetary expenditures through the ...

and

web hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web ho ...

* Support * Training

Information security

Public key infrastructure A public key infrastructure (PKI) is a set of roles, policies, hardware, software and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store and revoke digital certificates and manage public-key encryption. The purpose of a PKI is to fac ...

* Electronic signature solutions * Encryption solutions (hardware and software) * Digital payment security * Identity, authentication and access management * High availability and disaster recovery * Systems and network monitoring

Corporate structure

Groupe Bull: * Bull SAS ** Agarik (

) ** HRBC (Human Resources systems) ** Bull PI (Engineering, research) ** Sirus (Social welfare management systems for the public sector) * Bull International SAS * Evidian (Security; identity and access management) * Serviware ( high performance computing) * Amesys SAS : ** Amesys Consulting (including Amesys International) ** Amesys RSS (including TRCOM) * Elexo (networking and telecommunications equipment)

Amesys controversy

Amesys, a Groupe Bull subsidiary specializing in defense and aerospace-related systems and software, became embroiled in controversy in 2011 when it was revealed that it had sold an internet monitoring system to the

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, his assassination by Libyan Anti-Gaddafi ...

regime of Libya in 2007. The ''Eagle System'' was used by the Gaddafi regime to spy on citizens and foreign journalists. On 12 March 2013

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...

named Amesys as one of five " Corporate Enemies of the Internet" and "digital era mercenaries" for selling products that have been or are being used by governments to violate

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

and freedom of information. A judicial inquiry was opened by the French government in May 2012 following allegations of complicity in torture by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). In March 2012 Groupe Bull divested itself of the Eagle System, selling it for 4 million euros to Nexa Technologies, a company run by a former Amesys CEO.

References

External links

{{commons category

French companies established in 1931 Companies formerly listed on Euronext Paris Computer hardware companies Computer systems companies Electronics companies established in 1931 Electronics companies of France Mobile phone manufacturers Privately held companies of France Privatized companies of France Telecommunications companies of France French brands Software companies of France Computer surveillance Groupe Bull