Qt Software

Infobox Company
name = Qt Software

type = Subsidiary
genre =
foundation = 1994
founder = Eirik Chambe-Eng
Haavard Nord
location_city = Oslo
location_country = Norway
location =
origins =
key_people =
area_served =
industry =
products = Qt, Qt Extended, Greenphone
services =
revenue = 174,104,000 Norwegian krone (2006)cite web|url=http://dist.trolltech.com/pdf/TrolltechASA4Q06.pdf|title=Trolltech Quarterly Report: 4th Quarter 2006|publisher=Trolltech|accessdate=2007-10-28]
operating_income =
net_income = (46,526,000) kroner (2006)
num_employees = 227 (2007) [http://trolltech.com/company/newsroom/announcements/press.2007-04-24.4395781534/?searchterm=employee]
parent =
divisions =
subsid =
owner = Nokia
slogan =
homepage =
dissolved =
footnotes =

Qt Software (formerly known as Trolltech and as Quasar Technologies [ [http://trolltech.com/company/tenyear/ Trolltech turns 10! — Trolltech ] ] ) is a computer software company from Oslo, Norway. They provide software development platforms and frameworks, as well as expert consulting services. Their flagship product is Qt, a multi-platform C++ Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) framework which also includes packages such as data structures and a networking library. The popular free Unix desktop environment KDE uses Trolltech's Qt library. Trolltech also employs several KDE developers. Trolltech was founded by Eirik Chambe-Eng and Haavard Nord in 1994. They started writing Qt in 1991, and since then Qt has steadily expanded and improved.

In 2001 Trolltech introduced Qtopia which is based on Qt. Qtopia is an application platform for Linux-based devices such as mobile phones, portable media players and home media. It is also used in many non-consumer products such as medical instruments and industrial devices. Qtopia Phone Edition was released in 2004, and their Greenphone smartphone is based on this platform.

Trolltech completed an initial public offering (IPO) on the Oslo Stock Exchange in July, 2006.

On January 28 2008, Nokia announced that they have entered into an agreement that Nokia will make a public voluntary tender offer to acquire Trolltech [web cite|url=http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1185531|title=Nokia to acquire Trolltech to accelerate software strategy |date=2008-01-28|accessdate=2008-01-28] . The total cost for Nokia is approximately € 104 million [web cite| url=http://www.hs.fi/talous/artikkeli/Nokia+ostaa+norjalaisen+ohjelmistoyrityksen/1135233615595|title=Nokia ostaa norjalaisen ohjelmistoyrityksen|date=2008-01-28|accessdate=2008-01-28|language=fi] . Trolltech has since accepted this offer [web cite|url=http://trolltech.com/company/newsroom/announcements/press.2008-01-28.4605718236|title=Nokia to acquire Trolltech to accelerate software strategy|date=2008-01-28|accessdate=2008-01-28|language=en] .

On June 5th, 2008 Nokia’s voluntary tender offer is approved for all the shares in Trolltech. Nokia announced, on 17 June 2008, that it has completed its acquisition of Trolltech. On September 30th, 2008, Trolltech was renamed as Qt Software, and Qtopia has been renamed as Qt Extended.

See also

* The Greenphone, a mobile phone developed by Trolltech that uses mostly free and open source software

External links

* [http://www.trolltech.com Trolltech's homepage]

References