Sunrise LLC facts for kids
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Native name
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Sunrise GmbH
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| Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung | |||||
| Industry | Telecommunications | ||||
| Predecessor | diAx, UPC Switzerland | ||||
| Founded | 2000 | ||||
| Headquarters |
Opfikon, Switzerland
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Key people
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André Krause (CEO) Thomas D. Meyer (Chairman of the Board) |
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| Revenue | CHF1.887 billion (2019) | ||||
| Owner | Liberty Global | ||||
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Number of employees
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c. 1739 (2019) | ||||
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Sunrise is a big company in Switzerland. It helps people connect with each other. Sunrise offers services like mobile phone plans, TV channels, and internet for homes and phones. It is owned by a company called Liberty Global.
Sunrise's main office is in Opfikon, Switzerland. It used to be owned by different companies. In 2015, Sunrise shares started being traded on the Swiss Stock Exchange. This means people could buy and sell parts of the company. In 2020, Liberty Global bought Sunrise.
Contents
How Sunrise Started and Grew
Sunrise became the company it is today in 2001. This happened when two companies, diAx and the original Sunrise, joined together.
Early Days: diAx and Sunrise
diAx started in 1997. It began offering services in 1998. Parts of diAx were owned by American and Swiss companies. The original Sunrise was mainly owned by BT Group and TDC A/S from Denmark. Other partners included Migros and the Swiss Federal Railways.
In 2000, these companies wanted to avoid high fees for new mobile phone licenses. By merging, there were fewer companies needing licenses. After they merged, the new company was called Sunrise. It became a part of TDC A/S.
New Name and Look
In 2007, the company's name officially changed to Sunrise Communications AG. The brand name "Sunrise" was also capitalized. They got a new logo with a special font called Frutiger. This font was chosen to show that Sunrise is a Swiss company. Their new motto was "Brave. Vital. Honest. Easy."
Growing with Tele2 Switzerland
In 2008, Sunrise bought another company called Tele2 Switzerland. Tele2 had many customers, over 491,000. Tele2 kept its name for a while. Its employees also joined Sunrise. Later, in 2011, the name "Tele2" was changed to "Tele4U".
Attempted Mergers and Changes
In 2009, there was a plan for Sunrise to merge with Orange Communications. Orange was another big phone company in Switzerland. If they merged, they would have a large share of the mobile phone market. However, the Competition Commission stopped this merger in 2010. They worried it would make the market less fair.
Later in 2010, a company called CVC Capital Partners bought Sunrise. This was a big step for Sunrise.
Becoming a Public Company
In 2015, Sunrise became a public company. This means its shares could be bought and sold on the stock exchange. A German company called Freenet became a major shareholder in 2016.
Joining with UPC Switzerland
In 2019, Sunrise planned to buy UPC Switzerland. UPC Switzerland was also a big telecommunications company. This deal was worth a lot of money. The Competition Commission approved the purchase. However, Sunrise's main shareholder, Freenet, wanted to change the deal. In the end, the deal was cancelled in October 2019.
Liberty Global Buys Sunrise
In August 2020, Liberty Global announced it would buy Sunrise. Liberty Global had tried to buy Sunrise before. This time, the deal was completed in November 2020. This made Sunrise part of a bigger international company.
