Qt Group

Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox company Template:Portal Qt Group Plc (pronounced "cute"; formerly known as Trolltech, Qt Company, Qt Development Frameworks, Quasar Technologies and Qt Software) is a global software company headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It was formed following the acquisition of Qt by Digia, but was later spun off into a separate, publicly traded company.

The company oversees the development of the Qt framework alongside the Qt Project,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and provides tools for UI design, software development, quality assurance and testing, as well as expert consulting services.<ref name=":7" />

History

Trolltech 1994–2007

Trolltech was founded by Eirik Chambe-Eng and Haavard Nord on 4 March 1994.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> The duo started writing Qt in 1991; since then, Qt has steadily expanded and improved.

In 2002, 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" />

Part of Nokia 2008–2012

On 28 January 2008, Nokia Corporation announced that they had entered into an agreement to make a public voluntary tender offer to acquire Trolltech.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The total cost for Nokia was approximately €104 million.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 5 June 2008 Nokia's voluntary tender offer was approved for all the shares in Trolltech. By 17 June 2008, Nokia had completed its acquisition of Trolltech. On 30 September 2008, Trolltech was renamed as Qt Software, and Qtopia was renamed as Qt Extended. On 11 August 2009, the company's name was changed to Qt Development Frameworks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Qt environment was a key part of the company's strategy until 2011, when Nokia decided to switch to Windows Phone OS for its smartphones.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Part of Digia 2012–2016

Nokia sold the commercial licensing business of Qt to Digia in March 2011.<ref name="CLAWTON2011">Template:Cite news</ref> The following year, Digia acquired the entire Qt development environment and related business from Nokia. As a result of the acquisition, Digia became responsible for all of the functions related to Qt technology, including product development. The main goal of the acquisition was to strengthen Digia's position in the Qt ecosystem and expand the availability of Qt technology across a growing number of platforms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In September 2014, Digia formed The Qt Company, a wholly owned subsidiary dedicated to the development and governance of the Qt platform.<ref name="zdnet-qtcom">Template:Cite web</ref> In connection with this, the website qt.io went live, combining the open source qt development and commercial Qt functions that had previously operated at different addresses. Qt products had some 800,000 users globally.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In August 2015, Digia Plc's Board of Directors began to explore the demerger of Digia’s domestic businesses and the Qt businesses into two separate listed companies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Qt Group 2016–current

In May 2016, the company went public on NASDAQ Helsinki as QTCOM.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> In March 2016, Digia Plc's Annual General Meeting resolved on the partial demerger of Digia<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the demerger was registered in the trade register on May 1.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Digia’s Qt business was transferred to a new company, named Qt Group, and Digia's domestic business segment remained under the Digia brand. Digia’s CEO Juha Varelius was appointed as the CEO of Qt Group.<ref name=":1" /> Trading in Qt Group shares began on the main list of the Helsinki Stock Exchange in May 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 

In 2018, the company had 5,000 customers. Approximately 80% of the Fortune 500 companies are customers of Qt Group.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref>

The company attracted the interest of international investors in spring 2020 when its market capitalization rose above 500 million euros.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref>  The company's market capitalization exceeded 1 billion euros in October.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The share price had risen by more than 700% from the IPO price.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The company's net sales were close to EUR 80 million euros and its earnings were approximately 17 million euros.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref>  

By spring 2021, the company’s share price had grown nearly fivefold over a period of one year,<ref name=":2" /> and its market capitalization was above 2 billion euros.<ref name=":3" /> In April, the company announced that it would acquire Froglogic, a Germany-based developer of test automation tools for applications based on the Qt GUI framework.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In August, the company made it to the OMXH25 index.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The company's net sales amounted to 121 million euros and it had 455 employees.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref>

In the fall of 2022, the company announced that it would acquire Axivion, a Germany-based company whose products detect issues that erode the quality and performance of software, i.e. static program analysis, among other services.<ref name=":4" />

In March 2023, the company had 706 employees.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Organization

Qt Group's head office is located in Helsinki, Finland. The company has approximately 800 employees worldwide. <ref name=":6">Template:Cite web</ref>

The company’s CEO is Juha Varelius,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> who previously served as the CEO of Digia from 2008 to 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Qt Group has core R&D in Oslo, Norway, as well as large engineering teams in Berlin, Germany, and Oulu, Finland. The company also has offices in China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Norway, South Korea, and the US.<ref name="offices"/>

Products

The company provides a software development framework, tools for software design, development, quality assurance and testing, as well as expert consulting services.<ref name=":7" /> Its flagship product is Qt, a multi-platform Graphical User Interface (GUI) framework written in C++. Qt is popular with application developers using C++ but is supported by bindings for other programming languages too, such as Python. Qt also includes packages such as data structures and a networking library. The popular free and cross-platform KDE Plasma desktop environment and software compilation uses the Qt library.

The tools can be used for UI design, programming and quality assurance<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> for mobile and desktop applications, as well as embedded systems, which are used in cars, consumer electronics and domestic appliances, for example.<ref name=":5" />

Qt also earns revenue from licenses for end products developed with its tools.<ref name=":5" />

In 2024, the company’s product portfolio included:<ref name=":7">Template:Cite web</ref>

• the Qt development framework and tools

• UI design tools

• quality assurance and testing tools

Markets

Qt Group has customers in 70 industries in over 180 countries<ref name=":6" /> and its products are used by approximately 1.5 million developers.<ref name=":7" /> In 2018, its largest markets were the USA, Germany, Japan, South Korea, China, France, the UK, Italy and India.<ref name=":5" /> The company’s customers operate in a wide range of industries, including consumer electronics, the automotive and aerospace industries, industrial automation, energy, defense, medicine and the media.<ref name=":5" /> Its products are used by companies such as Panasonic, LG Electronics, Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, Mercedes-Benz<ref name=":5" /> and Hyundai Motor Group.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

General Motors uses Qt’s user interfaces to design digital interfaces for its vehicles. The Ultifi software platform launched by GM for over-the-air software updates for its vehicles is based on Qt's products.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Template:Official website
• Qt Marketplace