Harman Connected Services Nizhny Novgorod LLC Harman

Performance indicators

2022: Nizhny Novgorod software developers for Mercedes and JBL headphones received a record order from Americans before   they were fired

As TAdviser found out, in 2022, the revenue of Harman LLC, the Harman Connected Services development center in Nizhny Novgorod, increased by 38%, to 2.4 billion rubles. Net profit amounted to 113.5 million rubles.

An analysis of the financial results of Harman LLC shows that this is the largest annual revenue volume during the company's operation since 2006 - from that moment its financial indicators are publicly available.

From the explanations to the balance sheet and financial accounting of Harman LLC, published in the database of the Federal Tax Service, it follows that the vast majority of the turnover - more than 2.38 billion rubles - was brought to the R&D Center in 2022 by software development services and other services provided to foreign legal entities associated with it. Of these, 2 billion rubles fell on work performed for the US-based companies Harman Connected Services Inc. and Harman International Industries Incorporated.

It also indicates that as of January 2022, 635 people worked in the R&D center, and in December 2022 there were only 13 people who were employed in general economic activities.

The explanations to the financial account say that the termination of employment contracts with employees took place during the year against the background of "a change in the geopolitical and economic situation in the world" and sanctions. The founder of the company decided to transfer high-tech projects to other countries. In this regard, since January 2023, the main activity of the Nizhny Novgorod R&D Center has ceased - software development.

At the same time, the company "has no intentions to liquidate."

All programmers of the Nizhny Novgorod development center Harman Connected Services were fired, but it is not planned to liquidate the legal entity itself yet "(photo - bagra.ru)"

The founder of Harman LLC is the German-based company Harman Connected Services GmbH, which, in turn, is owned by Samsung Electronics. In 2016, the latter acquired the American company Harman for $8 billion.

The Nizhny Novgorod development center has existed since the 90s. and before the transition under the Harman wing, it bore different names. The company has gone from developing software for pagers to products in the field of AI. Recently, she specialized in services in the fields of cloud programming, AI, neural networks, IoT, services for developing and testing embedded software for mobile devices and communication devices, the auto industry and healthcare, implementing client-server solutions, developing applications for Android, QNX, iOS, Java, Linux/QT/QML, Brew, Windows Mobile, etc.

At the same time, the Harman Connected Services research and development center in Nizhny Novgorod included the Harman X innovation laboratory team - one of four such teams at Harman in the world.

Among the clients of the development center were companies such as Samsung, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes, OnStar/GM, PSA Peugeot-Citroen, MSC Cruises, Nielsen, Huawei Thales, Roche, MainCare, Facebook and many others.

The Russian company Harman RUS SiIEs, associated with LLC Harman, had much worse financial results in 2022. This legal entity represents the Harman Kardon division, which specializes in the development of acoustic products and solutions under brands such as JBL, Mark Levinson, Infinity, etc. Its revenue decreased by 73%, to 4.1 billion rubles, a net loss of 320.4 million rubles.

The Nizhny Novgorod R&D Center was engaged in the development of software for a number of Harman acoustic products. For example, for JBL Quantum gaming headphones, including the Quantum One model. At the time of release, these were unique headphones with 3D sound, the only ones on the market with such sound quality. Nizhny Novgorod programmers, in particular, developed software for synchronizing these headphones with a computer during the game and sound settings.

History

2022

The company's business center in Nizhny Novgorod was put up for sale for 380 million rubles

A five-story business center at 24 Salganskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod in December 2022 was put up for sale for 380 million rubles. The ad is published on Avito. Previously, the building housed a branch of Harman.

The area of ​ ​ the business center is 6.2 thousand square meters. m. The office space is designed for 600 employees, on the ground floor - a cafe and a conference room. The owner of the building is a legal entity.

The closure of the representative office after the start of the special operation of Russia in Ukraine

After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, Harman Kardon closed the Russian office.

2021

TAdviser interview with Centre for Research and Development head Boris Tarasulla

The HARMAN Research and Development Center in Nizhny Novgorod is actively involved in international projects of the parent company, and has ambitious plans for further development in the Russian market. Among them are business development in new verticals for themselves in Russia, for example, in healthcare, and new approaches to attracting talented developers against the background of a shortage of IT personnel. Boris Tarasulla, head of the Nizhny Novgorod HARMAN Research and Development Center, spoke in detail about the current projects and plans in an interview with TAdviser in December 2021. Read more here.

TAdviser interview with Head of Discipline Maxim Kolupaev

Kolupaev Maxim, head of the department at Harman DTS Russia, spoke about the development of a voice assistant for selecting orthopedic shoes in November 2021 in an interview with TAdviser. Read more here.

Interview with the head of Harman Connected Services in Nizhny Novgorod Boris Tarasulla

In 2021, Boris Tarasulla, in an interview with TAdviser, spoke about what about 650 programmers working at the HARMAN Connected Services research and development center in Nizhny Novgorod are doing, including the HARMAN X innovation laboratory team, one of four such teams at HARMAN in the world.

Nizhny Novgorod R&D Center Harman began to storm the Russian custom software development market

The Harman Connected Services Development and Research Center in Nizhny Novgorod, specializing in custom software development, aims to expand the base of Russian customers for 2021, said Boris Tarasulla, general director of this division, at an online meeting with journalists in April.

We have specifically invested in the sales department of our business in Russia this year and expect that we will have an increase in Russian customers, "he said.

These plans are notable for the fact that since its inception in 1991, this development and research center has served and continues to serve mainly foreign customers. Before joining Harman in 2015, it mainly carried out software development projects for global brands, mainly related to mobile devices. And later the center grew into new competencies, continuing to focus on foreign projects, but already in a wider range of industries.

Developments for the automotive industry are one of Harman's key business areas

According to Boris Tarasull, the company receives the vast majority of revenue from foreign customers. At the same time, the company also has Russian clients, but there are still few of them. This has historically happened, the head of the company explained.

The Nizhny Novgorod Harman Connected Services notes that the investments of Russian organizations in IT are growing, and we can expect this trend to continue. And the need for software development services has increased even more over the past year or two. The latter is also indicated by the growth in revenue of companies specializing in custom software development, such as, for example, Luxoft and Auriga.

We see that now in Russia our services are in great demand. The market wants this, and we want to react to it, "Boris Tarasulla explained, answering a TAdviser question about the reasons for the decision to start paying more attention to the domestic market right now.

The company has a special focus on such industries as telecom, medicine, retail. According to the head of the Nizhny Novgorod Harman Connected Services, the development center is already negotiating potential projects with a number of large companies in Russia.

In recent years, in Russia, large companies have a tendency to create and expand internal development teams. This is especially noticeable in large banks, retail chains, telecom companies. Boris Tarasulla, in a conversation with TAdviser, noted that all major customers of their company have their own development. But its presence does not mean that companies do not resort to software development outsourcing services, he says.

For example, companies can direct their engineers for some new strategic research, and give the current developments to a partner. And some customers decide not to increase their own capacities anymore and in this regard transfer part of the work to the partner. In addition, some customers want to get expertise that they do not have in their own development centers.

Boris Tarasulla stressed that the focus on increasing the volume of business with local companies does not mean that there are plans to reduce such with foreign customers. The share of Russian clients may remain small, but in monetary terms its volume will increase.

At a meeting with reporters, he also noted that the Nizhny Novgorod division of Harman Connected Services is a profitable organization, and against the background of the pandemic did not experience financial problems. Most of his revenue is in dollars, which, against the background of a drop in the exchange ruble rate, only played into the hands of the company.

According to the database of legal entities Kontur.Fokus, "in Russian currency, the revenue of LLC" Harman "- a legal entity of the Nizhny Novgorod development center Harman Connected Services - at the end of 2020 amounted to about 1.6 billion rubles with an increase of about 3%. Net profit came out in the amount of about 51.8 million rubles.

And the revenue of the Harman office in Moscow (Harman RUS SiIEs LLC), which sells other products and services of the company, according to the same source, in 2020 amounted to about 11.1 billion rubles, net profit - about 634.9 million rubles.

670 employees, most projects for foreign customers

Over its history, the company has gone from developing software for pagers to products in the field of artificial intelligence. For 2021, the Nizhny Novgorod division of Harman Connected Services specializes in services in the fields of cloud programming, artificial intelligence (AI), neural networks, the Internet of Things (IoT), provides services for the development and testing of embedded software for mobile devices and communication devices, the automotive industry and healthcare, the implementation of client-server solutions, the development of various applications for Android, QNX, iOS, Java, Linux/QT/QML, Brew, Windows Mobile, etc.

As of 2021, the company's staff is about 670 employees.

The company performs an overwhelming number of projects for foreign customers. Her clients include companies such as, Samsung,, Jaguar Land Rover Mercedes OnStar/GM,, PSA Peugeot-Citroën MSC Cruises, Nielsen,,,, Huawei Thales Roche MainCare, Facebook and many others.

2019: Revenue growth of two legal entities by 42% to RUB 13.1 billion

At the end of 2019, Harman took 17th place in the TAdviser Ranking: the 50 most profitable representative offices of foreign IT companies in Russia. The Harman indicator for Russia includes the revenue of legal entities LLC Harman RUS SiIEs and LLC Harman. The company's revenue for 2019 amounted to 13,100,462 thousand rubles, which is 42% higher than in 2018.

2018

Revenue of two legal entities - 9.2 billion rubles.

Harman's revenue in Russia (LLC Harman RUS SiIEs and LLC Harman) for 2018 amounted to 9,206,846 thousand rubles.

Application development plan for the Russian mobile OS Sailfish

Open Mobile Platform (OMP), the developer of Sailfish Mobile OS RUS, the first Russian operating system for mobile devices, entered into an agreement in February 2018 with Harman International, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics specializing in technologies for automotive, consumer and corporate markets. According to the company, the collaboration is aimed at expanding the ecosystem and developing applications for Sailfish OS.

Harman Connected Services, as a software development partner of OMP, will participate in the development of the ecosystem for Sailfish Mobile OS RUS. The technical competencies of the Harman Connected Services team will increase the quality and speed of new innovative technologies and applications for Sailfish Mobile OS RUS users.

Opening of AI laboratory

Harman X Laboratories is a stand-alone innovation division at Harman. His attention is focused on innovations in all areas of activity, including in the field of intellectualization of the company's products.

In order to develop an intellectual property portfolio based on the principles of AI and machine learning, in 2018, the Harman X Future Intelligence Labs team was created in the Nizhny Novgorod office of Harman Connected Services. She is one of four Harman X teams in the world. The other three are in the United States, China and India.

As of 2021, more than 40 specialists work and conduct scientific research in the Nizhny Novgorod Harman X laboratory, which is almost half of the employees of the entire Harman X division. The Nizhny Novgorod team includes candidates of sciences in the field of machine learning, data and signal processing, neuropsychology.

2015: Joining Harman

In 2015, Symphony Telecom, including its Nizhny Novgorod division, became part of Harman Corporation.

2012: As part of Symphony Telecom Corporation

In February 2012, the merger of Teleca AB and Symphony Services Corporation took place, which led to the emergence of a new brand - Symphony Telecom Corporation (STC).

In the period 1992 to 2012, among the partners of the Russian company were such global brands as Motorola, Kyocera, Samsung, LG, Sony Mobil, Nokia, AMD, TI, Qualcomm, On Star, Sirius XM, Yota Devices, Blackberry, Vertu, Microsoft, and many others.

2006: Joining Teleca AB

In April 2006, the company became part of the Swedish holding Teleca AB.

1992: First contract with Motorola to localize pagers

In 1992, the first contract was signed with Motorola to localize and adapt pagers, which grew into a long-term collaboration until the 2008 crisis. During this time, more than 200 projects for Motorola pagers and mobile phones were implemented.

1991: Creation of the company "Telma" on the basis of the Department of Foreign Economic Relations of NIITOP

The company was founded in 1991 on the basis of the Department of Foreign Economic Relations of NIITOP (Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Technology and Production Organization). A team of specialists worked on a large-scale project to assemble Italian ultrasonic scanners. Under this project, it was decided to create a multidisciplinary commercial and production company "Telma" - "Technology of Electronics MArketing."

The company has consistently been engaged in sales, development of software for mobile devices, sale and service of pagers and cell phones, construction and medical business, led developments for the automotive and gas industries. At some point, it was decided to focus on two main areas of development - software development for mobile devices and construction.