Lars Magnus Ericsson (Swedish pronunciation: [lɑːʂ ˈmǎŋːnɵs ˈêːrɪkˌsɔn]; born May 5, 1846; died December 17, 1926) was a Swedish inventor, business owner, and founder of Ericsson, a company that makes telephone equipment. The company was officially established as Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson.

Early life

Lars Magnus was born in Värmskog, Värmland, and grew up in the small village of Vegerbol, which is located between Karlstad and Arvika. When he was 12 years old, his father died, which made him start working as a miner. He worked until he saved enough money to leave the village and move to Stockholm in 1867. In Stockholm, he worked for six years at a company called Öllers & Co., which mainly produced telegraph equipment. Because of his skills, he received two scholarships from the government to study instrument making abroad between 1872 and 1875. One of the companies he worked for during this time was Siemens & Halske.

Career

In 1876, he returned to Sweden and started a small mechanical workshop with his friend Carl Johan Andersson, who had previously worked at Öllers & Co. The workshop was located in a former kitchen measuring about 13 meters, at Drottninggatan 15 in central Stockholm. At this location, he began a telephone company by studying Bell and Siemens telephones and making copies that resembled them. The company began to grow significantly in 1883 when they partnered with Henrik Tore Cedergren, leading to the formation of the Ericsson corporation.

In 1900, Lars Magnus retired from Ericsson at the age of 54. He continued to own shares in the company until 1905, when he sold all of them.

He was known to be strict and avoided any public attention about himself. He did not want to be admired excessively, but his employees respected him deeply. He was cautious in business and skeptical about many ideas. He was also not in favor of strong patent laws, as he believed many of his inventions would not have been possible if such laws had been too strict. When Norwegian companies copied his phones, he did not object, because his designs had themselves been inspired by Siemens telephones. Initially, he did not believe telephones would become widely used, seeing them only as a novelty for wealthy people.

Personal life

Ericsson married Hilda Simonsson in 1878. They had four children together: Johan (1879–1881), Gustaf (1880–1965), Anna (1881–1967), and Lars Magnus Jr. "Lalle" (1892–1921). When Anna was only six weeks old, their eldest son Johan died from fluid in the lungs. The couple also lost their son Lalle to tuberculosis when he was young.

Death

After he died in 1926, he was buried at Hågelby gård in Botkyrka. Because of his specific request, there is no headstone on his grave.