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Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area. The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the... seat of the Landgraves of Hessen-Darmstadt in the 16th century. As the administrative centre of an increasingly prosperous duchy, the city gained in prominence during the following centuries. In the 20th century, industry as well as large science and electronics sectors became increasingly important, and are still a major part of the city's economy. Darmstadt also has a large tertiary education sector, with three major universities and numerous associated institutions. Darmstadt is one of few cities in Germany which does not lie close to a river, lake or coast. It is the sunniest city in the state of Hesse. The chemical element darmstadtium is named after it, having been synthesized in the GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt-Wixhausen.
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Deutsche Telekom AG is a German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Europe. Deutsche Telekom was formed in 1996 as the former state-owned monopoly Deutsche Bundespost was privatized. As of June 2008, the German government still holds a 15% stake in company stock directly, and another 17% through the government bank KfW. The former CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke... was ousted by the board of the company because of slumping sales and the flight of customers to cheaper competitors. More than 1.5 million customers changed to rival companies during 2005 and 2006 and as a result, Deutsche Telekom laid off more than 30,000 workers. The new CEO was announced on November 12, 2006 after a long-night board session: René Obermann, the former CEO of T-Mobile International. The predecessor of Ricke, Ron Sommer, chairman of Deutsche Telekom between 1995 and 2002, was ousted because of the drop in the share price of the company in 2002. At the height of the dot-com bubble, the share was valued at over €100 but fell significantly to about €12/share during a couple of months.
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