Edison S.p.A. is an Italian electric utility company headquartered in Milan. The company was established in 1884 and acquired by Electricité de France in 2012. Edison employs more than 5,000 people in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Chairman of the board is Luc Rémont (CEO of EDF) and chief executive officer is Nicola Monti. History Early history (1884-1966) Founded in 1884 by Giuseppe Colombo in Milan, Italy, as "Società generale italiana di elettricità sistema Edison", it served the purpose of introducing and applying Thomas Edison's inventions to Italy. Indeed, Colombo, an engineering professor, was a great admirer of Edison, whom he had met in the United States in 1881, securing an exclusive licence for some of his patents for Italy and hiring some of his collaborators. Edison operated Santa Radegonda power plant, Europe's first power plant. In the following decades Edison continued growing, especially in hydroelectric power, and came to control power distribution in most of northern Italy. In 1962 the centre-left coalition government of Christian Democrats and Socialists decided the nationalisation of the electric sector in Italy, in order to break the oligopolistic power of the four dominant electric companies that then dominated all the national market. With the compensation money it obtained from the state, Edison, then headed by Giorgio Valerio, invested heavily to diversify its activities, primarily in the petrochemical sector and by buying Standa supermarkets chain, continuing producing power only for self-consumption. However, this strategy was unsuccessful, as competition with both state-owned Enrico Mattei's giant Eni and Montecatini, a large private chemical company, proved too hard, so in 1965 Edison was eventually forced to merge with Montecatini, forming Montedison, the largest chemical company in the country. Montedison era (1966-2001) Montedison initially was doing well, dominating about 80% of the national chemical market and 15% of the European Community market. However, the 1973 oil crisis proved disastrous for the company that was forced to seek state intervention in order to avoid bankruptcy; by the mid 1970s the Italian state came to own about 17% of Montedison, becoming its largest single shareholder, but its effective control was even greater as state-owned banks held shares. The company became increasingly an arm of state social policy and employment goals were favored over profits. In 1980 Mario Schimberni became chairman and negotiated the sale of the state-owned shares to Gemina, a consortium of banks and private companies, in order