Telent plc

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telent plc

Type	Public (LSE: TLNT)
Founded	2005
Headquarters	Coventry, United Kingdom
Key people	John Devaney, Chairman Mark Plato, CEO Heather Green, CFO
Industry	Communications Equipment
Products	Communication and I.T. systems and services
Revenue	£312 million GBP (2005)
Employees	Approximately 2000 (135 in Germany) (2005)
Website	www.telent.com

The correct title of this article is telent plc. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

telent plc is a radio, telecommunication, and internet equipment manufacturing company. telent was formed in 2005 and represents the UK and German services businesses of Marconi Corporation plc, the bulk of which was acquired by Ericsson on October 25, 2005. Marconi Corporation plc was previously known as The General Electric Company (until 1999) and Marconi plc (1999-2003). The General Electric company was once one of the largest British companies, but telent is relatively small.

1 History
2 Notes
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

formerly Marconi Plc Corporate Logo

Marconi plc was formed following a major reorganisation of GEC under George Simpson. Beginning in December 1998 reports emerged that GEC wished to demerge its defence business, Marconi Electronic Systems. This was against the background of a review into the company's future and consolidation of the American and European defence markets.

British Aerospace, until that point pursuing a merger with DASA, soon began merger talks with GEC. On January 19, 1999 GEC and BAe announced that BAe was to acquire Marconi Electronic Systems for £7.7bn ($12.75bn). While the deal was yet to be completed GEC used proceeds of the MES sale (as well as heavy borrowing) to finance acquisitions during 1999. This was part of a major realignment of the firm to become a radio, telecommunications, and internet equipment manufacturing company. GEC purchased Reltec for £1.3bn in March and FORE Systems for £2.8bn in April.

British Aerospace completed its purchase of MES on November 30, 1999 to form BAE Systems. GEC announced that it was to be renamed Marconi plc.

[edit] Ericsson deal

Shortly after its failure to secure part of 21CN, it became clear that Marconi was a likely takeover target. Huawei Technologies, a Chinese telecoms company, became the name commonly mentioned in the UK business press due to its existing partnerships with Marconi. [1] However, by October 2005 Huawei was displaced by Ericsson and Alcatel as the likely victors. On October 25 Ericsson was announced as the winner with a bid of around £1.2bn ($2.1bn). The acquisition was completed on January 23, 2006 effective as of January 1, 2006. The Marconi name will still be used as a brand within Ericsson.

Marconi's remaining UK operations were renamed telent plc.

[edit] telent's Companies

telent plc (Company number 00067307; originally incorporated 27 September 1900)
telent (UK) Limited (Company number 00089947; originally incorporated 23 August 1906)
telent Communications Holdings Limited (company number 00319092; originally incorporated 01 October 1936)
telent Communications International Limited (Company number 00464439; originally incorporated 10 February 1949)
telent Enterprise Limited (Company number 00604117; originally incorporated 06 May 1958)
telent Services Limited (Company number 00691283; originally incorporated 01 May 1961)
telent Communications Limited (Company number 00703317; originally incorporated 14 September 1961)
telent Bonding Limited (company number 03818628; originally incorporated 03 August 1999)
telent GmbH (German Limited Company)

[edit] Timeline

1897 — Guglielmo Marconi founded the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company
1900 — Renamed to Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company
1946 — Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company taken over by English Electric
1967 — GEC acquires Associated Electrical Industries AEI.
1968 — English Electric merges with the General Electric Company (GEC, not to be confused with GE)
1988 — GEC Telecommunications Merges with Plessey to form GPT
1999 — GEC acquires Reltec Corporation.
1999 — GEC acquires Fore Systems, a major network equipment manufacturer.
1999 — After a period of restructuring, during which the Marconi defence business is sold to British Aerospace, GEC renames itself Marconi Plc.
July 2001 - Profits warning and 4,000 job cuts announced
September 2001 - CEO Simpson and Finance Director Mayo leave the company in disgrace following second profits warning.
May 2002 — The company announces a loss of £5.7bn, at the time the biggest in British corporate history. (The biggest one now is £21.8 billion by Vodafone Group for 2005)
May 2003 — Marconi plc renamed Marconi Corporation plc, company restructured giving creditors 99.5% of the shares.
September 2004 — Marconi returns to profit with positive cash flow.
April 2005 — Marconi fails to win any part in BT's 21CN contract resulting in 40% drop in share price and 800 redundancies.
April 2005 — Marconi reviews its strategic position, begins discussions with possible buyers.
October 2005 — Marconi proposes to be renamed telent as Ericsson propose to buy most of their assets, including the Marconi name.
January 2006 — Ericsson's acquisition of key assets of Marconi completed; company rebranded as telent.

[edit] Notes

There are many companies that have Marconi in their name. This is mainly due to diversification and consolidation over the history of the group. For example, several defense industry partnerships bearing the name "Marconi" are no longer associated with Marconi PLC following GEC's sale of its defense interests and merging of its communications groups to form Marconi Communications before the group's evolution to Marconi PLC.

Marconi Corporation should not be confused with the Marconi Company founded by Guglielmo Marconi. That company became part of English Electric in 1946, itself bought by GEC in 1968. The Marconi Company became the defence division inside the GEC conglomerate and the name was widely used, for example Marconi Electronic Systems and the joint ventures Alenia Marconi Systems and Matra Marconi Space.