Marconi Communications
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Marconi Communications is a principal subsidiary of the Marconi Corporation plc and was formerly known as GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT). The company was a world leading telecommunications manufacturer.
[edit] GPT
The General Electric Company (GEC) attempted a takeover of Plessey in 1986 but was barred by regulatory authorities. Instead on 1st April 1988 GEC and Plessey merged their telecommunications businesses as GEC Plessey Telecommunications, commonly known as GPT. GPT was a world leader in many fields, for example Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) technology, and this brought the two companies responsible for developing and building the System X telephone exchange together, which was supposed to make selling System X simpler.
In 1989 GEC and Siemens acquired the Plessey Company through the joint company GEC Siemens plc. While most of Plessey was divided between the companies GPT remained a joint venture, with a 60/40 shareholding between GEC and Siemens respectively. GEC Plessey Telecommunications officially renamed itself GPT (no longer standing for anything) because Plessey no longer existed (except Plessey Semiconductors retained its name).
In October 1997 in the UK, the name GPT disappeared and the company was called SGCS (Siemens GEC Communication Systems). A year later SCGS merged with SBCS (Siemens Business Communication Systems) to form Siemens Communications Ltd.
In August 1998 GEC acquired Siemens' 40% stake in GPT and merged with the telecoms units of its Italian subsidiary Marconi SpA, GEC Hong Kong and ATC South Africa to form Marconi Communications.
At present, a "carve out" process is in effect, and the company is now known as Siemens Enterprise Communications Ltd. It is widely expected that Siemens will announce a new partner for SECL on October 1st 2006. [To date, Jan 2008, no buyer or partner has been announced]
[edit] Marconi Communications
In March 1999 GEC added RELTEC, a telecommunication network and access products manufacturer, to Marconi Communications. In April FORE Systems was added to the group. Until the collapse of the Marconi group in 2001 the $4.5Bn company was a major supplier of Asynchronous Transfer Mode, Gigabit Ethernet and Internet Protocol products.
