Marconi Company

The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company (sometimes presented as Wireless Telegraph Trading Signal Company).

As the defence division of GEC since 1968 it was renamed GEC-Marconi in 1987, Marconi Electronic Systems (MES) in 1998, which became part of BAE Systems in 1999. The Marconi Company should not be confused with the Marconi Corporation which was created in 1999 by the renaming of The General Electric Company (GEC), minus the Marconi Electronic Systems business.

History

The Marconi Company opened the world's first radio factory in Chelmsford in 1898 and was responsible for some of the most important advances in radio and television. English Electric acquired The Marconi Company in 1946 which complemented its other operations; heavy electrical engineering, aircraft and its railway traction business.

In 1968 English Electric was subject to a takeover bid by the Plessey Company but chose instead to accept an offer from GEC. The Marconi Company continued as the primary defence subsidiary of GEC, GEC-Marconi. Marconi was renamed GEC-Marconi in 1987. In a major reorganisation of the company GEC-Marconi was renamed Marconi Electronic Systems and was separated from other non-defence assets.

Expansion as GEC subsidiary

During the period 1968-1999 GEC-Marconi/MES underwent massive expansion. Acquisitions which were folded into the company and partnerships established include:

• Defence operations of Associated Electrical Industries in 1968, AEI had been acquired in 1967.
• Divisions of Plessey in 1989 (others acquired by its partner in the deal, Siemens AG, to meet with regulatory approval).
  • Plessey Avionics
  • Plessey Naval Systems
  • Plessey Cryptography
  • Plessey Electronic Systems (75%)
  • Sippican
  • Leigh Instruments
• Ferranti defence businesses in 1990
• Ferranti Dynamics in 1992
• Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering in 1995
• Alenia Marconi Systems in 1998, a defence electronics company and an equal shares joint venture between GEC-Marconi and Finmeccanica's Alenia Difesa.
• Tracor in 1998.

Marconi name today

In 1999 GEC underwent a major transformation. Marconi Electronic Systems was demerged and sold to British Aerospace which then formed BAE Systems.

GEC, realigning itself as a primarily telecommunications company following the MES sale, retained the Marconi brand and renamed itself Marconi plc. BAE were granted limited rights to continue its use in existing partnerships, however by 2005 no BAE businesses use the Marconi name. Major spending and the dot-com collapse lead to a major restructuring of that group, in a debt for equity swap shareholders were given 0.5% of the new company, Marconi Corporation plc.

In October 2005 the Marconi name and most of the assets were proposed to be bought by the Swedish firm Ericsson. The transaction was completed on January 23, 2006 effective as per January 1, 2006. The Marconi name will still be used as brand within Ericsson. The rest of the Marconi company was renamed as telent plc.

See also

• Marconi Scientists - Article, of dubious standard, about the 25+ defence employees who have died in mysterious circumstances since the early 1980s

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