Marconi plc

Marconi is a radio, telecommunication and internet equipment manufacturing company, founded by Guglielmo Marconi.

History

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 the English Electric
1968 - English Electric merges with the General Electric Company (GEC, not to be confused with GE)
1999 - After a period of restructuring, during which the Marconi defence business is sold to British Aerospace, GEC renames itself Marconi Plc.
May 2002 - The company announces a loss of �5.7bn, the biggest in British corporate history. Under Chief Executive George Simpson (Lord Simpson) and Finance Director John Mayo, in a strategy rendered disastrous by the severe downturn in the global market for telecoms equipment, the company had made a series of acquisitions and shed "incompatible" parts of the business. Simpson and Mayo left the company in disgrace in late 2001.

Notes

There are lots of companies that have Marconi in their name. This is mainly due to various diversification and consolidation over the history of the group. For example several defense 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 groups evolution to Marconi PLC.

External link

Company website: http://www.marconi.com/