Founded in 1969 by Dennis Baylin, [1] [2] Betacom was an electronics company specialising in audio and visual products. In 1992 Sir Alan Sugar's Amstrad purchased a 29.9% stake in the company from Canon Street Investments PLC. A rights issue and subscription increased Amstrad's shareholding in Betacom to 71.3%. Betacom, a UK-based domestic telephone supplier provided Amstrad with a foothold in the developing telecommunications market .
The following year, repayment and cancellation of share capital involving a scheme of arrangement, as a result of which Amstrad's shareholding in Betacom reduced to 66.2%.
In 1996, Amstrad granted Betacom a licence to use the Amstrad brand on consumer electronics products.
In 1997 Amstrad plc was de-listed from the stock exchange and each shareholder received loan notes, shares in Viglen Technology plc (a newly listed company), shares in Betacom plc and a letter of entitlement to the potential net proceeds arising from two court cases. In November of the same year, Betacom plc changed its name to Amstrad plc.
In 1999, Amstrad sold the Betacom business to Alba plc along with Answercall and Cable & Wireless branded telecommunications business for £4M in cash.[ citation needed ]
BT Group plc is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, broadband and mobile services in the UK, and also provides subscription television and IT services.
Amstrad was a British consumer electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar. During the 1980s, the company was known for its home computers beginning with the Amstrad CPC and later also the ZX Spectrum range after the Sinclair deal, which led it to have a substantial share of the PC market in Britain. In the following decade it shifted focus towards communication technologies, and its main business during the 2000s was the manufacture of satellite television set-top boxes for Sky, which Amstrad had started in 1989 as the then sole supplier of the emerging Sky TV service.
The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering.
The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies.
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The Marconi Company was a British telecommunications and engineering company that did business under that name from 1963 to 1987. Its roots were in the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company founded by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi in 1897, which underwent several changes in name after mergers and acquisitions. The company was a pioneer of wireless long distance communication and mass media broadcasting, eventually becoming one of the UK's most successful manufacturing companies. In 1999, its defence equipment manufacturing division, Marconi Electronic Systems, merged with British Aerospace (BAe) to form BAE Systems. In 2006, financial difficulties led to the collapse of the remaining company, with the bulk of the business acquired by the Swedish telecommunications company, Ericsson.
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GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT) was a British manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, notably the System X telephone exchange. The company was founded in 1988 as a joint venture between GEC and the British electronics, defence and telecommunications company Plessey. The next year, after a joint holding company of GEC and the German conglomerate Siemens acquired Plessey, GPT was converted into a 60/40 GEC/Siemens joint venture. The GPT name ceased to be used in the mid-1990s, and in 1998 the company was amalgamated into Siemens Communications.
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LG Corporation, formerly known as Lucky-Goldstar, is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Koo In-hwoi and managed by successive generations of his family. It is the fourth-largest chaebol in South Korea. Its headquarters are in the LG Twin Towers building in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul. LG makes electronics, chemicals, household appliances, and telecommunications products and operates subsidiaries such as LG Electronics, Zenith, LG Display, LG Uplus, LG Innotek, LG Chem, and LG Energy Solution in over 80 countries.
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