GEC Plessey Telecommunications
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| Joint Venture | |
| Industry | telecommunications |
| Fate | Merged into Marconi Communications (1998) Amalgamated into Siemens Communications (1998) |
| Predecessor |
GEC Plessey |
| Successor |
Marconi Communications Siemens Communications |
| Founded | 1988 |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Owner | GEC / Plessey(50/50) (1988 - 1989) GEC / Siemens(60/40) (1989 - 1998) GEC (1998) |
GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT) was founded in 1988 as a joint venture between GEC and the British electronics, defence and telecommunications company Plessey. A joint holding company of GEC and the German conglomerate Siemens AG acquired Plessey a year later, and GPT was converted into a 60/40 GEC/Siemens joint venture.
During the mid-1990s, the name GPT gradually disappeared in the UK. By October 1997, the company evolved into Siemens GEC Communication Systems (SCGS); later in 1998 it amalgamated into the largest division of Siemens - Siemens Communications, and eventually Siemens Enterprise Communications in 2008.
In August 1998, GEC acquired the 40% stake of Siemens in GPT (by now only existing as a legal entity), and merged it into its newly founded subsidiary Marconi Communications. Through a series of mergers, divisions and restructuring in 1998/1999, GEC was renamed to Marconi plc, which was again restructured to Marconi Corporation plc in May 2003. Eventually in 2005, Marconi Corporation plc along with its subsidiary Marconi Communications, was sold to Ericsson and the remainder was renamed Telent plc.
The evolution of GPT can be traced to 1986, when the General Electric Company (GEC) attempted a takeover of Plessey, a British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company founded in 1917. The takeover bid was barred by regulatory authorities. As an amicable solution, GEC and Plessey merged their telecommunications businesses (25,000 employees at the time) on 1 April 1988 as GEC Plessey Telecommunications. 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.
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