History
In 1982 Racal Electronics plc's subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Ltd. won one of two UK cellular telephone network licences.[3][4] The network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned by Racal, with Millicom and the Hambros Technology Trust owning 15% and 5% respectively. vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985.[5] Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985.[4] On 29 December 1986 Racal Electronics bought out the minority shareholders of vodafone for GB£110 million.[6]
In September 1988 the company was again renamed Racal Telecom and on 26 October 1988 Racal Electronics floated 20% of the company. The flotation valued Racal Telecom at GB£1.7 billion.[7] On 16 September 1991 Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group.[8]
Racal Electronics plc was a British defence electronics firm purchased by Thomson-CSF (now Thales Group) in 2000.
History
Racal was created in 1950 as Racal Ltd, the name being derived from the partners RAymond Brown and George CALder Cunningham. The first factory was located in Isleworth, West London. Although Racal had won a Royal Navy contract to build and supply a variant of the American Collins Model 51-J Radio Receiver, they were not granted a license to build these sets by Collins Inc. This meant that Racal had to design and build a radio receiver from scratch. The result was the justly famous 'RA17' - in production from 1955 to at least 1973 - designed in cooperation with Dr. Trevor Wadley and utilising his famed Wadley Loop circuit.
In 1979, Racal bought Decca Radar forming Racal-Decca.
In 1983, Racal competed for one of the original licences to operate a cellular network in the UK, both it and British Telecom were successful. Racal established the Racal Telecom (now Vodafone) subsidiary. In 1988, 20% of Racal Telecom was floated on the London Stock Exchange. This would lead to the situation where Racal Electronics was valued at less than its shareholding in Racal Telecom. Sir Ernest Harrison (Racal Chairman) demerged Racal Telecom in October 1991 forcing a positive valuation on the rest of Racal (colloquially known in the City as "the rump"). Vodafone would later become the largest mobile network in the world and the highest valued company on the FTSE 100. Immediately following the demerger, Williams Holdings launched a takeover bid for Racal. The bid, valued at £740m, failed.
In 1984, Racal bought Chubb, a security company that manufactured safes and locks. In 1992, Chubb was demerged from Racal and was subsequently taken over by Willams Holdings in 1997 for £1.3bn.
Vodafone's Sim Card Partner
Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is a globally operating technology group. Established in 1852, the company initially specialized in banknote and securities printing, later adding automatic currency processing equipment to its product portfolio. Today, G&D is also a leading supplier of smart cards and cutting-edge system solutions in the fields of telecommunications, electronic payments, transportation, health care, identity, customer loyalty, pay-TV, multimedia and Internet security (public key infrastructure).
International orientation
The G&D Group, based in Munich/Germany, comprises above 50 subsidiaries and joint ventures in all parts of the world, employing 8,295 people, with around 4,947 outside Germany. In the financial year 2006 the group generated sales worth euro 1.3 billion. G&D has a strong international orientation. Subsidiaries and joint ventures operate in Germany, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Dubai, Egypt, France, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, the UK and the USA.
Website:G&D Group
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