The General Electric Company or GEC was a major British-based industrial conglomerate, involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications and engineering. The company was once a constituent of the FT 30 and FTSE 100 Index.
In December 1999, GEC was renamed to Marconi plc and became a telecommunications focused company; when its defence arm, Marconi Electronic Systems was amalgamated with British Aerospace to form BAE Systems. The financial troubles that followed the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2000/2001, led to the May 2003 restructuring of Marconi plc to Marconi Corporation plc.
In 2005, Ericsson purchased the bulk of Marconi Corporation plc, along with its principal subsidiary, Marconi Communications. The remainder of the business was renamed Telent.
Famous quotes containing the words general, electric and/or company:
“It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“That’s the down-town frieze,
Principally the church steeple,
A black line beside a white line;
And the stack of the electric plant,
A black line drawn on flat air.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“In the old days, one married a wife; now one forms a company with a female partner, or moves in to live with a friend. And then one seduces the partner, or defiles the friend.”
—J. August Strindberg (1849–1912)