Plessey

Plessey

The Plessey Company plc was a British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after the second world war by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies.

It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 1989, it was taken over by a consortium formed by GEC and Siemens which split the assets of the Plessey group.

The majority of the Plessey defence assets were amalgamated into BAE Systems; when in 1999 BAe merged with the defence arm of GEC, Marconi Electronic Systems (MES). While the bulk of telecommunications assets were acquired by Ericsson through its 2005 acquisition of a successor company of GEC - Marconi Corporation plc. The remainder of the communication assets went to Telent plc.