10 Facts About Racal Electronics

Racal Electronics plc was a British electronics company that was founded in 1950.

Racal Electronics was purchased by Thomson-CSF in 2000, thereby giving the French firm access to the UK defence and armaments market.

Racal Electronics was created in 1950 as Racal Electronics Ltd, the name being derived from the names of the partners, Raymond Brown and George Calder Cunningham.

In 1982, Racal Electronics's newly formed subsidiary Racal Electronics Strategic Radio Ltd, under Whent, won one of the first two UK cellular telephone network licences; the other going to British Telecom.

In 1984, Racal Electronics bought Chubb, a security company that manufactured safes and locks.

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Racal Electronics re-established a telecoms division with a major government contract in 1988 and the acquisition of British Rail Telecommunications in 1995.

Racal Electronics Recorders produced a wide range of magnetic tape recorders for multichannel voice recording and instrumentation recording applications.

In 1995, Racal Electronics expanded its defence businesses with the acquisition of the Thorn Sensors Group from Thorn EMI.

In October 1999, Racal Electronics decided to sell its telecoms business to the American communications group, Global Crossing, for £1bn.

In January 2000, Thomson-CSF announced a bid for the company: Racal Electronics became Thomson-CSF Racal Electronics plc, and later part of Thales plc with the renaming of the larger Thomson-CSF to Thales Group.