Exchange Telegraph Co
of Cornhill, London.
of Extel House, East Harding St, London.(1968)
1872 The company was founded by William Henry Davies, Sir James Anderson and Mr. Cyrus Field, registered on March 28th, [1] to distribute financial and business information from the London Stock Exchange and other commercial markets direct to subscribers.
Patented their news recording instrument which they also hired out to other companies.[2]
1876 Introduced a parliamentary service
1879 Introduced a general news service
c.1880 The company tried to introduce the American idea of a burglar alarm into Britain but the arrival of the telephone attracted more attention from house holders. However, the concept of signalling to or from a central station commended itself to businessmen; the company placed instruments in subscribers' offices to receive Stock Exchange prices. F. Higgins was engineer to the company at this time. Higgins invented an improved tape machine working on a single telephone circuit, as well as a column printer.
1891 Introduced a legal service.
1894 Not for the first time, the Committee of the London Stock Exchange examined a proposal by the company that it should supply tape-machines to brokers outside the Exchange to carry stock prices (the company already collected prices inside the Exchange by permission). There were worries that this would encourage the "bucket-shops" to gamble on prices carried on the tape.[3]
1906 The business was so successful that by 1906 it had opened ten branches outside London.
The company continued to grow and improve, becoming increasingly more efficient. It added a faster financial service in 1907
1913 Began a worldwide news service
1930s Added a separate sports service.
1964 Acquired Burrup, Mathieson and Co, city printers and lithographers, another diversification of the group. [4]
1965 Column Printing Co Ltd (incorporated 1923) was renamed Extel Statistical Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Pearson plc[5]
1965 Provided statistics on the annual reports of 455 British Companies[6]
1966 Exchange Telegraph Co (Holdings) Ltd, reported on the developments in the Extel Group:[7]
- Racing services: London and Provincial Sporting News Agency, Victoria Blower Co and The Teletalk Co
- Financial news and Stock Exchange members' telephone service
- Central News Ltd
- Thames Paper Supplies Ltd
- Extel Communications
- Extel Special News Service
- Printing group
1968 Developing new print-out systems and information display and transmission techniques[8]
1970 Providing various news services on financial information, most using the name Extel[9]
1982 Extel Group Plc
1986 Robert Maxwell acquired a stake in Extel which he sold the following year; Extel acquired Drapers Digest.[10]
1987 United Newspapers acquired Extel Financial[11]
1990 Extel Financial Software Ltd was renamed Exchange Telegraph Co Ltd, a subsidiary of United Newspapers Ltd
1993 Pearson acquired Extel Financial, provider of research on companies.
1999 Pearson sold Extel Financial to Primark of USA[12]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ The Times June 27, 1881
- ↑ The Times Apr. 5, 1894
- ↑ The Times May 15, 1964
- ↑ Companies house filing
- ↑ The Times June 1, 1965
- ↑ The Times July 22, 1966
- ↑ The Times Feb. 26, 1968
- ↑ The Times May 6, 1970
- ↑ The Times Apr. 16, 1987
- ↑ The Times , Dec. 2, 1993
- ↑ The Times Feb. 23, 1999
- [1] Wikipedia