In the 1990s, GEC was a major UK company, specializing mainly as a defense contractor. It had a reputation as a risk-averse company with a large cash pile. In 1996 a new chief executive led the board into a major change in the company’s strategy. GEC sold off its defense interests and switched its business into telecommunications, mainly in the USA, buying large quantities of telecommunications assets. The company also changed its name to Marconi. A number of factors, including a huge over-capacity in network supply, led to a collapse in the m
In the 1990s, GEC was a major UK company, specializing mainly as a defense contractor. It had a reputation as a risk-averse company with a large cash pile. In 1996 a new chief executive led the board into a major change in the company’s strategy. GEC sold off its defense interests and switched its business into telecommunications, mainly in the USA, buying large quantities of telecommunications assets. The company also changed its name to Marconi. A number of factors, including a huge over-capacity in network supply, led to a collapse in the market for telecommunications equipment in 2001. Many of Marconi’s competitors saw the downturn coming, but Marconi did not. It assumed, incorrectly, the market downturn would be brief and there would soon be recovery and growth. Within a year loss of shareholder confidence resulted in a collapse in the Marconi share price, reducing the value of its equity from about £35 billion to just £800 million. In July 2001, the company asked for trading in its shares to be suspended in anticipation of a profits warning. Not long afterwards, Lord Simpson was forced to resign. In retrospect, investors realized that the Marconi board had not understood the business risks to which their strategy decisions had exposed the business. Some years later in 2006 the Marconi name and most of the assets were bought by the Swedish firm Ericsson.
Relating to the topics discussed in this course, what were the errors committed by GEC.
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