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Racal was a British defence electronics firm purchased by Thomson-CSF (now Thales) in 2000.
Racal was created in 1950, the name derived from the partners Raymond Brown and Calder Cunningham.
In 1983, Racal competed for one of the original licences to operate a cellular network in the UK, both it and British Telecom were successful. Racal established the Racal Telecom (now Vodafone) subsidiary.
In 1984, Racal bought Chubb, a security company that manufactured safes and locks.
In 1988, 20% of Racal Telecom was floated on the London Stock Exchange. This would lead to the situation where Racal Electronics was valued at less than its shareholding in Racal Telecom. Since a company which contained Chubb was clearly worth more than nothing, Ernie Harrison (Racal Chairman) demerged Racal Telecom in October 1991 forcing a positive valuation on the rest of Racal (colloquially known in the City as "the rump"). Vodafone would later become the largest mobile network in the UK and the highest valued company on the FTSE 100. Immediately following the demerger, Williams Holdings launched a takeover bid for Racal. The bid, valued at £740m, failed.
In 1992, Chubb was demerged from Racal and was subsequently taken over by Willams Holdings in 1997 for £1.3bn.
In 1994, Camelot Group won the franchise to operate the UK National Lottery, Racal had a 22.5% share. After one of the founder shareholders, GTECH, was bought out by Camelot this stake increased to 26.67% which Thales continues to hold.
With the 2000 takeover Racal became Thomson-CSF Racal plc and later Thales plc with the renaming of the larger Thomson-CSF to Thales Group.
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