The Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd. (also known as Extel) was created in March 1872 specifically to distribute financial and business information from the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

and other commercial markets direct to subscribers. The company established

ticker tape Ticker tape was the earliest electrical dedicated financial communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use from around 1870 through 1970. It consisted of a paper strip that ran through a machine called ...

telegraph machines in offices, gentlemen's clubs, banks etc. and provided a continuous stream of commercial information to them. It introduced a parliamentary service in 1876, a general news service in 1879 and a legal service in 1891. The business was so successful that by 1906 they had opened ten other branches outside

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The company continued to grow and improve, becoming increasingly more efficient. It added a faster financial service in 1907 and began operating a worldwide news service in 1913, with a separate sports service included in the 1930s. Over the course of its history, Extel (the name coming into common use for the company in the 1950s) grew into one of the leading

news agencies A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, ...

, provider of financial information and associated businesses. Among the many notable achievement were 'Extel cards', the very first corporate snapshots/tear-sheets with brief data on profit and loss, employees, business activities and executive management. Extel cards, naturally in hard copy, were first produced in 1922.

Recent history

Extel was acquired by

United Newspapers UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, England, before its acquisition by Informa in 2018. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its main focus was on B2B events, but its pr ...

in 1987. In 1991, Extel set up a joint venture with

Agence France Presse Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, D. ...

to create a financial news service,

AFX News Thomson Financial was an arm of the Thomson Corporation, an information provider. When the Thomson Corporation merged with Reuters to form Thomson Reuters in April 2008, Thomson Financial was merged with the business of Reuters to form the Markets ...

. Pearson plc acquired Extel in 1993 and merged it as Financial Times Information into its

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

division. Financial Times reorganised the company into two divisions: Market Data and Research. The research division retained the Extel branding. Primark acquired the Extel brand from Pearson in 1999 and it became part of Thomson Financial in 2000. AFP's share in ''AFX News'' was sold in 2006 to Thomson Financial. Thomson Financial and Extel itself was then merged into Thomson Reuters in 2007.

References

* * {{Authority control News agencies based in the United Kingdom Financial services companies established in 1872 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Thomson Reuters

Recent history

See also

References