Colt Technology Services Group Limited (formerly COLT Telecom Group S.A.) is a multinational

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

and was a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 250 Index, also called the FTSE 250 Index, FTSE 250, or, informally, the "Footsie 250" , is a stock market index that consists of the 101st to the 350th mid-cap blue chip companies listed on the London Stock ...

until it was acquired by

Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments, formerly known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), owned by FMR LLC and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, provides financial services. Established in 1946, the company is one of the largest asset managers in the ...

in August 2015. "Colt" stood for City Of London Telecom.

History

Colt was founded in 1992 by Jim Hynes with funds provided by

as ''City Of London Telecommunications''. The company began to construct a telecoms network in London. In 1993 it was awarded a licence to compete with

British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

and Cable and Wireless in voice and data transmission. It was first listed on the

in 1996. The group later expanded into Europe, building networks in major European cities over the next 10 years. In 2001 Fidelity helped the Company to raise a further £400m to finance its future activities. In 2005 the company reached its first year of positive cash flow, and in 2007 its first year of profit. In April 2009 Colt completed an Open Offer raising €199.1m (including a €9.7m foreign exchange gain) before expenses with the issue of 211.0 million shares. In 2010 Colt rebranded from COLT Telecom to Colt Technology Services, deleting the acronym ''City of London Telecommunications'' to reflect its pan-European nature. In May 2011 Colt acquired a majority shareholding in MarketPrizm, a provider of low latency market data and trading infrastructure services. In August 2012 Colt acquired a majority shareholding in ThinkGrid, a cloud platform for delivery of hosted services On 12 November 2014, Colt acquired KVH, a Japanese Telecom service provider, helping Colt to expand its capability in the growing Asian market. In August 2015 the company was acquired by

. On 2 November 2022, Colt entered into agreement to acquire Lumen Technologies' Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business for $1.8 billion.

Operations

The parent company's main centre of operations is based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Telecommunications companies established in 1992 ICT service providers Telecommunications companies of Luxembourg Telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom Internet service providers of the United Kingdom Multinational companies headquartered in the United Kingdom 1992 establishments in England 2015 mergers and acquisitions Telecommunications companies disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in England