ISTEL
ISTEL, formerly BL Systems, and latterly AT&T Istel, was a British information technology company.
History
The company was formed in 1979, as BL Systems, as a merger of all the computer departments of the various companies brought together under the British Leyland (BL) umbrella.[1] John Leighfield became the chairman of the new company, which, in addition to providing the computer resources and telecommunications services for the BL companies, gradually started to provide similar services for other outside companies. The company's headquarters were established in Redditch and Coventry. BL Systems pioneered many services, including the establishment of Europe's first microwave communications network in the late 1970s and launched Comet (originally a US product) that in 1981 was Britain's first commercial electronic mail service. In 1984 the company's name was changed to ISTEL. The new company name was said to have been chosen by Leighfield randomly by combining pairs of syllables that sounded vaguely related to systems, telecommunications, or technology until he hit upon one he liked the sound of.
In June 1987, Rover Group (which British Leyland had been renamed in 1986) sold ISTEL, in a management buyout, to a consortium of its management and employees, and investors, led by John Leighfield, for £35 million.[2]
In October 1989, ISTEL was sold to AT&T for a significant profit and was renamed AT&T Istel. Latterly it was documented that in 1997 AT&T quietly dropped the Istel name putting its finance, commerce, travel, and healthcare divisions up for sale. Customers included Citibank, Delta Air Lines, Barclays Bank, Texaco, British Oxygen, Boots and Post Office Ltd. The healthcare division was sold to Atlanta-based company HBO & Company[3]. In 1998 the company's finance and banking division was sold off to Cap Gemini[4].
References
- ^ Pearce Wright (1986-12-19). "Invention dispute is settled". The Times. The Times.
- ^ "35 million pounds Istel". The Times. The Times. 1987-06-12.
- ^ Collins, Tony"Istel: the rocky road to sell-off.(AT&T sells its Istel IT services arm to Cap Gemini) (Company Business and Marketing).Computer Weekly. 1998. Retrieved September 15, 2010 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-20880070/istel-rocky-road-sell.html
- ^ Collins, Tony. "AT&T presses ahead on selling UK clients. (Company Operations)." Computer Weekly. 1998. Retrieved September 15, 2010 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-20880048/att-presses-ahead-selling.html