Racal

Racal Electronics plc

Company type	Public limited company
Industry	Electronics
Founded	1950; 74 years ago (1950) (as Racal Ltd.)
Founder	Raymond Brown George Calder Cunningham
Defunct	2000
Fate	Acquired by Thomson-CSF
Successor	Thales plc
Headquarters	Weybridge, United Kingdom
Key people	Sir Ernest Harrison OBE (chairman)

Racal Electronics plc was a British electronics company that was founded in 1950. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, Racal was a diversified company, offering products including voice recorders and data recorders, point of sale terminals, laboratory instruments and military electronics, including radio and radar. At its height it was the third largest British electronics firm; it operated worldwide and employed over 30,000 people at its height. It was the parent company of Vodafone, before the mobile telephony provider was sold in 1991.

Racal was bought by Thomson-CSF (now called Thales Group) in 2000.^[1] The purchase was expected to roughly double the size of the French defence giant's operations in the UK, a country that already represented one of its biggest export markets in Europe.

In 2001, Racal Instruments Inc. became an independent company after a leveraged buyout from Thales. In 2004, it was acquired by EADS North America Defense and Test Services Inc., which was then acquired by Astronics Corporation in 2014. The Racal brand now resides with Astronics Test Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Astronics Corporation.