Colt Technology Services

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title: "Colt Technology Services" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["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"] description: "Multinational telecommunications and data centre services company" topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Technology_Services" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Multinational telecommunications and data centre services company ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

Field	Value
name	Colt Technology Services Group Limited
logo	Colt Technology Services logo.svg
logo_size	160px
foundation	1992 in London
founder	James Hynes
location	London, England, UK
area_served	Europe
United States
Asia
key_people
industry	Telecoms, Managed services
parent	Fidelity Investments
homepage
module
::

| name = Colt Technology Services Group Limited | logo = Colt Technology Services logo.svg | logo_size = 160px | foundation = 1992 in London | founder = James Hynes | location = London, England, UK | area_served = Europe United States Asia | key_people = | industry = Telecoms, Managed services | products = | num_employees = | parent = Fidelity Investments | subsid = | homepage = | footnotes = | module = Colt Technology Services Group Limited (formerly COLT Telecom Group S.A.) is a multinational telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index until it was acquired by Fidelity Investments in August 2015. Colt was originally an acronym for City Of London Telecommunications.

History

Colt was founded as City Of London Telecommunications in 1992 by James Hynes, with funds provided by Fidelity Investments. The company began to construct a telecoms network in London. In 1993 it was awarded a licence to compete with British Telecom and Cable and Wireless in voice and data transmission. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange 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 raise a further £400m in financing, and acquired a majority share in it as part of a bailout agreement. In April 2009, Colt completed an open offer, raising €199.1m before expenses.

In May 2011 the company acquired a majority share in MarketPrizm, a provider of low-latency market data and trading infrastructure services. In August 2012 Colt acquired a majority share in ThinkGrid, a cloud platform for delivery of hosted services. On 12 November 2014, Colt acquired KVH, a Japanese telecoms company, helping Colt expand in the growing Asian market. In August 2015 the company was fully acquired by Fidelity. On 2 November 2022, Colt agreed to acquire Lumen Technologies' Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business for $1.8 billion.

In August 2025, the company suffered a cyber attack in which the attacker was able to access customer data.

Operations

The company's main centre of operations is in the United Kingdom.

References

References

1. Mike Robuck. (2020-05-28). "Q&A: Colt's new CEO is ready to blaze her own trail". Fierce Telecom.
2. Colt Technology Services. "Colt name change".
3. Colt Technology Services. "Colt History".
4. Kapner, Suzanne. (2001-10-04). "Fidelity Investments Agrees To Help Rescue Colt". [[The New York Times]].
5. "Colt Telecom Group".
6. (22 February 2011). "Colt to buy MarketPrizm".
7. (13 August 2012). "Colt Buys ThinkGrid To Beef Up Its Small Enterprise Cloud Services Business".
8. "Colt expands into Asia with KVH acquisition".
9. Pusey, Jack. (2015-08-12). "Colt declares Fidelity takeover unconditional".
10. (3 November 2022). "Colt splashes $1.8bn on Lumen's EMEA networks". Telecom TV.
11. Colt Technology Services. (20 August 2025). "Cyber Incident – Answering your key questions".
12. (22 April 2014). "Colt to exit carrier voice market".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::