Cable & Wireless Worldwide Share Price (CW) - Buy CW Shares

Cable & Wireless is a telecoms company and is a member of the FTSE 100 share price index. The company was privatised in the 1980s to act as a competitor to the recently privatised British Telecom via the subsidiary Mercury Communications. Prior to this the company's history had been in telecommunications networks between the UK former British colonies and had been nationalised following the Second World War.

The company was one of the first in the UK to offer cable television services. The company's cable and consumer telecoms businesses were sold to NTL in the late 1990s. Cable & Wireless gained a strong foothold in the US market by purchasing TDX Systems in 1987, a company that had taken advantage of deregulation in the long distance telecoms market in the country. The company acquired the cable operations of other players in the UK market in the mid 1990s and in 2002 acquired Guernsey Telecoms in the Channel Islands strengthening its position in Western Europe. The company is a significant supplier of 'back bone' internet protocol services to FTSE listed companies and is currently number three in that market due to its acquisition of Energis in 2005. Due to the company's history, it still maintains a strong presence in the Carribean and has a near monopoly on network services in some territories. The company has a particularly strong presence in Panama via its half ownership of Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicaciones. In 2007, Cable & Wireless plc had revenues of £3.3 billion, and an operating income of £234 million, with the company employing over 4000 staff around the world.