This article is about the company; for other usages, see CMG.

CMG

Former type	Public
Fate	Acquired
Successor	Logica
Founded	1964
Defunct	2002
Headquarters	London, UK
Key people	Doug Gorman (Chairman)
Industry	Consulting

CMG was a consulting company focused on telecommunications and computing and based in London, United Kingdom. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Logica in 2002.

[edit] History

The Company was founded in 1964 by Bob Collins, Bryan Mills and Chairman Doug Gorman – the first letters of their surnames forming the company name.^[1] In fact, Bob Collins never actually commenced with the company, his place being taken by Bob Fawcett.^[2]

CMG started trading in August 1965, when Bryan Mills and Bob Fawcett gave up their jobs (with Burroughs and Honeywell respectively) and started working out of the homes. By late 1965 they had moved into the basement of Doug Gorman's house in Blackheath, South East London. Doug had also left his job and was working full time for the company having worked out his 3 months notice at Cooper Bros. By now the founders had developed, and were selling, the Accountants' Time Ledger package. They bought only as much computer time as was needed for the work available, and produced a fully comprehensive package service.

In 1966 they opened offices in Davis House in Croydon. A rapid expansion ensued followed by a move to Sunley House in Croydon and offices being opened in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1970's.^[1]

Although Bryan Mills and Bob Fawcett left CMG in the 1980's, Doug Gorman continued to lead CMG until his death in 1995.

CMG floated on the London and Amsterdam stock exchanges in December 1995.^[3] Until that time, only employees and their immediate families could purchase shares in CMG, and at its peak about 85% of employees owned shares in the company.^[2]

In July 1998, it purchased COMETH, a French SAP service provider, for $4.5 million.^[1] Then in December 1998, it acquired Rohirst, a British-based financial software maker, for $2 million.^[1] In February 1999 it bought Hamburg-based Partner Consult and in March 1999 it purchased Belgium-based Soft Guide: both companies were systems consultancies.^[1] In April, it acquired Amsterdam's Thijssen Information Systems, an information management firm.^[4] At the end of the year it made two more acquisitions: Germany's Banksys Software and France's Eurasoft.^[1]

In 2000 it bought Germany's SDC and Britain's Computer Answers International^[1] and then in June 2000, it acquired Admiral, another British IT consultancy.^[5]

The merger of Logica (60%) with CMG (40%), on 30 December 2002, represented the union of an established technology firm (Logica) with an established consulting firm (CMG).^[6]

[edit] Operations

CMG supplied services and products in the finance, trade and industry, transport, telecommunications, energy and public sectors. The Company also provided managed information processing services, including networks, payroll and personnel.

[edit] References