The history of the evolution of Siemens Plessey division traces to 1988, when the UK regulatory authorities rejected a full merger between the British-based industrial conglomerate - General Electric Company plc (GEC), and the Plessey company - a historic British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company founded in 1917.
[1] In 1989, GEC and Siemens AG set up a joint holding company, GEC Siemens plc, to launch a hostile takeover of Plessey, which succeeded.
Most of Plessey's assets were divided between the companies (see : Plessey#Break-up of the business); except the 1988 founded GEC-Plessey joint venture - GPT, which was converted to a '60/40 GEC/Siemens joint venture'.
[2] The division of Plessey between these two partners meant the deal met with little regulatory opposition.
The DASA acquired assets became part of EADS in July 2000 when DASA merged with the French Aérospatiale-Matra and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) of Spain.