History
Colt was founded as City Of London Telecommunications in 1992 by James Hynes, with funds provided by Fidelity Investments.[3] The company began to construct a telecoms network in London.[3] In 1993 it was awarded a licence to compete with British Telecom and Cable and Wireless in voice and data transmission.[3] It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996.[3] The group later expanded into Europe, building networks in major European cities over the next 10 years.[3]
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.[4] In April 2009, Colt completed an open offer, raising €199.1m before expenses.[5]
In May 2011 the company acquired a majority share in MarketPrizm, a provider of low-latency market data and trading infrastructure services.[6] In August 2012 Colt acquired a majority share in ThinkGrid, a cloud platform for delivery of hosted services.[7] On 12 November 2014, Colt acquired KVH, a Japanese telecoms company, helping Colt expand in the growing Asian market.[8] In August 2015 the company was fully acquired by Fidelity.[9] On 2 November 2022, Colt agreed to acquire Lumen Technologies' Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business for $1.8 billion.[10]
In August 2025, the company suffered a cyber attack in which the attacker was able to access customer data.[11]
