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Curated category

British subsidiaries of foreign companies

  • Gamer NetworkRupert and Nick Loman established Eurogamer Network in 1999. Their flagship website, Eurogamer, opened its doors on the 4th of September 1999.
  • HarperCollinsHarperCollins traces its name to two companies that never met until one man decided to buy them both. James Harper and his brother John founded J & J Harper…
  • Anime LimitedOn the 14th of December 2012, Andrew Partridge launched a social media page for Anime Limited from his base in Glasgow. He was the director behind Scotland…
  • StudioCanal UKStudioCanal UK began life not as a French outpost, but as a scrappy British independent called Optimum Releasing, founded in October 1998 and open for…
  • ParlophoneCarl Lindström Company founded Parlophon in Germany during 1896. The name appeared on gramophones before the firm began pressing records of its own.
  • Polydor RecordsPolydor Records was born not in a recording studio, but in a music box factory. The firm that would become Polydor was founded in 1887 in Leipzig by Gustav…
  • CadburyCadbury began not as a chocolate company but as a tea shop. On the 4th of March 1824, a Quaker named John Cadbury opened a small retail stall on Bull Street…
  • Orion Publishing GroupOrion Publishing Group began its life in 1991, arriving as an independent British publisher at a moment when the London book trade was about to reshape…
  • Media MoleculeMedia Molecule is a British video game studio built on a paradox: a company that wanted to make world-class games with as few people as possible.
  • Virgin MediaVirgin Media was born on the 8th of February 2007, not from a single founding idea, but from the collision of two bruised giants and a mobile company none of…
  • Climax StudiosKarl Jeffery established Images Software Ltd. on the 3rd of February 1988 in Portsmouth, England. The new company began its life by developing and porting…
  • Google DeepMindDemis Hassabis and Shane Legg met at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at University College London in 2010. They established DeepMind Technologies…
  • Eidos InteractiveEidos Interactive began not in a boardroom but in a family living room at Christmas 1983, when a young advertising account executive named Dominic Wheatley…