Tech Talent: How the UK lost six potential titans

Many of the UK's most promising tech firms have been bought by bigger, overseas firms

When it comes to tech, there is no lack of ideas or talent in the UK.

But there is, nonetheless, an ever-growing list of promising companies that sell out or simply fail, rather than growing into British titans that could rival the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Google, IBM, Intel, Oracle and Facebook.

Sir Clive sold the rights to his computers to Alan Sugar's Amstrad

There was a time in the 1980s when video gamers and teenage coders across the UK were more likely to be hunched over one of Sir Clive Sinclair's computers than an American or Asian-made alternative.

Sinclair Research sold more than 5 million ZX Spectrums over eight years

Sinclair Research may have only made its ZX Spectrums for domestic sale, but it licensed Timex to make clones that were sold elsewhere in Europe, the US and South America. Dozens of unofficial versions were a hit in the Soviet Union too, proving their appeal, if not a source of income.


But the firm got unstuck when it tried to enter the business market. Its Sinclair QL was designed to outperform IBM's PCs, but its tape-based Microdrive storage was unreliable and the British company did not offer the kind of telephone support the corporate sector required.

"Their computer designs were abominable by our standards," Sir Clive later told the BBC.
"But because... IBM had such a powerful position, I don't think we could have challenged it."
After the C5 electric vehicle also failed to catch on, a cash-strapped Sir Clive sold his firm's brand and assets in 1986 to Amstrad, another domestic computer-maker.


Amstrad later faced troubles with computer storage of its own and eventually switched focus to TV set-top boxes before selling out to BSkyB.

Years before Facebook was founded, let alone open to the public, a couple from Hertfordshire and one of their friends, created a social network that attracted millions of users in the UK, Australia, South Africa and beyond.

Friends Reunited connected members with their former classmates by getting them to share the names of their old schools and the year they had left.

Over time, the theme was expanded to cover places of work, sports teams and neighbourhoods where users had lived. Spin-off sites were also created to offer online dating, job searches, message boards and ways for users to trace their family trees.

When ITV paid £175m to buy the operation in 2005, it expected to continue its red hot growth.