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Private company

Extel

Financial news service

The Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd. (also known as Extel) was created in March 1872 specifically to distribute financial and business information from the London Stock Exchange and other commercial markets direct to subscribers. The company established ticker tape telegraph machines in offices, gentlemen's clubs, banks etc. and provided a continuous stream of commercial information to them. It introduced a parliamentary service in 1876, a general news service in 1879 and a legal service in 1891.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1872Founded1
  • Industrynews media1

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Exchange Telegraph Company Limited cover
Photo: Mauls, CC-BY-SA-4.0, via Wikipedia4

The Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd. (also known as Extel) was created in March 1872 specifically to distribute financial and business information from the London Stock Exchange and other commercial markets direct to subscribers. The company established ticker tape telegraph machines in offices, gentlemen's clubs, banks etc. and provided a continuous stream of commercial information to them.2

The story

Extel was acquired by United Newspapers in 1987. In 1991, Extel set up a joint venture with Agence France Presse to create a financial news service, AFX News. Pearson plc acquired Extel in 1993 and merged it as Financial Times Information into its Financial Times division. Financial Times reorganised the company into two divisions: Market Data and Research. The research division retained the Extel branding.

Primark acquired the Extel brand from Pearson in 1999 and it became part of Thomson Financial in 2000. AFP's share in AFX News was sold in 2006 to Thomson Financial. Thomson Financial and Extel itself was then merged into Thomson Reuters in 2007. By this time, and essentially since 1999, the only commercial and operational part of Extel was the Extel Survey.

In 2016, WeConvene, a cloud-based corporate access platform acquired Extel, and subsequently sold in 2018 to their larger competitor, Institutional Investor, at that time owned by Euromoney. The two survey operations combined to form Institutional Investor Research (II Research). In November 2022, Euromoney was delisted following a purchase by a private equity consortium and II Research was separated from Institutional Investor. In September 2024 II Research rebranded, resurrecting its dormant trading name Extel.

From Wikipedia’s article on Extel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1872Founded Founded1

Sources

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