There are now over 1,500
technology companies, employing more than
53,000 people, in Cambridge's "Silicon Fen". They're attracted by a
combination of entrepreneurialism and innovation "unrivalled
probably anywhere outside the US", according to Charles Cotton,
technology investor and author of The Cambridge Phenomenon: 50
Years of Innovation and Enterprise. For more than 50 years --
since Tim Eiloart and David Southward set up Cambridge
Consultants in 1960, in Eiloart's words to "put the brains of
Cambridge University at the disposal of the problems of British
industry" -- the city has been host to some of the most important
names in the UK's technology sector, including Acorn Computing,
Sinclair Research, Aveva,
ARM and Autonomy. To date, it has produced 12 companies with
market capitalisations of more than $1bn (£600m). ARM Holdings
alone has a £13.5bn market cap; and Autonomy sold, controversially,
for $11bn (£7.2bn) to HP.
Wired UK
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