|
Background History
|
|
Greg Moore, an Australian
entrepreneur, founded Bridge International (later renamed Pont Data
Company) in 1980, recognizing a niche in the small but growing financial
data distribution business
He struck a deal with Charles Lebens,
the chairman of St Louis-based Bridge Information Systems, that
allowed Moore to develop an international service for Bridge, using
existing Bridge software. The product that Moore and his Bridge
International team developed became the standard for the dissemination
of Australian company and securities price information, historical
data, and local financial news.
In 1983 Greg Moore went to London to build a UK arm, constructing
a computer centre in Bures, Suffolk and eventually spreading his
operations to continental Europe. Bridge International quickly won
adherents: one particular feature of the system that in its day
had no peer was its ability to report completed trades almost immediately
after execution.
The agreement between the two companies
was finally dissolved amid much acrimony in 1987. Moore renamed
his company Pont.
By 1991, despite the proven attraction
of the product, particularly in providing information on smaller
markets, the company was in dire financial straits.
Moore, for all his savvy, stopped paying his bills somewhere along
the way and eventually lost effective control of the company. By
mid 1991, rising costs led him to borrow heavily from the Kuwaiti
Investment Office (one source puts the figure at $40 million), which
was familiar with the Pont product as a client. The KIO took effective
control of Pont in the fall of 1991, and Moore then returned to
Sydney.
Finally, Pont Data finally went into
administration in 1992
Source:- 1998 Asset International,
Inc
****:- the article states that Moore
returned to Sydney in 1991, but from records he was the owner of
Smallbridge until 2000
Allegedly, Greg may have returned to Australia leaving behind his
wife and two daughters until the children finished their schooling
|
|
|
Bridge International and Pont
Data Timeline
One thing that I could never figure
out, why did Greg Moore choose a remote rural village and an empty
butchers shop in rural Suffolk to launch his UK business ?
Bridge International :- Purchased
the redundant Butchers Shop, High Street Bures circa 1986
(was the name derived from Bridge Street a few yards away in Bures?)
"Bridge International"
was an IT firm specialising in supplying online information to the
finance industry
Pont Data:- Smallbridge Hall, - circa 1985 - 1987
Pont Data, Westwood Park:- circa 1987 -1992
Filed for Administration 1992
Taken from Watersinfo.com re Charles
Lebens
|
 |
Due to its rapid growth, Bridge International
soon outgrew these premises and moved down to Smallbridge Hall (later
to Westwood Park) under the name of Pont Data
Left: Westwood Park, West Bergholt
|
Company records indicate Pont was founded in 1985
Company records do not show who were the board members at this time, but
in 1987 Gregory Moore was listed as a Director.
Pont Data Inc. filed as a Domestic Corporation
in the State of Nevada on Monday, October 12, 1987.
1995:- This corporation is no longer active according to documents filed
with Nevada Secretary of State and is listed as Merge Dissolved.
Gregory Phillips Moore was listed as the President of Pont Data Inc and
registered in Illinois, USA.
|
|
Pont Data also had a registered address
in the UK at 6 City Road, Finsbury Sq, London during ??
<<<<< During 1988
Greg Moore was requesting a listing on the Australian Bourse for
Pont Data
During the late 1980`s Smallbridge
was the IT centre for Pont Data in the UK with several employees.
One of these data services was to receive live information from
the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and distribute that to other interested
parties such as Ceefax, Teletext and stockbrokers.
With BBC now displaying virtually live stock information from the
LSE, this was a vast improvement for the private investor who either
had to phone a stockbroker or wait for the next days newspapers
to carry this information.
With so much data being handled by
Smallbridge, this became a problem for BT.
This was well before the days of broadband and external fibre optic,
consequently BT had to lay a new copper cable from its telephone
exchange in Bures along the rural roads to provide more cable capacity
to Smallbridge at an enormous cost.
BT and Pont Data signed a formal
agreement that any data faults on the BT plant would be cleared
within a 4 hour time scale - this was virtually impossible to achieve
with Bures and Smallbridge in such rural locations.
It wasn`t unusual for an engineer to attend in the early hours,
to clear line faults.
I recall I was called-out at 0600hrs
in the late 80`s because of a catastrophic Data failure at Smallbridge,
On arrival I found nobody on the premises, however I had access
to a key to gain entry to the Data Centre.
To my horror, I found all of the equipment had been switched of
and Gregg Moors office was bare.
It appeared that Gregg had moved out of Smallbridge overnight, leaving
his staff bewildered what to do next.
As the failure was not in my remit, I departed and returned home.
|
Waterstechnology.com:- April 5th 1990
|
Waterstechnology.com: Feb 1992
Finally Pont Data went into administration,
circa 1992
Smallbridge was still owned by
Greg Moore until 2000 when it was sold
==============
Additional notes:-
During the 1980`s I was a BT Engineer looking after data links
for large companies to the north of Colchester.
Unfortunately for me living in Bures, I was nominated to maintain
Greg Moores Data and Comm links 24/7
Smallbridge Hall
Smallbridge is located approximately 2.5 miles out of the village
along the Nayland Rd. The former owners only required one or two
telephone lines so the cabling to the Hall was minimal
There was no Fibre in those days, so all data was transmitted
over standard copper wire. It was not uncommon to bunch pairs
together to reduce the losses(impedance/resistance) in order to
get a slight speed increase
The demand for data links was so enormous, that BT was requested
by Greg Moore install a larger capacity cable which would run
from the telephone exchange in the centre of Bures all the way
out to the Hall.
This was quite a challenge as the ductwork layed in the footpath
only runs as far as Claypits Avenue a distance of about 500 metres.
That was the easy part and could be accomplished in a day or two.
This meant the remainder of the route some 2km, entailed manually
digging up the carriageway/ grass verge in order to bury the cable.
This contract took several weeks and cost tens of thousands of
pounds in labour and materials.
Today in 2015, evidence of this work is clearly visible along
the verge at Clickets Hill where the grass verge has eroded, exposing
the cable to the elements.
There is no evidence of any pipe/duct being layed at this point
so I can only assume the cable was just buried in the ground
It was then terminated in one of the stable block buildings to
the right, as you drive down the access road into Smallbridge.
Another cable was then layed in ductwork under the driveway and
lawn into the main building.
Westwood Park
Because of its remoteness from the nearest telephone exchange,
there was no suitable underground cable with sufficient capacity
to feed the enormous amount of data being processed.
BT erected a microwave mast on the telephone exchange at Marks
Tey which transmitted data to a similar mast at Fordham Telephone
Exchange.
This in turn was relayed by a dish to a mast at Westwood Park
These exchanges were chosen because at Marks Tey it could intercept
the Colchester to London data and telephone traffic.
Fordham exchange had a clear line site (essential for microwave
transmission) to Marks Tey and in the other direction to Westwood
Park.
Unfortunately this
link turned out to be totally unreliable in the rain, as nobody
took account of a woodland surrounding Westwood Park which degraded
the signal.
Ok in the fine sunny weather, but a drizzle of rain the signal
collapsed
Several trees were cut
down, in the attempt to resolve the problem, but it was a lost
cause.
To provide this microwave/data link from Marks Tey to Fordham
then onward to Westwood park, must have cost BT tens of thousands
of pounds.
I have no idea how Pont Data coped with such an unreliable link,
as it was too far away from Gt Horkesley telephone exchange to
lay any additional capacity
underground cabling
In 2015 the mast (not the dish) was still standing abandoned at
the side of Fordham Telephone exchange
Allegedly when
Pont went into administration, BT had received no payment for
their external work
Anon
Page 2:- Pont
Data Photographs
|
Updated 12/04/2015
Updated 03/06/2018
Greg Photo courtesy of Christine Burls 01/10/2023
|
