De La Rue Bull was formed as part of an agreement in 1959 between the De La Rue Company and Compagnie des Machines Bull which set up a joint company to sell, and manufacture, business machinery and electronic computers. Known as De La Rue Bull Machines Ltd it was jointly owned by the two companies and would allow the French company to expand into the Commonwealth. In 1964 General Electric would purchase Bull, which became Bull-General Electric, and the joint company began to sell GE computers. This did not prove to be successful though as in 1966 the company made a £600,000 loss and De La Rue sold half its share to General Electric. The company would late become General Electric Information Services.