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International Business Machines Corporation

 
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International Business Machines Corporation

(NYSE:IBM)
Contact Information
International Business Machines Corporation
1 New Orchard Rd.
Armonk, NY 10504-1722
NY Tel. 914-499-1900
Toll Free 800-426-4968
Fax 800-314-1092

Type: Public
On the web: http://www.ibm.com
Employees: 426,751
Employee growth: 6.8%

Big Blue? Try Huge Blue. International Business Machines (IBM) is the world's top provider of computer products and services. Among the leaders in almost every market in which it competes, the company focuses primarily on its growing services business, which accounts for well over half of sales. While IBM made its name in computer hardware, the company's information technology, business services, and software units are now among the largest in the world. The company is also one of the largest providers of semiconductors, and its computing hardware legacy lives on in the form of its industry-leading enterprise server and data storage products lines. IBM serves customers globally across most industries.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2011:
Sales: $106,916.0M
One year growth: 7.1%
Net income: $15,855.0M
Income growth: 6.9%

Officers:
Chairman: Samuel J. (Sam) Palmisano
President and CEO: Virginia M. (Ginni) Rometty
SVP and CFO, Finance and Enterprise Transformation: Mark Loughridge

Competitors:
Accenture
Hewlett-Packard
Microsoft

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(International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include mainframes (see System z), midrange models (see Power Systems) and Intel-based servers (see System x). Although IBM was a major player in personal computers, it sold its PC line in 2004 to Lenovo, China's largest computer manufacturer. IBM derives most of its revenue from software and services and is the largest software and IT services company in the world.

It all started in New York in 1911 when the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was created by a merger of The Tabulating Machine Company (Hollerith's punch card company in Washington, DC), International Time Recording Company (time clock maker in NY state), Computing Scale Company (maker of scales and food slicers in Dayton, Ohio), and Bundy Manufacturing (time clock maker in Auburn, NY). CTR started out with 1,200 employees and a capital value of $17.5 million.

In 1914, Thomas J. Watson, Sr., became general manager. During the next 10 years, he dispensed with all non-tabulating business and turned it into an international enterprise renamed IBM in 1924. Watson instilled a strict, professional demeanor in his employees that set IBMers apart from the rest of the crowd.

IBM achieved spectacular success with its tabulating machines and the punch cards that were fed them. From the 1920s through the 1960s, it developed a huge customer base that was ideal for conversion to computers, and Watson's son, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., was an enthusiastic supporter of computers.

IBM launched its computer business in 1953 with the 701 and introduced the 650 a year later. By the end of the 1950s, the 650 was the most widely used computer in the world with 1,800 systems installed. The 1401, announced in 1959, was its second computer winner; and by the mid-1960s, an estimated 18,000 were in use.

In 1964, it announced the System/360, the first family of compatible computers ever developed. The 360s were enormously successful and set a standard underlying IBM mainframes to this day.

During the 1970s and 1980s, IBM made a variety of incompatible minicomputer systems, including the System/36 and System/38. Its highly successful AS/400, introduced in 1988, provided a line of compatible machines in this segment, evolving two decades later into the Power Systems family.

In 1981, IBM introduced the PC into a chaotic personal computer field and set the standard almost overnight. Although one of the largest PC manufacturers, IBM sold its laptop business to Lenovo in 2004 and exited the desktop PC industry. It let Lenovo, HP, Dell, Toshiba and others battle over the end-user market it created (see IBM PC and Lenovo).

In the late 1990s, IBM embraced the Linux operating system and supports it on all of its product lines. This was a major shift for a company known for proprietary software. Today, IBM mainframes continue to flourish as a huge amount of enterprise data is still processed by these machines, which have a lineage dating back more than four decades (see System/360). As each year goes by, more electronic history piles up, creating massive databases that IBM mainframes handle with ease. See Microsoft and IBM.

The Man Who Built an Empire
This photo of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., was taken in 1920, four years before he renamed the company IBM. (Image courtesy of International Business Machines Corporation. Unauthorized use not permitted.)

IBM Office, London, 1935
"Dayton Money Making Machines" were sold all across the world. IBM became an international enterprise in the late 1930s. (Image courtesy of International Business Machines Corporation. Unauthorized use not permitted.)

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Gale Directory of Company Histories:

International Business Machines Corporation

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Incorporated: 1911 as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company
NAIC: 334111 Electronic Computer Manufacturing; 334112 Computer Storage Device; 334113 Computer Terminal Manufacturing; 334119 Other Computer Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing; 333313 Office Machinery Manufacturing; 334210 Telephone Apparatus Manufacturing; 334290 Other Communications Equipment Manufacturing; 334613 Magnetic and Optical Recording Media Manufacturing; 333315 Photographic and Photocopying Equipment Manufacturing; 339944 Carbon Paper and Inked Ribbon Manufacturing; 541511 Custom Computer Programming Services; 511210 Software Publishers; 541512 Computer Systems Design Services; 518210 Data Processing and Related Services; 518111 Internet Service Providers; 541513 Computer Facilities Management Services; 532420 Office Equipment Rental and Leasing; 811212 Computer and Office Machine Repair; 541519 Other Computer Related Services; 541613 Marketing Consulting Services; 541612 Human Resource Consulting Services

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is the largest computer maker in the world. Because of its enormous size, power, and success, and because it sells that most modern of tools, the computer, IBM has come to symbolize modern life itself for many. The company's nickname--Big Blue--is a phrase that may have been originally suggested by IBM's army of uniformly dressed salesmen, whose dark suits and white shirts were required by the firm's leader, Thomas Watson, Sr., who transformed the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) into a world leader in information technology.

CTR was formed in 1911 by Charles Runlet Flint. The so-called "father of trusts" merged two of his earlier creations, International Time Recording Company and Computing Scale Company of America, with a third, unrelated entity known as Tabulating Machine Company. The latter had been founded some years before by Herman Hollered, an engineer who invented a machine that would sort and count cards based on the pattern of holes punched in each.

Hollered had supplied the U.S. Census Bureau with these machines for use in the 1890 and 1900 censuses, and the device was quickly adopted by other organizations in need of rapid computation. As perfected, the tabulator operated in a simple three-step manner. Small cards were punched in a variety of patterns, each one representing a different category of the subject under survey; the assembled cards were run through a sorting machine, set to distribute them according to relevant categories; at the same time an accounting machine kept track of the results, and, in the later, more sophisticated models, performed any number of calculations based on those results.

Such a machine found increasing use in a society evolving rapidly into a largely urban, commercial matrix, where the ability to monitor and analyze large sums was critical to business profitability. Flint was less interested in Tabulating Machine Company than in the other two members of his new creation, which in any case got off to a slow start and threatened to stay that way.

In 1914 Flint hired a new general manager for CTR. Thomas Watson was already a well-known, if not notorious, figure in U.S. business. Watson had gone to work for John Patterson at National Cash Register (NCR) in 1895 and quickly proven himself a quintessential "NCR man"; bright, aggressive, and loyal, he rose to the position of general sales manager for the entire company in 1910. At Patterson's order, Watson then set up a company whose supposed purpose was to compete with NCR. The company's real purpose, however, was to eliminate NCR's competitors. In 1912, along with John Patterson, his former employer at NCR, Watson was convicted of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act on behalf of the company. Shortly after Watson and Patterson were convicted, Patterson fired Watson. Watson was then hired by Charles Flint. Watson never admitted any wrongdoing, and in 1915 the government dropped its case against NCR after the company became famous for its help during a catastrophic flood in its hometown of Dayton, Ohio. The threat of a jail sentence now past, Watson was made president of CTR.

Watson understood immediately that his company's future lay in its tabulating division, and it was there that he committed most of his energy and resources. Scales and clocks were useful items, but the United States would soon be a nation of office workers in need of basic office tools like the tabulator. Watson hired many ex-NCR men and patterned his own well-disciplined sales force along NCR lines--intense competition was combined with equally intense corporate loyalty, and salespeople were courteous, spotlessly dressed, and, above all, understood that CTR sold not a product but a service. A completed sale was just the beginning of the salesman's job; in effect, he had to become a partner in the customer's business, and together they designed a tabulating system for that particular organization.

As was the case at NCR, Watson's sales force became a key factor in his company's success. In a pattern that still holds today, many customers remained loyal because they trusted and to an extent relied upon the CTR salesman's knowledge of their business. Numerous, well-trained, devoted, and well-paid, the CTR sales staff actually dominated the company, ensuring that new technology followed upon the needs of customers and not the reverse. Throughout IBM's history (the company's name was changed to International Business Machines Corporation in 1924) massive and talented sales energy, rather than technological leadership, kept the company ahead of competitors.

Watson pushed hard in the late 1910s to make CTR the industry leader in tabulating design. He gradually turned back all boardroom challenges to his plans, and by 1925, was both chief executive officer and chief operating officer. In the ten years following Watson's arrival, CTR sales shot up from $4.2 million to a temporary peak of $13 million in 1919, weathered a minor crisis in the early 1920s, and stood poised to ride the booming U.S. economy. The newly named IBM faced some formidable competitors--Remington Rand, Burroughs, and NCR, among others--but from the beginning Watson steered clear of mass-produced, low-priced office products like typewriters and simple adding machines, concentrating instead on the design of large tabulating systems for governmental and private customers. With superior products and a more dedicated sales force, by 1928 IBM was the clear leader in its specialized field and a force in office technology as a whole.

The company was remarkably profitable. In 1928, for example, its profit of $5.3 million was nearly as great as that of giant Remington Rand, though the latter more than tripled IBM's sales of $19.7 million. In 1939, IBM's profit of $9.1 million exceeded that of the next four companies combined, and held an impressive 23 percent of sales.

IBM's business was particularly profitable for several reasons: the company focused on large-scale, custom-built systems, an inherently less competitive segment of the business; IBM's policy of leasing, rather than selling, its machines to customers was very profitable; and IBM maintained cross-licensing agreements dating back to the mid-1910s with its chief competitor, Remington Rand, preventing the two leaders from falling into competitive squabbles. The company required its customers to buy IBM cards for their IBM tabulators. The cards could not be read by any other machine. This last condition made it almost impossible for IBM customers to try other products. With literally millions of such cards already punched, IBM's clients tended to stay put.

The U.S. government filed a suit in 1932 alleging that the IBM-Remington Rand cross-licensing agreement and IBM's exclusive punch card design were anti-competitive. In 1936, after learning that IBM sold nearly 85 percent of all keypunch, tabulating, and accounting equipment in the United States, the Supreme Court ordered IBM to release its customers from all such card restrictions. The Court's decision had little impact on the company's growth, however. Even the Great Depression did not check IBM's progress, as most cash-pressed companies needed more numerical information, not less.

In addition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal had created a large federal bureaucracy in need of the very calculating machines IBM manufactured. In 1935, at the same time the Justice Department was pursuing its case against IBM, the newly formed Social Security Administration placed an order with the company for more than 400 accounting machines and 1,200 keypunchers. The pattern was clear; modern society rested on massive organizations that required machines capable of massive calculations, which were made by IBM. By the end of the 1930s Thomas Watson was enjoying praise for his enlightened employee relations as well as for his "thinking machines."

During World War II both private and governmental demand for IBM tabulators increased. The machines were needed to monitor the manufacture and movement of vast resources. Sales boomed, more than tripling to $141.7 million in five years. The war offered IBM another opportunity, less immediately exciting but in the long run of far greater importance. The armed forces needed high-speed calculators to solve a number of military problems relating to ballistics and, later, the development of the atomic bomb. Partly as a result, IBM helped build what might be called the world's first computer, the Mark I. This machine was similar to the first electromechanical calculators built a few years earlier, which used IBM punch cards to work out long arithmetic sums; the Mark I was also capable of retaining a set of rules which could be applied to any later input. Such a memory is one of the essential differences between the calculator and the computer, and the Mark I represented a great step forward. With 765,000 parts and 500 miles of wire, the Mark I still delivered less power than today's hand-held calculator.

Computer design evolved rapidly during the war. IBM joined the partnership building the new Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC was useful to the military and gave IBM the experience it needed to precede with its own electronic machine. When the war ended in 1945, interest in ultra-high-speed calculators died down quickly; few outside the Army needed a room-sized machine designed to analyze howitzer trajectories. Only a handful of scientists continued refining the advances won by ENIAC, eventually creating a more saleable machine called UNIVAC around 1948. When IBM's old rival, Remington Rand, began to market UNIVAC in 1951, it took a significant lead in the new computer business. IBM continued its typically cautious approach. IBM waited until the new product proved its lasting appeal before leaping into the fray. Since it controlled 85 percent of the market for which computers were targeted, and because even electronic computers then still used IBM punch cards, Watson was not especially alarmed by Rand's success.

Heir apparent Thomas Watson, Jr., strongly favored an all-out push into the computer market. By the time he became president in 1952, he had won the power struggle with his father and led IBM into an immense research program designed to surpass Rand. The new president staked his reputation--as well as a significant portion of IBM's assets--on the computer campaign, which had paid off by 1955 with the success of IBM's new 705 general purpose business computer. By the following year Remington Rand had already lost its lead. It was no surprise that IBM came to dominate in computers so quickly, since at that time the computer business was only a small segment of the office products market, which IBM continued to control. The 85 percent of offices using IBM tabulating equipment simply switched over to IBM computers.

In 1949 Thomas Watson's younger brother, Dick Watson, was also brought into the business. The 30-year-old Dick Watson was named president of IBM World Trade Corporation, the parent company's new subsidiary for international sales. In 1949 World Trade had sales of only $6.3 million but operated in 58 countries. In the more prominent of these countries World Trade set up a subsidiary to market IBM products and even do additional research and development. As the world's industrial powers awoke to the computer age, they found themselves greeted by IBM. It was not unusual for local IBM units to achieve market domination comparable to that of the parent company in the United States. Only in Japan and the United Kingdom were local competitors able to match IBM's presence, forcing the latter to settle for around 33 percent of the market. Barely on the sales map in 1949, World Trade eventually surpassed IBM domestic in total revenue.

Meanwhile, the U.S. computer business filled up with potential rivals. Some of these, like RCA, General Electric, and the newly merged Sperry Rand, were as large as or larger than IBM and should have been able to mount a serious challenge. In every case, however, competitors either lacked an adequate sales organization or were not fully committed to the commercial computer business. RCA, for example, made important contributions to computer technology, but mainly with an eye toward possible applications in its growing television business. Sperry Rand, on the other hand, still controlled the successful UNIVAC machine but was hopelessly behind IBM in sales experience and customer loyalty.

In 1952 the government filed a second, more ambitious antitrust suit against IBM. In 1956 IBM entered into a consent decree, which ordered it to divest many of its card-production facilities, sell its machines as well as lease them, submit to certain cross-licensing agreements, and create a subsidiary to compete with itself in the service end of the business. None of these injunctions limited IBM's success, but the 1957 appearance of a small company called Control Data did.

Control Data Corporation (CDC) was a pioneer in niche specialization in the computer world. This tactic seemed to be the only way to compete successfully with IBM. The newcomer made very large, very fast computers for scientific and governmental users in need of maximum crunching power, and after a brief battle, IBM largely ceded the field to CDC. IBM's bread and butter remained the medium to large business computer.

In 1958 Sperry Rand and Control Data brought out the first second generation computers, which used transistors instead of vacuum tubes. No sooner had IBM met this challenge with its own line of transistorized machines, than it faced the arrival of the industry's third generation--integrated circuitry. Once again IBM lagged in technological change as Honeywell and CDC brought out the first integrated circuit units in the early 1960s, but this time Big Blue's response necessitated a companywide revolution. Integrated circuitry was clearly destined to become the industry standard, and IBM decided to bring out a complete line of such computers. After an unprecedented capital-spending program involving six new plants and many thousands of new workers, the company introduced its 360 line in April 1965. Small, fast, and accompanied by a new set of exclusive software, the 360s were an immediate and lasting success, remaining the worldwide computer leader for more than a decade.

Sperry Rand, GE, Burroughs, RCA, Honeywell, NCR, and Control Data were unable to close the gap between themselves and IBM, which now delivered 65 percent of all U.S. computers. Control Data filed yet another antitrust suit in 1968, charging that IBM had sold "phantom" computers to its customers to keep them from placing orders for superior CDC products. The government filed its own suit the following year, supporting CDC's claims and alleging other monopolistic practices. Encouraged by these efforts, IBM's competitors, big and small, filed 22 similar lawsuits in the next few years. IBM beat back every one of them, however, with one exception. The U.S. Justice Department continued its battle for 13 years, until President Ronald Reagan's administration dropped the suit shortly before a ruling was expected.

Niche specialization was clearly the only way to survive in the face of IBM's power. In 1960 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) brought out a relatively small, inexpensive computer designed for researchers, effectively creating the microcomputer business. Micros were only a further step in the evolution of the computer, but IBM chose not to enter the market. DEC was soon joined by a host of other micro manufacturers offering a wide range of computers for ever smaller tasks, culminating years later in Apple's marketing of the personal computer for home use. IBM failed to join this race until 1980, at which late date it was unable to dominate the market, as it did mainframes and minicomputers.

In 1971 Tom Watson retired from IBM after suffering a heart attack. His successor, Frank Cary, remained in charge until 1981, at which time John Opel was named CEO. Under these men and IBM's present chairman, John Akers, the 360 line of computers grew into the 370, sales continued to climb, and in the golden year of 1984 corporate earnings reached a staggering $6.6 billion on revenue of $46 billion. With a return on shareholders' equity of 25 percent, IBM was the unchallenged favorite of Wall Street and perceived by many in Washington as the only U.S. company able to hold its own against Japanese competition. The firm was profiled in a best-selling book as a paradigm of business excellence.

The years following were not nearly so kind to IBM. A drop in earnings for 1985 was dismissed as inevitable after the glory year of 1984, but by the end of the decade financial analysts were convinced that IBM was in need of an overhaul. Revenue growth was slow and earnings weak by IBM standards, resulting in a long decline in the company's stock price, and its share of the worldwide computer market had fallen from 36 percent to 23 percent. Chairman Akers responded by cutting his workforce by 32,000 (from a 1985 peak of 405,000) and urged a return to IBM's traditional strength in marketing and customer relations. After a good year in 1990, however, revenue in 1991 fell for the first time since the 1940s and Akers was widely quoted as saying that the company faced a crisis.

By historical standards, he was correct: Big Blue was losing ground. The dip in revenues could be explained as part of the severe 1990-91 recession that took its toll on the entire computer industry, but clearly IBM was no longer the juggernaut it had been during most of its history. Underlying its sluggish growth was a fundamental change in the nature of the computer industry, and that was change itself--the continually accelerating rate of technological breakthrough in the world of data processing. So long as computers had remained primarily large and very expensive machines designed for number crunching (mainframes), it was possible for IBM to keep its dominant position by simply building bigger and faster machines.

The increasing power of semiconductor chips changed all of that, however; computers became smaller and were applied to a greatly broadened range of tasks. The mini, micro, and workstation technologies all tended to undercut the value of monolithic mains, and independent breakthroughs now tended to focus on software and the crucial problem of networks, the means by which computers communicate with each other and with other forms of data transmission such as telephone and video. Sheer computing power remained important, of course, but it became available in a far greater range of machines at prices that dropped every week.

Given these changes, IBM faced a vastly more complex marketplace both in terms of niches and in the number of its competitors around the world. A wide consensus of observers agreed that IBM's enormous size was a drawback in the quicksilver markets of the 1990s, and in November 1991 Chairman Akers announced the dawn of a new era at the company. Each division of IBM would become a semi-detached business, responsible for its own decisions and bottom-line results. The details of this centrifugal structure transformed IBM into becoming a type of holding company with possibly dozens of discrete operating units under its loose administration. It was hoped that IBM's PC (personal computer) division, for example, would be better able to respond to customer needs and a changing marketplace than when it was forced to take its decisions to company headquarters before acting; and similarly with IBM's mains, minis, software, maintenance, and the many other parts of this $70 billion-per-year corporation.

Akers had sold the copier division to Kodak in 1988 and followed up in 1991 with the sale of Lexmark, IBM's typewriter, personal printer, keyboard, and supplies business. The divestiture plan had not progressed far, however, when Akers was fired in 1993 and replaced by Lou Gerstner, former CEO of RJR Nabisco. Gerstner scrapped the plan and set about revitalizing the company.

Turning IBM's size and diversity to its advantage, Gerstner expanded the company's small services division, making it a place customers could come for network solutions. By recommending products appropriate for each customer rather than simply pushing IBM goods, Global Services grew rapidly. By 1995 it surpassed Electronic Data Systems (EDS) to become the largest computer services business in the world.

One of the divisions slated to be sold in the divestiture plan was IBM Research, notorious for its long-term research into technologies that never were translated into saleable products. With an $8.9 billion loss in 1993, IBM was searching for costs to cut. Gerstner, however, refused to sell off the division, although he did trim the $6 billion budget by $1 billion. Researchers were also instructed to spend more time working directly with customers, focusing on solutions for real customer problems. The changes led to the resignation of many of the company's scientists. Despite the new focus on the bottom line, the research division continued to lead the industry in patents each year through the 1990s.

By 1994 Gerstner's turnaround strategy was already bearing fruit: The company posted a profit for the first time since 1990. IBM was helped in its recovery in the mid-1990s by the massive growth of the Internet. Although the company abandoned its browser and sold its Prodigy online service, the company benefited from the Internet boom through sales of the big servers needed to run it. IBM also began helping customers move onto the Internet by creating web sites and establishing e-commerce.

In the mid-1990s IBM moved into new areas of the computing industry. In 1994 it signed an agreement with Cyrix to manufacture its computer chips. The following year it purchased Lotus Development, a software company best known for its office software, for $3.5 billion. IBM saw the company's Notes groupware, designed to help a company's staff communicate more effectively, as helpful in its foray into networked desktop computing. Remaining at its Boston headquarters, Lotus continued as an independently run subsidiary, with very little interference from IBM. With IBM's resources and distribution network supporting Lotus, Notes users rose from two million in 1995 to 22 million by 1998. IBM benefited by including the Lotus software in a package of applications called eSuite. In 1996 IBM gave a boost to its software planning for networks by purchasing Tivoli Systems Inc., which specialized in creating tools for network management.

By 1996 IBM's recovery seemed solid, with a $50 billion rise in its market value since 1993. The company's image got a boost in 1997 when its computer Deep Blue won a six-game chess match against World Class Champion Garry Kasparov. The computer, which used huge amounts of parallel processing, could evaluate 200 million chess moves a second, a processing capability the company hoped could be used in such endeavors as weather forecasting and modeling financial data.

IBM continued to expand via new product development and acquisitions through the late 1990s. In 1997 the company bought Unison Software, which specialized in managing computer systems, and in 1998 purchased CommQuest Technologies, a designer and manufacturer of wireless communications chips. Other smaller purchases included a majority holding in site development software company NetObjects in 1998 and NUMA systems expert Sequent Computer Systems in 1999.

The company's shift to providing services had progressed well by the late 1990s. Services accounted for 29 percent of IBM's revenues in 1998 and 39 percent of pretax profits. By 1999, e-business service revenue alone exceeded $3 billion, a 60 percent increase from 1998. Also in 1999, IBM acquired two new technology companies--Sequence Computer Systems and Whistle Communications--and signed contracts exceeding $15 billion with several other technology companies: Dell Computer Corporation, Acer Incorporated, Cisco Systems, Inc., and Nintendo Company, Ltd.

Y2K, the fear that all computer-related systems would malfunction upon entering the year 2000, caused financial difficulties for IBM in 1999, decreasing server revenue 17.9 percent from 1998. In 2000, with financial distress lingering, IBM focused on strict management of costs and expenses. It also continued to concentrate on service. In the year, demand for services and products dramatically increased (as fears of Y2K subsided), so much that IBM could not always meet customer needs. But by 2000's end, while IBM's earnings rose 16 percent, the value of stock decreased 21 percent, from $108 to $85. This decline partly reflected the state of the stock market, as 2000 watched nearly all information technology stocks decrease in value.

In 2001 the financial situation for IBM turned gloomy, as the company lost nearly $3 billion in overall revenue, decreasing net income from $8 billion to $7.7 billion. IBM's CEO V. Gerstner, Jr., attributed the losses to a sluggish technology economy and a decline in personal computers and hard disk drives. Still, IBM continued to perform relatively well in the areas of services, software, zSeries servers, and high-end storage. The company continued its focus on cutting costs, but 2002 did not fare any better for IBM.

Gerstner was replaced as CEO by the company's president, Samuel. J. Palmisano, but the new CEO would not immediately improve IBM's finances. Under new leadership, the company invested heavily in the areas of research and development, capital expenditures, and acquisitions. For one, IBM acquired PricewaterhouseCoopers' global business consulting and technology services unit, PwC consulting, for $3.5 billion in cash and stock. As a result, IBM created a new global business unit, IBM Business Consulting Services, which became part of IBM Global Services. In the same year, IBM introduced a number of new products, including the eServer z800, an entry-class mainframe and eServer p650, which immediately became the world's most powerful eight-way UNIX server. Innovation aside, IBM ended 2002 with an earnings decrease of 35 percent, to $5.3 billion.

Palmisano turned focus on an on-demand business management technique, a strategy IBM pegged "e-business on demand." The strategy, according to IBM, would help to further meet customer demands, as well as to take better advantage of market opportunities and to ward off external threats. The strategy proved sound, as 2003 total revenue improved by 10 percent, or nearly $8 billion, from 2002, with global services contributing close to $6 billion of this. In addition, gross profits rose almost $3 billion from 2002.

The year 2003 also witnessed further innovation at IBM, including the introduction of the world's most advanced server, the eServer z Series 990; the eServer p690 system, offering 65 percent more speed than its predecessor; and two new high-end iSeries servers: iSeries 825 and 870. IBM concluded 2003 with the sale of the 20 millionth ThinkPad since introducing the ThinkPad line of laptops in 1992.

Success followed IBM into 2004. To begin the year, IBM and Unica Corporation signed a lucrative contract with BJ's Wholesale Club for a new marketing platform that would personalize interactions with BJ's members. At the same time, IBM broke the record for patents received in a single year, with 3,415 for new products. One such product, introduced in 2004, was the IBM eServer Blade Center HS40, the most powerful and flexible (and smallest) 4-way blade server available.

With continually increasing revenues and a recovering economy, IBM looked toward growth, including plans to acquire Candle Corporation, which specialized in infrastructure management information. Further innovation was anticipated, specifically concerning IBM's semiconductor manufacturing facility, for which IBM accepted a $325 million investment from Sony Group for the use of chip production.

Principal Subsidiaries

IBM Credit LLC.; IBM International Foundation; IBM International Services Corp.; IBM Business Transformation Center, SRL; Tivoli Systems, Inc., IBM World Trade Corp.; IBM Plans Management Corp; IBM Foreign Sales Corp.; WTC Insurance Corporation, Ltd. (Bermuda); IBM Canada Credit Services Co.; IBM Canada Limited-IBM; IBM Argentina Sociedad Anonima (99.99%); IBM de Bolivia SA (99.98%).; IBM Brasil-Industria, Maquinas E Servicos Limitada (Brazil; 99.99%); IBM de Chile SA (99.99%); IBM de Columbia SA (90%); IBM Del Ecuador; Grupo IBM Mexico S.A. de C.V. (99.99%); IBM del Peru SA (99.99%); IBM Del Uraguay SA; IBM de Venezuela SA; IBM A/NZ Holdings Pty, Ltd. (Australia); IBM Australia Ltd.; IBM New Zealand Ltd; IBM India Ltd (99.99%); PT IBM Indonesia (99%); YK IBM AP Holdings; IBM Japan, Ltd; IBM Korea, Inc.; IBM Malaysia SDN BHD; IBM Philippines, Inc. (99.99%); IBM Thailand Company Ltd (99.99%); IBM Israel Ltd (99.99%); IBM Turk Limited (Turkey; 98%); IBM South Africa Group Ltd.; IBM China Company Ltd.; IBM Central Holding GMBH (Germany); IBM Ireland Ltd.; IBM Nederland NV (Netherlands); IBM United Kingdom Holdings Ltd; IBM United Kingdom Ltd.; IBM Europe Holding BV (Netherlands); Compagnie IBM France SA; International Business Machines SA (Spain; 99.99%); IBM Danmark As (Denmark).

Principal Divisions

Global Services; Hardware Systems Group; Personal Systems Group; Technology Group; Software; Global Financing; Enterprise Investments.

Principal Competitors

Accenture; Dell Computer Corporation; Hewlett-Packard Company; Microsoft Corporation; Toshiba Corporation; Xerox Corporation.

Further Reading

"Blue Is the Colour," Economist, June 6, 1998.

DeLamarter, Richard Thomas, Big Blue: IBM's Use and Abuse of Power, New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1986.

Henriques, Diana B., "Off the Shelf: The Insecurities and Iron Fist That Built I.B.M.," New York Times, May 11, 2003, section 3, p. 5.

Kirkpatrick, David, "IBM: From Big Blue Dinosaur to E-Business Animal," Fortune, April 26, 1999, pp. 116-27.

Lohr, Steve, "Technology: IBM Will Collaborate Somewhat More on Chip Design," New York Times, April 1, 2004, section C, p. 8.

Maney, Kevin, The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM: John Wiley & Sons, 2003.

"The New IBM," Business Week, December 16, 1991.

Sobel, Robert, IBM: Colossus in Transition, New York: Times Books, 1981.

Watson, Thomas J., Jr., Father, Son, and Company: My Life at IBM and Beyond, New York: Bantam Books, 1990.

— Jonathan Martin


Once upon a time, the computer company most hackers loved to hate; today, the one they are most puzzled to find themselves liking.

From hackerdom's beginnings in the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, IBM was regarded with active loathing. Common expansions of the corporate name included: Inferior But Marketable; It's Better Manually; Insidious Black Magic; It's Been Malfunctioning; Incontinent Bowel Movement; and a near-infinite number of even less complimentary expansions (see also fear and loathing). What galled hackers about most IBM machines above the PC level wasn't so much that they were underpowered and overpriced (though that counted against them), but that the designs were incredibly archaic, crufty, and elephantine ... and you couldn't fix them — source code was locked up tight, and programming tools were expensive, hard to find, and bletcherous to use once you had found them.

We didn't know how good we had it back then. In the 1980s IBM had its own troubles with Microsoft and lost its strategic way, receding from the hacker community's view. Then, in the 1990s, Microsoft became more noxious and omnipresent than IBM had ever been.

In the late 1990s IBM re-invented itself as a services company, began to release open-source software through its AlphaWorks group, and began shipping Linux systems and building ties to the Linux community. To the astonishment of all parties, IBM emerged as a staunch friend of the hacker community and open source development, with ironic consequences noted in the FUD entry.

This lexicon includes a number of entries attributed to ‘IBM’; these derive from some rampantly unofficial jargon lists circulated within IBM's formerly beleaguered hacker underground.



International Business Machines
(established 1924)

American multinational corporation IBM has established a leading position in world markets as a provider of well-designed office and business equipment with a distinctive, symbolically efficient aesthetic that marked its products from the middle of the 20th century under the design leadership of Eliot Noyes. The roots of the company lay in the late 19th century when the US Census Bureau needed access to efficient means of tabulating census data to record the large number of immigrants to the country and the establishment of the Tabulating Machine Company with an innovatory punch card tabulating machine. Following a range of mergers in the early 20th century and the involvement of Thomas Watson Sr. in the senior management structure of the new Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R) in 1914 the company underwent further expansion, changing its name in 1924 to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). By this time the company had three manufacturing plants in Europe. Unlike many companies in the Depression of the 1930s IBM won the contract to keep employment records for 25 million people in the wake of the Social Security Act of 1935, with other government contracts following. It also invested in modern research and development laboratories in Endicott, New York. During the Second World War IBM began to become involved in the development of computers with the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator in 1944 developed into other large calculating machines in the later 1940s. During the 1950s a number of computers were developed including the IBM 701 (1952), used for government and research work, the IBM 7090, an early fully transistorized mainframe used by the US Air Force, and the IBM 305 Random Access Method of Accounting and Control (RAMAC) of 1957, the year in which IBM introduced Fortran, one of the most common languages for technical work. In 1952 Thomas Watson Jr. was made president of IBM and chief executive officer in 1956. Watson was instrumental in bringing about significant changes to IBM's corporate design outlook, inspired by what he had seen of the products, advertising, and publicity at Olivetti, the Italian office equipment manufacturing company. He appointed Eliot Noyes as consultant director of design in 1956, Noyes already having had a professional relationship with the company, working on the IBM account whilst he was design director at Norman Bel Geddes's design consultancy after the Second World War. After setting up Noyes & Associates in 1947 and completing work on the IBM Model A electric typewriter, which had been left unfinished when Bel Geddes's office closed in 1947, he was awarded the consultancy for IBM products in 1948. When he took up the post of consultant director of design Noyes brought in a number of key designers to help shape IBM's corporate identity. These included the graphic designer Paul Rand who, like Noyes, had an affinity with a European Modernist aesthetic, George Nelson, another advocate of Modernism, both in his writings and design work, and Edgar Kaufmann Jr., director of the Department of Industrial Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. IBM's design policy was explained in the company's Design Practice manual written by Noyes and realized throughout the company's activities. Paul Rand used German designer Georg Trump's City typeface of 1930 as the basis for the IBM logotype of 1956. Former Bauhaus graduate and teacher Marcel Breuer, former Bauhaus director Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, and Eero Saarinen designed IBM buildings, as did Noyes himself, including the 1963 IBM building in Garden City, New York. Charles and Ray Eames were also employed to design exhibitions for IBM as well as producing a number of films to explain the workings of computers. One of the best-known IBM products designed by Noyes was the Selectric I electric typewriter of 1961 with an innovatory interchangeable ‘golfball’ printing element, the carriage remaining fixed. Noyes had worked on its elegant casing from 1959 onwards. The attractive, functional aesthetic endowed this and other IBM products with an aura of efficiency, giving secretarial and administrative work a sense of status. The use of colour for the casings of many of these machines injected a further feeling of ‘joie de vivre’ rather than the dull monotony associated with routine work. The Selectric II was launched in 1971 and, by 1975, Selectric typewriters accounted for almost three-quarters of the US typewriter market. This position changed with the advent of the personal computer (PC) in the 1980s, IBM entering the market after Apple. After a drop in profits the company underwent a reorganization in the 1990s.

International Business Machines Corporation
Type Public
Traded as NYSEIBM
NASDAQIBM
Dow Jones Component
S&P 500 Component
Industry Computer hardware, Computer software, IT services, IT consulting
Founded Endicott, New York, U.S.
(June 16, 1911 (1911-06-16))
Founder(s) Thomas J. Watson
Headquarters Armonk, New York, U.S.
Area served Worldwide
Key people Ginni Rometty
(President & CEO)
Samuel Palmisano (Chairman)
Revenue increase US$ 106.91 billion (2011)[1]
Operating income increase US$ 020.28 billion (2011)[1]
Net income increase US$ 015.85 billion (2011)[1]
Total assets increase US$ 116.43 billion (2011)[1]
Total equity decrease US$ 020.13 billion (2011)[1]
Employees 426,751 (2010)[1]
Divisions Financing, Hardware, Services, Software
Website IBM.com

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSEIBM) or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.[2] As of December 2011, IBM was the third-largest publicly traded technology company in the world by market capitalization.[3][4]

The company was founded in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation through a merger of three companies: the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, and the Computing Scale Corporation.[5][6] CTR adopted the name International Business Machines in 1924, using a name previously designated to CTR's subsidiary in Canada and later South America. Its distinctive culture and product branding has given it the nickname Big Blue.

In 2011, Fortune ranked IBM the 18th largest firm in the U.S.,[7] as well as the 7th most profitable.[8] Globally, the company was ranked the 31st largest firm by Forbes for 2011.[9][10] Other rankings for 2011 include #1 company for leaders (Fortune), #2 best global brand (Interbrand), #1 green company worldwide (Newsweek), #12 most admired company (Fortune), and #18 most innovative company (Fast Company).[11] At December 31, 2010, IBM had over 426,751 employees serving clients in over 170 countries,[12] with occupations including scientists, engineers, consultants, and sales professionals.[13]

IBM holds more patents than any other U.S.-based technology company, and has nine research laboratories worldwide.[14] Its employees have garnered five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, nine National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science.[15] Famous inventions by IBM include the automated teller machine (ATM), the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, the relational database, the Universal Product Code (UPC), the financial swap, SABRE airline reservation system, DRAM, and Watson artificial intelligence.

The company has undergone several organizational changes since its inception, acquiring companies like SPSS (2009) and PwC consulting (2002), spinning off companies like Lexmark (1991), and selling off product lines like ThinkPad to Lenovo (2005).

Sam Palmisano stepped down as chief executive officer on January 1, 2012, but retained his position as chairman. He was replaced by veteran IBMer Ginni Rometty.[16][17]

Contents

History

1880–1929

Starting in the 1880s, various technologies came into existence that would form part of IBM's predecessor company. Julius E. Pitrap patented the computing scale in 1885;[18] Alexander Dey invented the dial recorder (1888);[19] in 1889, Herman Hollerith patented the Electric Tabulating Machine[20] and Willard Bundy invented a time clock to record a worker's arrival and departure time on a paper tape.[21] On June 16, 1911, these technologies and their respective companies were merged by Charles Ranlett Flint to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R).[22] The New York City-based company had 1,300 employees and offices and plants in Endicott and Binghamton, New York; Dayton, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Washington, D.C.; and Toronto, Ontario. It manufactured and sold machinery ranging from commercial scales and industrial time recorders to meat and cheese slicers, along with tabulators and punched cards.

Flint recruited Thomas J. Watson, Sr., from the National Cash Register Company to help lead the company in 1914.[22] Watson implemented "generous sales incentives, a focus on customer service, an insistence on well-groomed, dark-suited salesmen and an evangelical fervor for instilling company pride and loyalty in every worker".[23] His favorite slogan, "THINK", became a mantra for C-T-R's employees, and within 11 months of joining C-T-R, Watson became its president.[23] The company focused on providing large-scale, custom-built tabulating solutions for businesses, leaving the market for small office products to others. During Watson's first four years, revenues more than doubled to $9 million and the company's operations expanded to Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia.[23] On February 14, 1924, C-T-R was renamed the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM),[11] citing the need to align its name with the "growth and extension of [its] activities".[24]

1930–1979

NACA researchers using an IBM type 704 electronic data processing machine in 1957

In 1937, IBM's tabulating equipment enabled organizations to process unprecedented amounts of data, its clients including the U.S. Government, during its first effort to maintain the employment records for 26 million people pursuant to the Social Security Act,[25] and the Third Reich,[26] largely through the German subsidiary Dehomag. Also in 1937, the company president, Thomas J. Watson Sr., met with Adolf Hitler, and discussed issues on the supply of equipment, and in 1941 were made ​​leasing supplies to concentration camps to accommodate the prisoners. During the Second World War the company produced small arms for the American war effort(M1 Carbine, and Browning Automatic Rifle).

In 1952, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., became president of the company, ending almost 40 years of leadership by his father. In 1956, Arthur L. Samuel of IBM's Poughkeepsie, New York, laboratory programmed an IBM 704 to play checkers using a method in which the machine can "learn" from its own experience. It is believed to be the first "self-learning" program, a demonstration of the concept of artificial intelligence. In 1957, IBM developed the FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation) scientific programming language. In 1961, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., was elected chairman of the board and Albert L. Williams became president of the company. IBM develops the SABRE (Semi-Automatic Business-Related Environment) reservation system for American Airlines. The IBM Selectric typewriter was a highly successful model line of electric typewriters introduced by IBM on July 31, 1961.

In 1963, IBM employees and computers helped NASA track the orbital flight of the Mercury astronauts, and a year later, the company moved its corporate headquarters from New York City to Armonk, New York. The latter half of that decade saw IBM continue its support of space exploration, with IBM participating in the 1965 Gemini flights, the 1966 Saturn flights, and the 1969 mission to land a man on the moon.

On April 7, 1964 IBM announced the first computer system family, the IBM System/360. Sold between 1964 and 1978, it was the first family of computers designed to cover the complete range of applications, from small to large, both commercial and scientific. For the first time, companies could upgrade their computing capabilities with a new model without rewriting their applications.

In 1973, IBM engineer George J. Laurer developed the Universal Product Code.[27]

IBM's Blue Gene supercomputers were awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by U.S. President Barack Obama on September 18, 2009.

In the late 1970s, IBM underwent some internal convulsions between those in management wanting to concentrate on their bread-and-butter mainframe business, and those wanting the company to invest heavily in the emerging personal computer industry.

1980–present

Financial swaps were first introduced to the public in 1981 when IBM and the World Bank entered into a swap agreement.[28] The IBM PC, originally designated IBM 5150, was introduced in 1981, and it soon became the industry standard. In 1991, IBM sold Lexmark, and in 2002, it acquired PwC consulting. In 2003, IBM initiated a project to rewrite its company values. Using its Jam technology, the company hosted Internet-based online discussions on key business issues with 50,000 employees over 3 days. The discussions were analyzed by sophisticated text analysis software (eClassifier) to mine online comments for themes. As a result of the 2003 Jam, the company values were updated to reflect three modern business, marketplace and employee views: "Dedication to every client's success", "Innovation that matters—for our company and for the world", "Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships".[29] In 2004, another Jam was conducted during which 52,000 employees exchanged best practices for 72 hours. They focused on finding actionable ideas to support implementation of the values previously identified.[30]

In 2005 the company sold its personal computer business to Lenovo, and in 2009, it acquired software company SPSS Inc. Later in 2009, IBM's Blue Gene supercomputing program was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by U.S. President Barack Obama.

In 2006, IBM launched Secure Blue, a low-cost hardware design for data encryption that can be built into a microprocessor.[31]

In 2011, IBM gained worldwide attention for its artificial intelligence program Watson, which was exhibited on Jeopardy! where it won against game show champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. As of 2011, IBM had been the top annual recipient of U.S. patents for 19 consecutive years.[32]

IBM's closing value of $214 billion on September 29, 2011 surpassed Microsoft which was valued at $213.2 billion. It was the first time since 1996 that IBM exceeded its software rival based on closing price. However, as of September 30, 2011, IBM's value remained less than two-thirds of Apple's value of $362.1 billion.[33]

Corporate affairs

IBM's headquarter complex is located in Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York, United States.[34][35][36] The 283,000-square-foot (26,300 m2) IBM building has three levels of custom curtainwall. The building is located on a 25 acre site.[37] IBM has been headquartered in Armonk since 1964.[38]

The company has nine research labs worldwide—Almaden, Austin, Brazil, China, Israel, India, Tokyo, Watson (New York), and Zurich—with Watson (dedicated in 1961) serving as headquarters for the research division and the site of its annual meeting. Other campus installations include towers in Montreal, Paris, and Atlanta; software labs in Raleigh-Durham, Rome and Toronto; buildings in Chicago, Johannesburg, and Seattle; and facilities in Hakozaki and Yamato. The company also operates the IBM Scientific Center, Hursley House, the Canada Head Office Building, IBM Rochester, and the Somers Office Complex. The company's contributions to architecture and design, including Chicago's 330 North Wabash building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, were recognized with the 1990 Honor Award from the National Building Museum.[39]

IBM's Board of Directors, with 14 members, is responsible for the overall management of the company. With Cathie Black's resignation from the board in November 2010, the remaining 13 members (along with their affiliation and year of joining the board) are as follows: Alain J. P. Belda '08 (Alcoa), William R. Brody '07 (Salk Institute / Johns Hopkins University), Kenneth Chenault '98 (American Express), Michael L. Eskew '05 (UPS), Shirley Ann Jackson '05 (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Andrew N. Liveris '10 (Dow Chemical), W. James McNerney, Jr. '09 (Boeing), James W. Owens '06 (Caterpillar), Samuel J. Palmisano '00 (IBM), Joan Spero '04 (Doris Duke Charitable Foundation), Sidney Taurel '01 (Eli Lilly), and Lorenzo Zambrano '03 (Cemex).[40]

Various IBM facilities

IBM Rochester (Minnesota), nicknamed the "Big Blue Zoo"
IBM Avenida de América Building in Madrid, Spain
IBM Japan Makuhari Technical Center, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi
IBM Haifa Research Lab, Haifa, Israel
IBM Kolkata Building, Kolkata, India

Corporate recognition and brand

In 2011, Fortune ranked IBM the 18th largest firm in the U.S.,[7] as well as the 7th most profitable.[8] Globally, the company was ranked the 31st largest firm by Forbes for 2011.[41] Other rankings for 2011 include the following:[11]

For 2010, IBM's brand was valued at $64.7 billion.[43] The company was also listed in India's 2011 The Brand Trust Report as the #32 most trusted brands in the country.

For 2012, Vault ranked IBM Global Technology Services #1 in tech consulting for cyber security, operations and implementation, and public sector; and #2 in outsourcing.[44]

Working at IBM

In 2010, IBM employed 105,000 workers in the U.S., a drop of 30,000 since 2003, and 75,000 people in India, up from 9,000 seven years previous.[45]

IBM's employee management practices can be traced back to its roots. In 1914, CEO Thomas J. Watson boosted company spirit by creating employee sports teams, hosting family outings, and furnishing a company band. In 1924, the Quarter Century Club, which recognizes employees with 25 years of service, was organized and the first issue of Business Machines, IBM's internal publication, was published. In 1925, the first meeting of the Hundred Percent Club, composed of IBM salesmen who meet their quotas, convened in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

IBM was among the first corporations to provide group life insurance (1934), survivor benefits (1935) and paid vacations (1937). In 1932 IBM created an Education Department to oversee training for employees, which oversaw the completion of the IBM Schoolhouse at Endicott in 1933. In 1935, the employee magazine Think was created. Also that year, IBM held its first training class for women systems service professionals. In 1942, IBM launched a program to train and employ disabled people in Topeka, Kansas. The next year classes begin in New York City, and soon the company was asked to join the President's Committee for Employment of the Handicapped. In 1946, the company hired its first black salesman, 18 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1947, IBM announced a Total and Permanent Disability Income Plan for employees. A vested rights pension was added to the IBM retirement plan.

In 1952, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., published the company's first written equal opportunity policy letter, one year before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education and 11 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1961, IBM's nondiscrimination policy was expanded to include sex, national origin, and age. The following year, IBM hosted its first Invention Award Dinner honoring 34 outstanding IBM inventors; and in 1963, the company named the first eight IBM Fellows in a new Fellowship Program that recognizes senior IBM scientists, engineers and other professionals for outstanding technical achievements.

An IBM delivery tricycle in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1965

On September 21, 1953, Thomas Watson, Jr., the company's president at the time, sent out a controversial letter to all IBM employees stating that IBM needed to hire the best people, regardless of their race, ethnic origin, or gender. He also publicized the policy so that in his negotiations to build new manufacturing plants with the governors of two states in the U.S. South, he could be clear that IBM would not build "separate-but-equal" workplaces.[46] In 1984, IBM added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy. The company stated that this would give IBM a competitive advantage because IBM would then be able to hire talented people its competitors would turn down.[47]

IBM was the only technology company ranked in Working Mother magazine's Top 10 for 2004, and one of two technology companies in 2005.[48][49] On October 10, 2005, IBM became the first major company in the world to commit formally to not using genetic information in employment decisions. The announcement was made shortly after IBM began working with the National Geographic Society on its Genographic Project.

IBM provides same-sex partners of its employees with health benefits and provides an anti-discrimination clause. The Human Rights Campaign has consistently rated IBM 100% on its index of gay-friendliness since 2003 (in 2002, the year it began compiling its report on major companies, IBM scored 86%).[50] In 2007 and again in 2010, IBM UK was ranked first in Stonewall's annual Workplace Equality Index for UK employers.[51]

The company has traditionally resisted labor union organizing,[52] although unions represent some IBM workers outside the United States. In 2009, the Unite union stated that several hundred employees joined following the announcement in the UK of pension cuts that left many employees facing a shortfall in projected pensions.[53]

A dark (or gray) suit, white shirt, and a "sincere" tie[54] was the public uniform for IBM employees for most of the 20th century. During IBM's management transformation in the 1990s, CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. relaxed these codes, normalizing the dress and behavior of IBM employees to resemble their counterparts in other large technology companies. Since then IBM's dress code is business casual although employees often wear formal clothes during client meetings.[citation needed]

On 16 June 2011, the company announced a grants programs, called IBM100, to fund its employees participation in volunteer projects - the year long initiative is part of the company's centenary celebrations.[55]

Research and inventions

In 1945, The Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory was founded at Columbia University in New York, New York. The renovated fraternity house on Manhattan's West Side was used as IBM's first laboratory devoted to pure science. The lab was the forerunner of IBM's Research Division, which today operates research facilities around the world.

In 1966, IBM researcher Robert H. Dennard invented Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) cells, one-transistor memory cells that store each single bit of information as an electrical charge in an electronic circuit. The technology permits major increases in memory density and is widely adopted throughout the industry where it remains in widespread use today.

IBM has been a leading proponent of the Open Source Initiative, and began supporting Linux in 1998.[56] The company invests billions of dollars in services and software based on Linux through the IBM Linux Technology Center, which includes over 300 Linux kernel developers.[57] IBM has also released code under different open source licenses, such as the platform-independent software framework Eclipse (worth approximately US$40 million at the time of the donation),[58] the three-sentence International Components for Unicode (ICU) license, and the Java-based relational database management system (RDBMS) Apache Derby. IBM's open source involvement has not been trouble-free, however (see SCO v. IBM).
Famous inventions by IBM include the following:

Selected current projects

developerWorks is a website run by IBM for software developers and IT professionals. It contains how-to articles and tutorials, as well as software downloads and code samples, discussion forums, podcasts, blogs, wikis, and other resources for developers and technical professionals. Subjects range from open, industry-standard technologies like Java, Linux, SOA and web services, web development, Ajax, PHP, and XML to IBM's products (WebSphere, Rational, Lotus, Tivoli and Information Management). In 2007, developerWorks was inducted into the Jolt Hall of Fame.[59]

alphaWorks is IBM's source for emerging software technologies. These technologies include:

  • Flexible Internet Evaluation Report Architecture – A highly flexible architecture for the design, display, and reporting of Internet surveys.
  • IBM History Flow Visualization Application – A tool for visualizing dynamic, evolving documents and the interactions of multiple collaborating authors.
  • IBM Linux on POWER Performance Simulator – A tool that provides users of Linux on Power a set of performance models for IBM's POWER processors.
  • Database File Archive And Restoration Management – An application for archiving and restoring hard disk drive files using file references stored in a database.
  • Policy Management for Autonomic Computing – A policy-based autonomic management infrastructure that simplifies the automation of IT and business processes.
  • FairUCE – A spam filter that verifies sender identity instead of filtering content.
  • Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) SDK – A Java SDK that supports the implementation, composition, and deployment of applications working with unstructured data.
  • Accessibility Browser – A web-browser specifically designed to assist people with visual impairments, to be released as open source software. Also known as the "A-Browser," the technology will aim to eliminate the need for a mouse, relying instead completely on voice-controls, buttons and predefined shortcut keys.
Watson, an IBM artificial intelligence computer, is capable of "learning" as it operates.

Virtually all console gaming systems of the latest generation use microprocessors developed by IBM. The Xbox 360 contains a PowerPC tri-core processor, which was designed and produced by IBM in less than 24 months.[60] Sony's PlayStation 3 features the Cell BE microprocessor designed jointly by IBM, Toshiba, and Sony. IBM will provide the microprocessors that serve as the heart of Nintendo's new Wii U system, which will debut in 2012.[61] The new Power Architecture-based microprocessor includes IBM's latest technology in an energy-saving silicon package.[62] Nintendo's seventh-generation console, Wii, features an IBM chip codenamed Broadway. The older Nintendo GameCube utilizes the Gekko processor, also designed by IBM.

In May 2002, IBM and Butterfly.net, Inc. announced the Butterfly Grid, a commercial grid for the online video gaming market.[63] In March 2006, IBM announced separate agreements with Hoplon Infotainment, Online Game Services Incorporated (OGSI), and RenderRocket to provide on-demand content management and blade server computing resources.[64]

IBM announced it will launch its new software, called "Open Client Offering" which is to run on Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X. The company states that its new product allows businesses to offer employees a choice of using the same software on Windows and its alternatives. This means that "Open Client Offering" is to cut costs of managing whether to use Linux or Apple relative to Windows. There will be no necessity for companies to pay Microsoft for its licenses for operating systems since the operating systems will no longer rely on software which is Windows-based. One alternative to Microsoft's office document formats is the Open Document Format software, whose development IBM supports. It is going to be used for several tasks like: word processing, presentations, along with collaboration with Lotus Notes, instant messaging and blog tools as well as an Internet Explorer competitor – the Mozilla Firefox web browser. IBM plans to install Open Client on 5% of its desktop PCs. The Linux offering has been made available as the IBM Client for Smart Work product on the Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux platforms.[65]

The UC2 (Unified Communications and Collaboration) Client Platform is an IBM and Cisco Systems joint project based on Eclipse and OSGi. It will offer the numerous Eclipse application developers a unified platform for an easier work environment. The software based on UC2 platform will provide major enterprises with easy-to-use communication solutions, such as the Lotus based Sametime. In the future the Sametime users will benefit from such additional functions as click-to-call and voice mailing.[66]

Redbooks are publicly available online books about best practices with IBM products. They describe the products features, field experience and dos and don'ts, while leaving aside marketing buzz. Available formats are Redbooks, Redpapers and Redpieces.

Extreme Blue is one of IBM's internship programs, which tasks students with developing high-value technology.[67] In 2003, participants in the program filed 98 patents.[68]

In 2006, IBM launched Secure Blue, encryption hardware that can be built into microprocessors.

In May 2007, IBM unveiled Project Big Green, a re-direction of $1 billion per year across its businesses to increase energy efficiency.

On November 2008, IBM’s CEO, Sam Palmisano, during a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, outlined a new agenda for building a Smarter Planet.[69] In addition, an official company blog exists. Smarter Planet @ IBM

On Aug 18, 2011, as part of its effort in cognitive computing, IBM has produced chips that imitate neurons and synapses. These microprocessors do not use von Neumann architecture, and they consume less memory and power.[70]

IBM also holds the SmartCamp program globally. The program searches for fresh start-up companies that IBM can partner with to solve world problems. IBM holds 17 SmartCamp events around the world. [71]

Environmental record

IBM was recognized as one of the "Top 20 Best Workplaces for Commuters" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency‎ (EPA) in 2005. The award was to recognize Fortune 500 companies which provided employees with excellent commuter benefits to help reduce traffic and air pollution.[72]

The birthplace of IBM, Endicott, suffered pollution for decades, however. IBM used liquid cleaning agents in circuit board assembly operation for more than two decades, and six spills and leaks were recorded, including one leak in 1979 of 4,100 gallons from an underground tank. These left behind volatile organic compounds in the town's soil and aquifer. Trace elements of volatile organic compounds have been identified in Endicott’s drinking water, but the levels are within regulatory limits. Also, from 1980, IBM has pumped out 78,000 gallons of chemicals, including trichloroethane, freon, benzene and perchloroethene to the air and allegedly caused several cancer cases among the townspeople. IBM Endicott has been identified by the Department of Environmental Conservation as the major source of pollution, though traces of contaminants from a local dry cleaner and other polluters were also found. Despite the amount of pollutant, state health officials could not verify whether air or water pollution in Endicott has actually caused any health problems. According to city officials, tests show that the water is safe to drink.[73]

Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd. (TOK) and IBM are collaborating to establish new, low-cost methods for bringing the next generation of solar energy products, called CIGS (Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide) solar cell modules, to market. Use of thin film technology, such as CIGS, has great promise in reducing the overall cost of solar cells and further enabling their widespread adoption.[74][75]

IBM is exploring four main areas of photovoltaic research: using current technologies to develop cheaper and more efficient silicon solar cells, developing new solution processed thin film photovoltaic devices, concentrator photovoltaics, and future generation photovoltaic architectures based upon nanostructures such as semiconductor quantum dots and nanowires.[76]

Company logo and nickname

The company used the "globe" logo until 1946, when it began using an acronym-based logo.

IBM's current "8-bar" logo was designed in 1972 by graphic designer Paul Rand.[77] It was a general replacement for a 13-bar logo that first appeared in the public on the 1966 release of the TSS/360. Logos designed in the 1970s tended to be sensitive to the technical limitations of photocopiers, which were then being widely deployed. A logo with large solid areas tended to be poorly copied by copiers in the 1970s, so companies preferred logos that avoided large solid areas. The 1972 IBM logos are an example of this tendency. With the advent of digital copiers in the mid-1980s this technical restriction had largely disappeared; at roughly the same time, the 13-bar logo was abandoned for almost the opposite reason – it was difficult to render accurately on the low-resolution digital printers (240 dots per inch) of the time.

Big Blue is a nickname for IBM. There are several theories explaining the origin of the name. One theory, substantiated by people who worked for IBM at the time, is that IBM field representatives coined the term in the 1960s, referring to the color of the mainframes IBM installed in the 1960s and early 1970s. "True Blue" was a term used to describe a loyal IBM customer, and business writers later picked up the term.[78][79] Another theory suggests that Big Blue simply refers to the Company's logo. A third theory suggests that Big Blue refers to a former company dress code that required many IBM employees to wear only white shirts and many wore blue suits.[78][80] In any event, IBM keyboards, typewriters, and some other manufactured devices have played on the "Big Blue" concept, using the color for enter keys and carriage returns. IBM has also used blue logos since 1947, making blue the defining color of the company's corporate design, which might be another, more plausible reason for the term.[citation needed]

See also

References

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  2. ^ "Nanotechnology & Nanoscience". http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research.nsf/pages/r.nanotech.html. 
  3. ^ "Prices and market values at 31 December 2011". Financial Times. 31 December 2011. http://media.ft.com/cms/73f82726-385d-11e1-9f07-00144feabdc0.pdf. Retrieved 10 February 2012. 
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Further reading

External links

Business data

Translations:

Ibm

Top

Dansk (Danish)
abbr. - International Business Machines

Nederlands (Dutch)
IBM (bedrijf), IBM (type computer)

Français (French)
abbr. - IBM

Deutsch (German)
abbr. - Internationale Geschäftsmaschinen

Ελληνική (Greek)
abbr. - η εταιρεία ΙΒΜ

Italiano (Italian)
I.B.M.

Português (Portuguese)
abbr. - International (f) Business Machines Corp.

Русский (Russian)
название фирмы, производящей компьютеры, межконтинентальный баллистический снаряд

Español (Spanish)
abbr. - IBM

Svenska (Swedish)
abbr. - International Business Machines

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
国际商务机器公司, 洲际弹道导弹

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
abbr. - 國際商務機器公司, 洲際彈道飛彈

한국어 (Korean)
abbr. - International Business Machines (미국 컴퓨터 제조 회사), Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (대륙간 탄도탄)

日本語 (Japanese)
abbr. - アイビーエム, 大陸間弾道ミサイル

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(اختصار) اختصار لشركه آلات العمل العالميه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
abbr. - ‮י.ב.מ. - חברת מחשבים אמריקאית‬


 
 
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keypunch machine (technology)
accounting machine (technology)

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