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Ibm (Click to select text)
International Business Machines International Business Machine is an American computer manufacturer, with headquarters in Armonk, New York. The company is a major supplier of information-processing products and systems, software, communications systems, workstations, and related supplies and services in the United States and around the world. Its products are used in a wide variety of industries, including business, government, science, defense, education, medicine, and space exploration. The company was incorporated in 1911 as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in a merger of three smaller companies. After further acquisitions, it absorbed the International Business Machines Corporation in 1924 and assumed that company's name. Thomas Watson arrived that same year and began to build the floundering company into an industrial giant. IBM soon became the country's largest manufacturer of time clocks and developed and marketed the first electric typewriter. In 1951 the company entered the computer field. The development of IBM's technology was largely funded by contracts with the U.S. government's Atomic Energy Commission; close parallels existed between products made for government use and those introduced by IBM into the public marketplace. In the late 1950s IBM distinguished itself with two innovations: the concept of a family of computers (its 360 family) in which the same software could be run across the entire family and a corporate policy dictating that no customer would be allowed to fail in implementing an IBM system. This policy spawned enormous loyalty to “Big Blue,” as IBM came to be called. From the 1960s until the 1980s IBM dominated the global mainframe market, although in the 1980s IBM lost market share to other manufacturers in specialty areas such as high-performance computing. When minicomputers were introduced in the 1970s IBM viewed them as a threat to the mainframe market and failed to recognize their potential, opening the door for such competitors as Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, and Data General. In 1981, however, IBM introduced the highly successful IBM PC, which rapidly became a standard in micro computing. The company met with less success defending its market share against lower-cost producers. In the late 1980s IBM was the world's largest producer of a full line of computers and the leading producer of office equipment, including typewriters and photocopiers. The company was also the largest manufacturer of integrated circuits, all of which were used in its own products. The sale of mainframe computers and related software and peripherals accounted for nearly half of IBM's business and about 70 to 80 percent of its profits. In the early 1990s, amid a recession in the U.S. economy, IBM reorganized itself into autonomous business units more closely aligned to the company's markets. As a result, 40,000 employees lost their jobs in 1992, and more cuts were announced for 1993. After record losses during 1992 and, for the first time in IBM's history, a cut in stock dividends (to less than half of their previous value), John F. Akers, chairman since 1985, resigned in early 1993. Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., was named chairperson of the company in April 1993. In 1994 IBM sold its federal systems unit to, which provides computer systems and services to the government, to Loral for $1.5 billion. That same year, in a challenge to Intel’s dominance of the microprocessor business, IBM agreed to manufacture computer chips designed by Cyrix. Several of IBM’s highest- ranking executives including chief strategist James Cannavino, left the company in 1995 as Gerstner continued to clean house. Also that year Apple released its first Power Mac computer that use the PowerPC chip developed by Apple, IBM, and Motorola. IBM also acquired Footprint software, a banking industry software developer whose programs are sold with OS/2. Only 10 years after IBM first produced them, personal computers (PCs) have radically changed the way many offices operate. At first, PCs were intended to reduce time-consuming tasks both at home and work. However, many people are still skeptical about the supposed benefits of the personal computer. High expectation have left many PC users disappointed because considering technical knowledge is often necessary to obtain the computer’s full benefits. Some critics question whether workers are more productive with computers at their desks. With new changes constantly being introduced proponents of PCs hope that two devices, which could replace the Keyboard voice and hand-written commands--will help people overcome their doubts and fears. Homosexual rights made another gain in America this week when International Business Machines, the multinational computer company, said it will extend spouse benefits to lovers of gay, US-based employees. Homosexual campaigners hailed a victory for equality. However, IBM said that the same concession would not be mad to unmarried heterosexual workers and their companies. “They have the option of getting married”, explained a company spokeswoman. IBM said that it made that decision because to offer gay workers’ lovers the benefit, which normally applies only to, married employees because it wanted to “attract and retain a full range of talented people.” To qualify for the benefits, homosexual workers will need to sign a formally-drafted and witnessed declaration that they share a home which the named lover, that they are “committed” to couple hood and that their finance are “interdependent”. Cost-wise, the move may not be expensive for IBM, despite the higher incidence of AIDS among homosexuals. This will be offset by the other lower incidence of pregnancy in gay unions. IBM expected only one percent of its employees to take up the offer. IBM is the biggest of the 468 American companies, which have now extended “spouse” benefits to gay workers. The new rules will apply, initially, only to its American payroll, which constitutes roughly half of its worldwide workforce. Other companies to have extended family benefits to gay workers have included Walt Disney, the entertainment group with a history of stressing traditional family values. It was bitterly criticized at the time by the Baptist convention, which argued that wedlock in America was being diminished. The convention urged its 16 million members to boycott Disney films and theme parks. IBM today (July 21) announced second-quarter 1997 net earnings of $1.4 billion, or $1.46 per common share, compared with net earnings of $1.3 billion, or $1.26 per common share, in the second quarter of 1996. Second-quarter 1997 revenues were $18.9 billion, an increase of 4 percent (8 percent at constant currency) from the second quarter of last year. IBM is Part of a special section on the 1997 industrial design excellence reward. The IBM Aptiva S series, the only “split system” computer available and winner of a gold award in the business and industrial equipment category, has personality. International Business Machines is expected to disclose as soon as this week (oct.13) that it will fold its consumer computer division into the IBM operation that makes business PCs. Hundreds of employees involved in PC design, procurement, marketing and other areas in the combined division, which employs about 11,000 people, will lose their jobs, the paper said in its electronic edition, citing industry executives. The company was blindsided by the booming popularity of under-$1,000 PCs, pushing its share of the home-PC market into a free fall. IBM is losing hundreds of dollars on each of its Aptiva home-PCs it sells, leading to a combined loss expected to top $300 million this year, according to the Journal. In San Francisco, IBM Research demonstrated a new anti-virus technology known within IBM as "the immune system for cyberspace" - the world's first continuous, automatic, end-to-end solution to the virus problem. Total revenue are expected in the high single digits, on a constant-currency basis, fueled primarily by gains in services, offset by slower in hardware, software and rentals and financing, and negative maintenance comparisons. IBM’s services segment has grown between 25%-30% over the past two years. IBM services include consulting, education, systems integration design and development, managed operations of systems and networks and availability services. While software growth has not been as strong, this reflects the dampening affect of slowing demand for host software business versus the strong growth in distributed software business.
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