What is IBM (International Business Machines)?

IBM (International Business Machines) is a trading company that produces and markets computing-related tools, programs, and services.

When Was IBM Founded?

IBM’s headquarters are located in Armonk (New York, USA) and was established since June 15, 1911, but has been operating since 1888.

With approximately 390,000 employees spread across 161 countries, this company generated $103.6 billion in revenue in 2008, the world’s largest information technology-based service company, and one of the few companies operating since the 19th century.

It has a basic presence in almost all departments related to information technology; in fact, more than half of its revenue in recent years comes from consulting and service lines, not from equipment manufacturing. It is the sponsor of free software.

Historical

IBM was founded in Binghamton on June 15, 1911, as a result of a merger with Tabulating Machine Company, Computing Scale Corporation, and International Time Recording Company, led by Charles R. Flint.

The merger company was called Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR), but on February 14, 1924, CTR changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

The original companies of CTR have produced a wide range of products from employee control systems to automatic meat cutting equipment.

They also produced equipment for the management of punch cards, which will be a key element of future computers. Over time, TO focused on these teams and set aside production for the remaining products.

In 1933, IMB manager Thomas John Watson signed a contract with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany to conduct that year’s census and determine the number of Jews in the country.

As a result of the census, he helped the German genocide and in 1937 he received the German Eagle Cross Cross from Watson Fuehrer himself.

II. During World War II, the company started research in the field of computing. The Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator, also known as Harvard Mark I, was introduced at Harvard University on August 7, 1944.

Mark I was the first machine to automatically perform complex calculations and was based on electromechanical switches. His development was responsible for Howard Aiken, Clair D. Lake, Frank E. Hamilton, Benjamin M. Durfee, and James W. Bryce.

In 1952, he created IBM-701, the first large vacuum valve-based computer to replace electromechanical switches. In 1954, it introduced IBM-650. In 1959, transistors began to replace vacuum valves.

One of IBM’s first transistor-based computers was the IB-7090. Until then, computers were used primarily in research and government centers, but the performance increase achieved with valves and especially transistors caused some companies to start using them.

The first disk-based computer storage system called RAMAC and the “Fortran” programming language was created by IBM in 1957. RAMAC was the pioneer of its hard drives at the time and consisted of fifty internally.

In the early 1960s, it gradually began to transform itself into a company dedicated to computers and gradually abandoned the production of equipment for punch cards and typewriters. The latter began to be produced in the mid-1930s.

On April 7, 1964, unlike the previous one, it launched System/360, the first computer architecture to allow the exchange of programs and peripherals between different component computers of architecture, where each computer is a closed box incompatible with others.

The order to create this architecture came directly from the director of the time, Thomas J. Watson. The development of System/360 was expensive enough to make IBM practically bankrupt, but it was very successful at launching itself. So the new income he earned from his competitors was reimbursed for all expenses.

IBM’s success in the mid-1960s caused the company to be investigated for monopoly.

In fact, the company was held in a trial that began in 1969 and was accused of trying to monopolize the general-purpose of electronic devices, especially the business computer market.

The trial continued until 1983 and had a major impact on the company’s practices.

It continued to create new computing devices in the 1970s. He created the floppy in 1971 and soon began marketing his predecessors to today’s barcode readers and ATMs. In 1981, he created IBM PC, the most successful personal computer of all time.

The company, which quickly created the IBM PC, was not expecting this success. And he bought the low-quality components of other manufacturers something he has not done so far, so the IBM PC could not reach part of the market for IBM’s more powerful computers.

Also, the operating system was not created by IBM, but a contract was made with Microsoft.

As it wasn’t built from scratch, soon after, equipment compatible with third-party PCs began to emerge, and Microsoft began growing by selling licenses to these other manufacturers for the IBM PC operating system.

In the 1980s, IBM held four Nobel prizes.

On January 19, 1993, the company posted nearly $8 billion in losses in a company in the entire US history.

Some of these losses are due to the fact that it reaches a large part of the market for stronger computers and computer manufacturers that are compatible with IBM-PCs have more and more market shares.

The big change in the company takes place in 1993, when Louis V. Gerstner, the first senior manager of his ranks, was appointed as CEO.

Lou, as he knows, was the CEO of food, cigarette, and credit card manufacturing companies, but never CEO of technology companies.

Later, the company began to turn into a service company, reducing its economic dependence on equipment sales.

This trend, especially in 2002, Lou’s successor, Samuel J. Palmisano, left the branch to become the company’s new general manager. In 2003, approximately 50% of IBM’s revenue came from the service arm, while equipment sales were about 30%.

On December 10, 2004, the PC division ended its negotiations to sell $650 million cash and $600 million more shares to the Chinese group Lenovo.

Together with the PC division, Lenovo has approximately 10,000 employees and the right to use the IBM and Thinkpad brands for five years.

Company Culture

It is often described as a sales-oriented company. Traditionally, most of the general managers and managers were selected from their vendors.

In addition, senior and middle management are used to support vendors in the process of selling to large customers.

Over time, the company became more technical; In 2003, 178,000 of 320,000 employees, of which IBM was part of the technical community, were software related.

Historically, their employees’ work uniform was a white suit and a blue suit with a dark tie of the company nickname Blue Giant.

In the 1990s, it was loosened clothing-related standards, and today it is no different from other large technology companies.

Today, IBM’s corporate culture is influenced by the open-source movement.

It invests billions of dollars in Linux-based services and software, which includes nearly 300 employees working in the Linux kernel. This caused some problems for International Business Machines.

Associations within the Company

It pursues a hostile policy towards unionization worldwide. Nevertheless, there are unions that organize their union organization as much as possible and in many countries.

In 1984, IWIS IBM Workers International Solidarity, the coordinator of union activities for employees around the world, was established. The Last Conference was held in Paris from 26 to 28 June 2007 and was chosen as Lee CONRAD coordinator of the United States Alliance IBM/CWA.

The Cuba Problem

Under the policy of the political and economic bloc of the USA against Cuba, the transnational computer had many problems with the company.

In October 2009, Cuba hosted the International University Programming Contest of the Computer Machines Association, known as ACM-IPCP, sponsored by IBM, but after learning that the island would organize the event, it informs the director of the center Dovier Antonio Ripoll: Cuba is an embargoed country. it is impossible for money to be supported in the competition, as at this stage.

Free Software Project

The company has been involved in blocking open-source use of its customers, in a lawsuit filed by the French open source solutions developer to the European Commission, TurboHercules is accused of blocking IMB and preventing its customers from accessing open-source solutions.

According to the company, all they really do is protect the copyrights of their products.

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