International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Company Profile

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Corporate Headquarters

International Business Machines Corp.
New Orchard Road
Armonk, New York 10504
914-499-1900

Website

Background and Company History of IBM

IBM – nicknamed ‘Big Blue’ – dates back to 1889 when Herman Hollerith, a German-American statistician,  patented a machine for storing personal data on punch cards. This machine was used by the US Census Bureau. Few years later, Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company. In 1911, the company merged with two others to form the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation. Three years later, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. joined the company as general manager.

Thomas Watson, Sr. changed the company’s name to International Business Machines in 1924. In the advent of its heyday, the period of greatest vigor for Big Blue, it acquired an American government contract to maintain employment data for over a quarter of a billion people.

IBM is credited for the first computers, the Harvard Mark 1, whose research involved Grace Hopper and Howard Aiken. The computer was used with the US military for ballistic calculations and gunnery, between 1944 and 1959.

In 1956, Thomas Watson’s son, Thomas J. Watson, Jr. took over as CEO. It took almost two decades when IBM ended its monopoly of the hardware market as its patent on the digital computer expired. In 1981, with the advent of the personal computers, Big Blue launched its own PC.  By 1993, IBM suffered a business record loss of nearly $5 billion.

In 2005, IBM sold its PC business, and instead, concentrated on supercomputers and business solutions.  Its products include software, storage, servers and systems, internet security, with software in information management such as: Cognos, DB2, ECM, Informix and InfoSphere; Lotus, Tivoli and WebSphere.  Aside from the information technology services, other services include business consulting, application and outsourcing, training, and small/medium business.

As of 2009 year-end from continuing worldwide operations, IBM clocked revenue of $95.8 billion,  a net income of $13.4 billion, and total assets of $109.0 billion.

IBM’s Number of Employees (worldwide)

399,409

The IBM Team and Board of Directors

Board of Directors:

Alain J.P. Belda, Chariman of Alcoa, Inc.
Cathleen Black, President of Hearst Magazines
William R. Brody, President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Kenneth I. Chenault, Chairman and CEO of American Express Company
Michael L. Eskew, Retired Chairman and CEO of United Parcel Service, Inc
Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Andre N. Liveris, Chairman, President and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company
W. James McNerney Jr., Chairman, President and CEO of The Boeing Company
James W. Owens, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Caterpillar Inc.
Samuel J. Palmisano, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of IBM and Chairman of IBM’s Executive Committee
Joan E. Spero, Visiting Fellow at the Foundation Center
Sidney Taurel, Chariman Emeritus of Eli Lilly and Company
Lorenzo H. Zambrano, Chariman and CEO of CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V.

Senior Executives:

Samuel J. Palmisano, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO
Rodney C. Adkins, Senior Vice President, IBM Systems and Technology Group
Michael E. Daniels, Senior Vice President and Group Executive, IBM Services
Jon C. Iwata, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Dr. John E. Kelly III, Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research
Frank Kern, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Business Services
Mark Loughridge, SVP and CFO, Finance Transformation
J. Randall MacDonald, Senior Vice President, Human Resources
Steven A. Mills, Senior Vice President and Group Executive IBM Software Group
Virginia M. Rometty, SVP and Group Executive Sales, Marketing and Strategy
Linda S. Sanford, SVP Enterprise on Demand Transformation & Information  Technology
Robert C. Weber, SVP, Legal and Regulatory Affairs,  and Gen Counsel

Products and Services of IBM

The business market growth for desktop computing saw Big Blue expand its hardware and operating system. A program was put in place to access ‘supercomputers on demand’ active by 2004. It sold off its PC business to the Chinese Lenovo Group in 2005, acquiring a percentage Lenovo stock. Lenovo also retained rights to use certain IBM brand names for a stipulated period, and inherited the IBM ThinkPad laptop range.

Resource by Tel

Tel Asiado is a writer, author, and business consultant, previously, IT manager & consultant. Her articles reflect her interests, from small business, biographies & histories, to classical music especially Mozart, art & literature, biographies, and Christian writings. Tel has produced non-fictions, e-books and anthologies. Her education is MBA in Computer Management, BSc Chemistry, Diploma in Small Business & Internet Mktg, and Cert IV Training and Assessment (TAA). Her small office/home site is homebizideasnow.com, and numerous information of Mozart and classical music, mozartandclassicalmusic.com.

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