ibm american multinational technology and consulting corporation this article is about the american multinational technology company for other uses see ibm disambiguation big blue redirects here for other uses see big blue disambiguation international business machines corporationtypepublictradedasnyseibmdjia componentsp 100 componentsp 500 componentisinus4592001014industry cloud computing cognitive computing foundedjune16 1911 107 years ago19110616 as computingtabulatingrecording companyendicott new york uswebsitewwwibmcom think thomas j watson who led ibm from 1914 to 1956 discussing the companys motto think problems playing this file see media help international business machines corporation ibm is an american multinational information technology company headquartered in armonk new york united states with operations in over 170 countries the company began in 1911 as the computingtabulatingrecording company ctr and was renamed international business machines in 1924 ibm manufactures and markets computer hardware middleware and software and provides hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology ibm is also a major research organization holding the record for most us patents generated by a business as of 2018 for 25 consecutive years inventions by ibm include the automated teller machine atm the floppy disk the hard disk drive the magnetic stripe card the relational database the sql programming language the upc barcode and dynamic randomaccess memory dram the ibm mainframe exemplified by the system360 was the dominant computing platform during the 1960s and 1970s ibm has continually shifted its business mix by commoditizing markets focusing on highervalue more profitable markets this includes spinning off printer manufacturer lexmark in 1991 and selling off its personal computer thinkpadthinkcentre and x86based server businesses to lenovo 2005 and 2014 respectively and acquiring companies such as pwc consulting 2002 spss 2009 and the weather company 2016 also in 2014 ibm announced that it would go fabless continuing to design semiconductors but offloading manufacturing to globalfoundries nicknamed big blue ibm is one of 30 companies included in the dow jones industrial average and one of the worlds largest employers with as of 2017 over 380000 employees known as ibmers ibm employees have been awarded five nobel prizes six turing awards ten national medals of technology and five national medals of science history history of ibm in the 1880s technologies emerged that would ultimately form the core of international business machines ibm julius e pitrap patented the computing scale in 1885 the five companies had 1300 employees and offices and plants in endicott and binghamton new york dayton ohio detroit michigan washington dc and toronto they manufactured machinery for sale and lease ranging from commercial scales and industrial time recorders meat and cheese slicers to tabulators and punched cards thomas j watson sr fired from the national cash register company by john henry patterson called on flint and in 1914 was offered a position at ctr naca researchers using an ibm type 704 electronic data processing machine in 1957 in 1937 ibms tabulating equipment enabled organizations to process unprecedented amounts of data its clients including the us government during its first effort to maintain the employment records for 26 million people pursuant to the social security act largely through the german subsidiary dehomag in 1949 thomas watson sr created ibm world trade corporation a subsidiary of ibm focused on foreign operations in 1952 he stepped down after almost 40 years at the company helm and his son thomas watson jr was named president in 1956 the company demonstrated the first practical example of artificial intelligence when arthur l samuel of ibms poughkeepsie new york laboratory programmed an ibm 704 not merely to play checkers but learn from its own experience in 1957 the fortran scientific programming language was developed in 1961 ibm developed the sabre reservation system for american airlines and introduced the highly successful selectric typewriter in 1963 ibm employees and computers helped nasa track the orbital flight of the mercury astronauts a year later it moved its corporate headquarters from new york city to armonk new york the latter half of the 1960s saw ibm continue its support of space exploration participating in the 1965 gemini flights 1966 saturn flights and 1969 lunar mission an ibm system360 in use at the university of michigan c 1969 on april 7 1964 ibm announced the first computer system family the ibm system360 it spanned the complete range of commercial and scientific applications from large to small allowing companies for the first time to upgrade to models with greater computing capability without having to rewrite their applications it was followed by the ibm system370 in 1970 together the 360 and 370 made the ibm mainframe the dominant mainframe computer and the dominant computing platform in the industry throughout this period and into the early 1980s they and the operating systems that ran on them such as osvs1 and mvs and the middleware built on top of those such as the cics transaction processing monitor had a nearmonopolylevel hold on the computer industry and became almost synonymous with ibm products due to their marketshare in 1974 ibm engineer george j laurer developed the universal product code the ibm pc originally designated ibm 5150 was introduced in 1981 and it soon became an industry standard in 1991 ibm sold printer manufacturer lexmark in 1993 ibm posted a us8 billion loss at the time the biggest in american corporate history ibm inventions clockwise from topleft the harddisk drive dram the upc bar code and the magnetic stripe card in 2005 the company sold its personal computer business to chinese technology company lenovo in 2014 ibm announced it would sell its x86 server division to lenovo for 21 billion in 2015 ibm announced three major acquisitions merge healthcare for 1 billion in october 2018 ibm announced its intention to acquire red hat for 34 billion headquarters and offices ibm chq in armonk new york in 2014 pangu plaza one of ibms offices in beijing china ibm is headquartered in armonk new york a community 37 miles 60km north of midtown manhattan ibm operates in 174 countries as of 2016 with mobility centers in smaller markets areas and major campuses in the larger ones in new york city ibm has several offices besides chq including the ibm watson headquarters at astor place in manhattan outside of new york major campuses in the united states include austin texas research triangle park raleighdurham north carolina rochester minnesota and silicon valley california ibms real estate holdings are varied and globally diverse towers occupied by ibm include 1250 renlvesque montreal canada tour descartes paris france and one atlantic center atlanta georgia usa in beijing china ibm occupies pangu plaza the citys seventh tallest building and overlooking beijing national stadium birds nest home to the 2008 summer olympics ibm india private limited is the indian subsidiary of ibm which is headquartered at bengaluru karnataka it has facilities in bengaluru ahmedabad delhi kolkata mumbai chennai pune gurugram noida bhubaneshwar coimbatore visakhapatnam and hyderabad other notable buildings include the ibm rome software lab rome italy the hursley house winchester uk 330 north wabash chicago illinois united states the cambridge scientific center cambridge massachusetts united states the ibm toronto software lab toronto canada the ibm building johannesburg johannesburg south africa the ibm building seattle seattle washington united states the ibm hakozaki facility tokyo japan the ibm yamato facility yamato japan the ibm canada head office building ontario canada and the watson iot headquarters ibm was recognized as one of the top 20 best workplaces for commuters by the united states environmental protection agency epa in 2005 which recognized fortune 500 companies that provided employees with excellent commuter benefits to help reduce traffic and air pollution finance for the fiscal year 2017 ibm reported earnings of us57 billion with an annual revenue of us791 billion a decline of 10 over the previous fiscal cycle ibms shares traded at over 125 per share and its market capitalization was valued at over us1139 billion in september 2018 year revenuein mil usd net incomein mil usd total assetsin mil usd price per sharein usd employees 2005 91134 7934 105748 6180 2006 91424 9492 103234 6201 2007 98786 10418 120431 8004 2008 103630 12334 109524 8449 2009 95758 13425 109022 8567 2010 99870 14833 113452 10532 2011 106916 15855 116433 13897 2012 102874 16604 119213 16246 2013 98367 16483 126223 16330 431212 2014 92793 12022 117271 15669 379592 2015 81741 13190 110495 13727 377757 2016 79919 11872 117470 13809 380300 2017 79139 5753 125356 14976 366600 products and services see also list of ibm products interconnect ibms annual conference on cloud computing and mobile technologies blue gene was awarded the national medal of technology and innovation in 2009 ibm has a large and diverse portfolio of products and services as of 2016 these offerings fall into the categories of cloud computing cognitive computing commerce data and analytics internet of things iot ibm cloud includes infrastructure as a service iaas software as a service saas and platform as a service paas offered through public private and hybrid cloud delivery models for instance the ibm bluemix paas enables developers to quickly create complex websites on a payasyougo model ibm softlayer is a dedicated server managed hosting and cloud computing provider which in 2011 reported hosting more than 81000 servers for more than 26000 customers ibm also hosts the industrywide cloud computing and mobile technologies conference interconnect each year hardware designed by ibm for these categories include ibms power microprocessors which are employed inside many console gaming systems including xbox 360 it outsourcing also represents a major service provided by ibm with more than 40 data centers worldwide smarter planet is an initiative that seeks to achieve economic growth nearterm efficiency sustainable development and societal progress services provisions include redbooks which are publicly available online books about best practices with ibm products and developerworks a website for software developers and it professionals with howto articles and tutorials as well as software downloads code samples discussion forums podcasts blogs wikis and other resources for developers and technical professionals ibm watson is a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data research the thomas j watson research center in yorktown heights new york is one of 12 ibm research labs worldwide ibm fellow benoit mandelbrot discovered fractal geometry in 1975 research has been a part of ibm since its founding and its organized efforts trace their roots back to 1945 when the watson scientific computing laboratory was founded at columbia university in new york city converting a renovated fraternity house on manhattans west side into ibms first laboratory now ibm research constitutes the largest industrial research organization in the world with 12 labs on 6 continents ibm research is headquartered at the thomas j watson research center in new york and facilities include the almaden lab in california austin lab in texas australia lab in melbourne brazil lab in so paulo and rio de janeiro china lab in beijing and shanghai ireland lab in dublin haifa lab in israel india lab in delhi and bangalore tokyo lab zurich lab and africa lab in nairobi in terms of investment ibms rd spend totals several billion dollars each year in 2012 that expenditure was approximately 69 billion usd ibm has been a leading proponent of the open source initiative and began supporting linux in 1998 the threesentence international components for unicode icu license and the javabased relational database management system rdbms apache derby ibms open source involvement has not been troublefree however see sco v ibm famous inventions and developments by ibm include the automated teller machine atm dynamic random access memory dram the electronic keypunch the financial swap the floppy disk the hard disk drive the magnetic stripe card the relational database risc the sabre airline reservation system sql the universal product code upc bar code and the virtual machine additionally in 1990 company scientists used a scanning tunneling microscope to arrange 35 individual xenon atoms to spell out the company acronym marking the first structure assembled one atom at a time five ibmers have received the nobel prize leo esaki of the thomas j watson research center in yorktown heights ny in 1973 for work in semiconductors gerd binnig and heinrich rohrer of the zurich research center in 1986 for the scanning tunneling microscope current research includes a collaboration with the university of michigan to see computers act as an academic adviser for undergraduate computer science and engineering students at the university the company is also involved in research into advanced algorithms and machine learning and their decisionmaking processes brand and reputation ibm ads at john f kennedy international airport 2013 ibm is nicknamed big blue in part due to its blue logo and color scheme it was a general replacement for a 13bar logo since period photocopiers did not render large areas well aside from the logo ibm used helvetica as a corporate typeface for 50 years until it was replaced in 2017 by the customdesigned ibm plex ibm has a valuable brand as a result of over 100 years of operations and marketing campaigns since 1996 ibm has been the exclusive technology partner for the masters tournament one of the four major championships in professional golf with ibm creating the first mastersorg 1996 the first course cam 1998 the first iphone app with live streaming 2009 and firstever live 4k ultra high definition feed in the united states for a major sporting event 2016 in 2012 ibms brand was valued at 755 billion and ranked by interbrand as the secondbest brand worldwide people and culture employees see also list of ibm ceos new ibmers being welcomed to bootcamp at ibm austin 2015 employees demonstrating ibm watson capabilities in a jeopardy exhibition match on campus 2011 ibm has one of the largest workforces in the world and employees at big blue are referred to as ibmers the company was among the first corporations to provide group life insurance 1934 survivor benefits 1935 training for women 1935 paid vacations 1937 and training for disabled people 1942 ibm hired its first black salesperson in 1946 and in 1952 ceo thomas j watson jr published the companys first written equal opportunity policy letter one year before the us supreme court decision in brown vs board of education and 11 years before the civil rights act of 1964 the human rights campaign has rated ibm 100 on its index of gayfriendliness every year since 2003 ibm has several leadership development and recognition programs to recognize employee potential and achievements for earlycareer high potential employees ibm sponsors leadership development programs by discipline eg general management gmldp human resources hrldp finance fldp each year the company also selects 500 ibmers for the ibm corporate service corps csc the company also has various designations for exceptional individual contributors such as senior technical staff member stsm research staff member rsm distinguished engineer de and distinguished designer dd prolific inventors can also achieve patent plateaus and earn the designation of master inventor the companys most prestigious designation is that of ibm fellow since 1963 the company names a handful of fellows each year based on technical achievement other programs recognize years of service such as the quarter century club established in 1924 and sellers are eligible to join the hundred percent club composed of ibm salesmen who meet their quotas convened in atlantic city new jersey each year the company also selects 1000 ibmers annually to award the best of ibm award which includes an allexpenses paid trip to the awards ceremony in an exotic location ibms culture has evolved significantly over its century of operations in its early days a dark or gray suit white shirt and a sincere tie constituted the public uniform for ibm employees in 2015 ibm started giving employees the option of choosing either a pc or a mac as their primary work device resulting in ibm becoming the worlds largest mac shop ibm alumni many ibmers have also achieved notability outside of work and after leaving ibm in business former ibm employees include apple inc ceo tim cook citrix systems cofounder ed iacobucci asoscom chairman brian mcbride former lenovo ceo steve ward and former teradata ceo kenneth simonds in government alumna patricia roberts harris served as united states secretary of housing and urban development the first african american woman to serve in the united states cabinet amo houghton jim ross lightfoot thomas j manton donald w riegle jr and ed zschau others are nasa astronaut michael j massimino canadian astronaut julie payette harvey mudd college president maria klawe western governors university president emeritus robert mendenhall former university of kentucky president lee t todd jr nfl referee bill carollo former rangers fc chairman john mcclelland and recipient of the nobel prize in literature j m coetzee thomas watson jr also served as the 11th national president of the boy scouts of america and tucker technologies founder and ceo mycah e tucker board and shareholders the companys 14 member board of directors are responsible for overall corporate management and includes the ceos of american express ford motor company boeing dow chemical johnson and johnson and cemex in 2011 ibm became the first technology company warren buffetts holding company berkshire hathaway invested in ibm portal information technology portal companies portal list of companies of the united states i list of electronics brands list of international subsidiaries of ibm list of largest internet companies list of largest manufacturing companies by revenue list of mergers and acquisitions by ibm tech companies in the new york city metropolitan region top 100 us federal contractors ibm and the holocaust for additional books about ibm biographies memoirs technology and more see history of ibm further reading henry bakis 1987 telecommunications and the global firm in f e ian hamilton industrial change in advanced economies london croom helm pp130160 isbn9780709938286 roy a bauer et al 1992 the silverlake project transformation at ibm as400 oxford university press edwin black 2001 ibm and the holocaust the strategic alliance between nazi germany and americas most powerful corporation isbn0914153102 paul carroll 1993 big blues the unmaking of ibm crown publishers doug garr 1999 ibm redux lou gerstner the business turnaround of the decade harper business louis v gerstner jr 2002 who says elephants cant dance harpercollins isbn0007154488 greulich peter e 2014 a view from beneath the dancing elephant rediscovering ibms corporate constitution mbi concepts corporation isbn0983373469 john harwood 2011 the interface ibm and the transformation of corporate design 19451976 isbn9780816670390 robert heller 1994 the fate of ibm little brown david mercer 1987 ibm how the worlds most successful corporation is managed kogan page david mercer 1988 the global ibm leadership in multinational management dodd mead p374 mills d quinn friesen g bruce 1996 broken promises an unconventional view of what went wrong at ibm harvard business school isbn0875846548 emerson w pugh 1996 building ibm shaping an industry mit press robert slater 1999 saving big blue ibms lou gerstner mcgraw hill ulrich steinhilper 2006 dont talk do it from flying to word processing isbn1872836755 ernest von simson 2009 the limits of strategy lessons in leadership from the computer industry iuniverse isbn9781440192586 thomas watson jr 1990 father son co my life at ibm and beyond isbn0553290231 ibmat wikipedias sister projects definitions from wiktionary media from wikimedia commons news from wikinews quotations from wikiquote texts from wikisource textbooks from wikibooks resources from wikiversity official website ibm website at the wayback machine archived october 22 1996 business data for ibm corp google finance yahoo finance reuters sec filings samme chittum 20040315 in an ibm village pollution fears taint relations with neighbors new york times ibm companies grouped at opencorporates business data for ibm google finance yahoo finance reuters sec filings vteibmhistory history of ibm mergers and acquisitions think motto operating systems products cell microprocessor mainframe personal computer ibm power systems information management software lotus software rational software spss ilog tivoli software service automation manager websphere alphaworks criminal reduction utilising statistical history mashup center purequery redbooks flashsystem fortran connections business entities center for the business of government cloud computing global services international subsidiaries jstart kenexa research the weather company weather underground watson health facilities towers 1250 renlvesque montreal qc one atlantic center atlanta ga software labs rome software lab toronto software lab ibm buildings 330 north wabash chicago il johannesburg seattle research labs africa almaden austin laboratory australia brazil china laboratory haifa laboratory india laboratory ireland thomas j watson center new york tokyo zurich laboratory facilities hakozaki facility yamato facility cambridge scientific center ibm hursley canada head office building ibm rochester somers office complex initiatives academy of technology centers for advanced studies cascon deep thunder ibm fellow pulse conference the great mind challenge developerworks develothon linux technology center ibm virtual universe community smarter planet world community grid inventions automated teller machine electronic keypunch hard disk drive floppy disk dram relational model selectric typewriter financial swaps universal product code magnetic stripe card sabre airline reservation system scanning tunneling microscope terminology globally integrated enterprise commercial processing workload consumability ebusiness ceos thomas j watson 19141956 thomas watson jr 19561971 t vincent learson 19711973 frank t cary 19731981 john r opel 19811985 john fellows akers 19851993 louis v gerstner jr 19932002 samuel j palmisano 20022011 ginni rometty 2012present board of directors alain belda william r brody kenneth chenault michael l eskew david farr shirley ann jackson andrew n liveris james mcnerney james w owens samuel j palmisano virginia m rometty joan e spero sidney taurel lorenzo zambrano other a boy and his atom common public licenseibm public license customer engineer deep blue deep thought dynamic infrastructure guide international ibm and the holocaust ibm international chess tournament lucifer cipher mathematica ibm plex share computing scicomp watson quantum experience vtecomponents of the dow jones industrial average 3m american express apple boeing caterpillar chevron cisco systems cocacola disney dowdupont exxonmobil goldman sachs the home depot intel ibm johnson johnson jpmorgan chase mcdonalds merck co microsoft nike pfizer procter gamble travelers unitedhealth group united technologies verizon communications visa walgreens boots alliance walmart vtemajor personal computer server and mainframe hardware companiescompanies with an annual revenue of over us3 billionpersonal computersand servers acer apple inc asus dell fujitsu huawei hp lenovo lg electronics microsoft nec panasonic razer inc samsung electronics toshiba vaio servers only cisco systems hpe ibm inspur oracle corporation mainframes fujitsu hpe ibm see also largest it companies list of computer hardware manufacturers categoryhome computer hardware companies categoryserver hardware categorymainframe computers vtemajor information storage companiescompanies with an annual revenue of over us3 billion adata dell technologies dell emc fujitsu hitachi data systems hewlett packard enterprise ibm kingston technology lenovoemc netapp oracle corporation plextor samsung electronics seagate technology silicon power sony toshiba transcend information western digital sandisk see also largest it companies categorycomputer storage companies vtemajor software companiescompanies with an annual revenue of over us3 billion adobe inc amadeus it group apple inc autodesk bmc software ca technologies fis google hp enterprise ibm intuit infor microsoft oracle corporation quest software sage group sap se symantec vmware see also largest it companies largest software companies categorysoftware companies vte electronics industry in the united statescompanieshome appliances bose cisco systems dell dolby laboratories harman jbl honeywell hp kingston kimball lexmark logitech magnavox microsoft razer sandisk seagate western digital hgst xerox electronic components 3m achronix analog devices applied materials altera avx cirque diodes inc flex jabil kemet maxwell technologies sanmina vishay semiconductor devices amd broadcom cypress semiconductor globalfoundries ibm intel interlink klatencor lam research lattice marvell technology mellanox microchip atmel micron netapp new vision display nimbus data nvidia nxp on semiconductor qualcomm synaptics silicon graphics silicon image tabula texas instruments xilinx zilog mobile devices apple inc blu google lenovo motorola mobility other cadence design systems cray ge oracle corporation synopsys defunct actel commodore compaq fairchild freescale lsi microsemi national semiconductor palm philco rca signetics solectron sun microsystems authority control worldcat identities bne xx254046 bnf cb11993066c data gnd 1042x isni 0000 0004 0400 2468 lccn n79142877 ndl 00406062 nkc kn20010710496 nla 35713999 selibr 118155 sudoc 028008871 ulan 500217526 viaf 150702892 