Company Overview

IBM is the world’s largest information technology company and second-largest software provider. The company, founded by NCR’s Thomas Watson in 1914, underwent something of a resurrection in 1993 when Louis Gerstner, an outsider with credentials in the financial services industry, took the company’s helm. Under Gerstner, IBM, which had been known for giving away the spoils of the PC revolution to Microsoft, returned to profitability and even growth.

While the company built its reputation on monolithic mainframe computers (the inspiration for HAL in 2001, A Space Odyssey), IBM is betting its future on software and services. Indeed, it is the world’s second-largest software maker, largely through the acquisition of enterprise software companies such as Lotus Development, CrossWorlds Software, Tivoli Systems, and Informix. Moreover, the company fortified its services business with the purchase of PwC Consulting, formerly the management and IT consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, in 2002. IBM sold its PC business in 2004; the segment yielded little profit for the company in the years leading up to the sale. IBM also branched into mortgage origination services in 2007, with the advent of IBM Lender Business Process Services. The subsidiary provides loan fulfillment operations to mortgage lenders.