IBM has undergone a large number of mergers and acquisitions during a corporate history lasting over a century; the company has also produced a number of spinoffs during that time. The

acquisition Acquisition may refer to: * Takeover, the purchase of one company by another * Mergers and acquisitions, transactions in which the ownership of companies or their operating units are transferred or consolidated with other entities * Procurement, ...

date listed is the date of the agreement between IBM and the subject of the acquisition. The value of each acquisition is listed in USD because IBM is based in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. If the value of an acquisition is not listed, then it is undisclosed. Many of the companies listed in this article had subsidiaries of their own who had subsidiaries who ... For examples, see Pugh's book ''Building IBM'', page 26.

Precursors 1889–1910

Herman Hollerith Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was a German-American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine for punched cards to assist in summarizing information and, later, in ...

initially did business under his own name, as ''The Hollerith Electric Tabulating System'', specialising in

punched card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

data processing equipment. In 1896 he incorporated as the ''Tabulating Machine Company''. *1889

Bundy Manufacturing Company The Bundy Manufacturing Company was a 19th-century American manufacturer of timekeeping devices that went through a series of mergers, eventually becoming part of International Business Machines and Simplex Time Recorder Company. It was the fi ...

incorporated. *1891 Computing Scale Company incorporated. *1893 Dey Patents Company (soon renamed the Dey Time Register Company) incorporated. *1894 Willard & Frick Manufacturing Company (

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located i ...

) incorporated. *1896 **Detroit Automatic Scale Company incorporated. **Hollerith incorporates the Tabulating Machine Company. Will be reincorporated in 1905. *1899 Standard Time Stamp Company acquired by Bundy Manufacturing Company. *1900 **

International Time Recording Company The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was a holding company of manufacturers of record-keeping and measuring systems subsequently known as IBM. In 1911, financier and noted trust organizer, "Father of Trusts", Charles R. Flint amal ...

incorporated, acquiring the time-recording business of the Bundy Manufacturing Company and the Willard & Frick Manufacturing Company (Rochester). **Chicago Time-Register Company acquired by International Time Recording Company. **Dayton Moneyweight Scale Company acquired by Computing Scale Company. **Detroit Automatic Scale Company acquired by Computing Scale Company. *1905 Hollerith reincorporates as ''The Tabulating Machine Company''. *1907 Dey Time Register Company acquired by International Time Recording Company. *1908 Syracuse Time Recorder Company acquired by International Time Recording Company.

Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was a holding company of manufacturers of record-keeping and measuring systems subsequently known as IBM. In 1911, financier and noted trust organizer, "Father of Trusts", Charles R. Flint amal ...
, 1911

Since the 1960s or earlier, IBM has described its formation as a merger of three companies: The Tabulating Machine Company (1880s origin in Washington, DC), the International Time Recording Company (ITR; 1900, Endicott), and the Computing Scale Company of America (1901, Dayton, Ohio). However, there was no merger, it was an

amalgamation Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal ** Pan am ...

, and an amalgamation of four, not three, companies.NY Times June 10, 1911 ''Tabulating Concerns Unite: Flint & Co. Bring Four Together with $19,000,000 capital''
/ref> The 1911 CTR

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

prospectus states that the Bundy Manufacturing Company was also included. While ITR had acquired its time recording business in 1900 Bundy had remained a separate entity producing an adding machine and other wares. * The Tabulating Machine Company *Computing Scale Corporation *

CTR owned the stock of the four companies; CTR neither produced nor sold any product; the four companies continued to operate, as before, under their own names.

Acquisitions during 1912–1999

1912–1929

*1917 **American Automatic Scale Company acquired as International Scale Company. **CTR consolidates three already-existing Canadian companies: The Canadian Tabulating Machine Co., Ltd, the International Time Recording Co. of Canada, Ltd., and the Computing Scale Co. of Canada, Ltd., in a new holding company, International Business Machines Co., Ltd. *1921 **Pierce Accounting Machine Company (asset purchase). **Ticketograph Company (of Chicago). *1923 ** Dehomag *1924 **CTR was renamed "IBM".

1930–1949

*1930 Automatic Accounting Scale Company. *1932 National Counting Scale Company. *1933 The separate companies were integrated in 1933 as IBM and the holding company eliminated. *1933 Electromatic Typewriters Inc. (See:

IBM Electromatic typewriter The IBM Electric typewriters were a series of electric typewriters that IBM manufactured, starting in the mid-1930s. They used the conventional moving carriage and typebar mechanism, as opposed to the fixed carriage and type ball used in the IBM ...

) *1941 Munitions Manufacturing Corporation.

1950–1969

*1959 Pierce Wire Recorder Corporation. *1964

Science Research Associates Science Research Associates (SRA) was a Chicago-based publisher of educational materials and schoolroom reading comprehension products. The company was acquired by McGraw-Hill Education in the early 2000s. History Science Research Associates Inc. ...

1970–1989

*1974 CML Satellite Corporation; renamed Satellite Business Systems (SBS). *1984 ROLM *1986 RealCom Communications Corporation.

1990–1999

*1993 **CGI Informatique (France), bought in 1993, ran independently until 1996, and was then progressively absorbed by IBM, country by country, this process being achieved in 1999. *1994 **

Transarc Transarc Corporation was a private Pittsburgh-based software company founded in 1989 by Jeffrey Eppinger, Michael L. Kazar, Alfred Spector, and Dean Thompson of Carnegie Mellon University. Transarc commercialized the Andrew File System (AFS), n ...

(Transarc Corporation bought by IBM in 1994, became part of IBM proper in 1999 as the IBM Pittsburgh Lab) *1995 **

Lotus Development Corporation Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) was an American software company based in Massachusetts; it was "offloaded" to India's HCL Technologies in 2018. Lotus is most commonly known for the Lotus 1-2- ...

for $3.5 billion. ** Information Systems Management Canada (ISM Canada) **K3 Group Ltd. *1996 **Wilkerson Group ** Tivoli Systems, Inc. for $743 million. **Data Sciences Ltd, prior to 1991 comprising ''Thorn EMI Software'', ''Datasolve'' and the Corporate Management Services Division of Thorn EMI, for £95 million. ** Object Technology International (OTI) is acquired by IBM **Cyclade Consultants (Netherlands) **Fairway Technologies **Professional Data Management, Inc. / LifePRO *1997 **Software Artistry for $200 million. **Unison Software. **Dominion Semiconductor (Manassas, VA) is created by forming a 50/50 joint venture with Toshiba to produce 64MB and 256MB DRAM chips. Administrative offices are located in Building 131 the former IBM Federal Systems campus now primarily owned by Lockheed Martin; the new state-of-the-art fabrication facility was built from on adjacent land. *1998 **CommQuest Technologies. **DataBeam Corporation, Lexington, KY ** Ubique Ltd., Israel *1999 **Dascom Technologies (USA), A subsidiary of Dascom Holdings. **Mylex Corporation. ** Sequent Computer Systems for $810 million.

Acquisitions since 2000

Number of acquisitions per year according to table below: * In 2020 IBM acquired 5 companies * In 2019 IBM acquired 1 companies * In 2018 IBM acquired 3 companies * In 2017 IBM acquired 3 companies * In 2016 IBM acquired 12 companies * In 2015 IBM acquired 13 companies * In 2014 IBM acquired 4 companies * In 2013 IBM acquired 9 companies * In 2012 IBM acquired 9 companies * In 2011 IBM acquired 8 companies

Spin-offs

*1934 – Dayton Scale Division is sold to the Hobart Manufacturing Company. *1942 – Ticketograph Division is sold to the National Postal Meter Company. *1958 – Time Equipment Division is sold to the Simplex Time Recorder Company. *1974 –

Service Bureau Corporation The Service Bureau Corporation (SBC) had its origin in 1932 as the Service Bureau Division within IBM and was spun off as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1957 to operate IBM's burgeoning service bureau businesses. IBM had operated service bureaus ...

sold to Control Data Corporation *1984 –

Prodigy Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to: * Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer ** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess Arts, entertainment, and ...

, formerly a joint venture with

Sears, Roebuck and Company Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

. *1985 – Satellite Business Systems sold to

MCI Communications MCI Communications Corp. (originally Microwave Communications, Inc.) was a telecommunications company headquartered in Washington, D.C. that was at one point the second-largest long-distance provider in the United States. MCI was instrumen ...

*1988 – Copier/Duplicator business, including service and support contracts, sold to

Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

. *1990 – ARDIS mobile packet network, a joint venture with

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...

. Motorola buys IBM's 50% interest in 1994. Now Motient. *1991 –

Lexmark Lexmark International, Inc. is a privately held American company that manufactures laser printers and imaging products. The company is headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky. Since 2016 it has been jointly owned by a consortium of three multination ...

(keyboards, typewriters, and printers). IBM retained a 10% interest. Lexmark has sold its keyboard and typewriter businesses. *1991 – Kaleida, a joint Multimedia software venture with

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

. *1992 – Taligent, a joint software venture with

. *1992 – IBM Commercial Multimedia Technologies Group, spun off to form private company Fairway Technologies. *1992 – IBM sells its remaining 50 percent stake in the Rolm Company to Siemens A.G. of Germany. *1994 – Xyratex enterprise data storage subsystems and network technology, formed in a management buy-out from IBM. *1995 – Advantis (Advanced Value-Added Networking Technology of IBM & Sears), a voice and data network company. Joint Venture with IBM holding 70%, Sears holding 30%. IBM buys Sears' 30% interest in 1997. AT&T acquires the infrastructure portion of Advantis in 1999, becoming the AT&T Global Network. IBM retained business and strategic outsourcing portions of the joint venture. *1994 – Federal Systems Division sold to Loral becoming Loral Federal Systems. The Federal Systems Division performed work for NASA. Loral was later acquired by Lockheed Martin. *1996 – Celestica, Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS). *1998 – IBM Global Network sold to

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

to form AT&T Business Internet. *1999 – Dominion Semiconductor (DSC) IBM sells its 50% share to JV partner

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems ...

. DSC becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba. *2001 – Information Services Extended department, developer of specialized databases and software for telephone directory assistance, is spun off to form privately held company ISx, Inc (later sold to Local Matters). *December 31, 2002 – IBM sells its HDD business to Hitachi Global Storage Technologies for approximately $2 billion. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies now provides many of the hardware storage devices formerly provided by IBM, including IBM hard drives and the

Microdrive The Microdrive is a registered trademark for miniature, 1-inch hard disks produced by IBM and Hitachi. These rotational media storage devices were designed to fit in CompactFlash (CF) Type II slots. The release of similar drives by other ma ...

. IBM continues to develop storage systems, including tape backup, storage software and enterprise storage. *December 2004 –

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, business solutions, and related se ...

acquires 90% interest in IBM Personal Systems Group, 10,000 employees and $9 billion in revenue. *April 3, 2006 – Web analytics provider Coremetrics acquires SurfAid Analytics, a standalone division of IBM Global Services. The deal was said to be in the "eight-figure" range, making it worth at least $10 million. (Note: Since then Coremetrics has in turn been acquired by IBM) *January 25, 2007 – Three-year joint venture with IBM Printing Systems division and

Ricoh is a Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company. It was founded by the now-defunct commercial division of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) known as the ''Riken Concern'', on 6 February 1936 as . Ricoh's he ...

to form new Ricoh-owned subsidiary, InfoPrint Solutions Company, for $725 million. *September 2009 – IBM launches online business IT video advice service in association with GuruOnline. *September 2009 – IBM sells its U2 multivalue database and application development products (created by VMark, UniData, System Builder and Prime Computer, obtained via the Informix acquisition) to Rocket Software *April 2012 – IBM sells its Retail Store Solutions division (Point-of-Sales) to Toshiba TEC *January 2014 – IBM sells its IBM System x business to

for $2.3 billion. *October 2014 – IBM sells its

microelectronics Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or microfabrication) of very small electronic designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-s ...

(computer chips) business to

GlobalFoundries GlobalFoundries Inc. (GF or GloFo) is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Malta, New York. Created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of AMD ...

. IBM will pay GlobalFoundries $1.5 billion over 3 years to take over the business. *December 2014 – UNICOM Global acquires IBM Rational Focal Point and IBM Rational Purify Plus. *January 2015 – IBM sells Algorithmics Collateral to SmartStream Technologies *December 2015 – UNICOM Global acquires IBM Rational System Architect *December 2018 – HCL Technologies to acquire Select IBM Software Products for $1.8B. *July 2019 – IBM Watson Marketing business spins off into standalone company Acoustic, after acquisition by Centerbridge Partners *October 8, 2020 – IBM announced it was spinning off the Managed Infrastructure Services unit of its Global Technology Services division into a new public company, an action expected to be completed by the end of 2021. * January 21, 2022 – IBM announced that it would sell

Watson Health Merative, formerly IBM Watson Health, is a standalone company as of 2022. Merative offers products and services that help clients facilitate medical research, clinical research, Real world evidence, and healthcare services, through the use of ar ...

to the private equity firm

Francisco Partners Francisco Partners is an American private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in technology and technology-enabled services businesses. Founded in August 1999 and based in San Francisco with offices in London and New York City, Franci ...

References

External links

IBM list of selected acquisitions
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Mergers And Acquisitions By Ibm * mergers and acquisitions IBM