referred to as big blue . for other uses of these terms see ibm disambiguation and big blue disambiguation . international business machines corporation logo as of 1972 ibm watson system in 2011 type public traded as nyse ibm dow jones industrial average component s & p 500 component isin us4592001014 industry cloud computing cognitive computing information technology founded june 16 1911 ; 105 years ago 1911 06 16 endicott new york u.s. 1 founder charles flint headquarters armonk new york u.s. area served 170 countries 2 key people ginni rometty chairwoman president and ceo products see ibm products revenue us 81.741 billion 2015 3 operating income us 15.944 billion 2015 3 net income us 13.190 billion 2015 3 total assets us 110.49 billion 2015 3 total equity us 14.262 billion 2015 3 number of employees 377 757 2015 4 website ibm.com think thomas j. watson who led ibm from 1914 to 1956 discussing the company s motto think problems playing this file see media help . international business machines corporation commonly referred to as ibm is an american multinational technology company headquartered in armonk new york united states with operations in over 170 countries . the company originated in 1911 as the computing tabulating recording company ctr and was renamed international business machines in 1924 . ibm manufactures and markets computer hardware middleware and software and offers hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology . ibm is also a major research organization holding the record for most patents generated by a business as of 2016 for 23 consecutive years . 5 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 random access memory dram . ibm has continually shifted its business mix by exiting commoditizing markets and focusing on higher value more profitable markets . this includes spinning off printer manufacturer lexmark in 1991 and selling off its personal computer thinkpad and x86 based 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 world s largest employers with as of 2016 nearly 380 000 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 . contents 1 history 2 headquarters and offices 3 products and services 4 research 5 brand and reputation 6 people and culture 6.1 employees 6.1.1 ibm alumni 6.2 board and shareholders 7 see also 8 references 9 further reading 10 external links history edit main article history of ibm in the 1880s technologies emerged that would ultimately form the core of what would become international business machines ibm . julius e. pitrat patented the computing scale in 1885 ; 6 alexander dey invented the dial recorder 1888 ; 7 herman hollerith patented the electric tabulating machine ; 8 and willard bundy invented a time clock to record a worker s arrival and departure time on a paper tape in 1889 . 9 on june 16 1911 their four companies were consolidated in new york state by charles ranlett flint to form the computing tabulating recording company ctr based in endicott new york . 1 10 the four companies had 1 300 employees and offices and plants in endicott and binghamton new york ; dayton ohio ; detroit michigan ; washington d.c. ; 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 ctr . 11 watson joined ctr as general manager then 11 months later was made president when court cases relating to his time at ncr were resolved . 12 having learned patterson s pioneering business practices watson proceeded to put the stamp of ncr onto ctr s companies . 13 he implemented sales conventions generous sales incentives a focus on customer service an insistence on well groomed dark suited salesmen and had an evangelical fervor for instilling company pride and loyalty in every worker . 14 15 his favorite slogan think became a mantra for each company s employees . 14 during watson s first four years revenues more than doubled to 9 million and the company s operations expanded to europe south america asia and australia . 14 watson had never liked the clumsy hyphenated title of the ctr and chose to replace it with the more expansive title international business machines . 16 naca researchers using an ibm type 704 electronic data processing machine in 1957 in 1937 ibm s tabulating equipment enabled organizations to process unprecedented amounts of data its clients including the u.s. government during its first effort to maintain the employment records for 26 million people pursuant to the social security act 17 and hitler s third reich 18 largely through the german subsidiary dehomag . during the second world war the company produced small arms for the american war effort m1 carbine and browning automatic rifle . in 1949 thomas watson sr. created ibm world trade corporation a subsidiary of ibm focused on foreign operations . 19 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 ibm s 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 . ibm inventions clockwise from top left the hard disk drive dram the upc bar code and the magnetic stripe card on april 7 1964 ibm announced the first computer system family the ibm system 360 . sold between 1964 and 1978 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 application . in 1974 ibm engineer george j. laurer developed the universal product code . 20 ibm and the world bank first introduced financial swaps to the public in 1981 when they entered into a swap agreement . 21 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 us 8 billion loss at the time the biggest in american corporate history . 22 lou gerstner was hired as ceo from rjr nabisco to turn the company around . 23 in 2002 ibm acquired pwc consulting and in 2003 it initiated a project to redefine company values hosting a three day online discussion of key business issues with 50 000 employees . the result was three values dedication to every client s success innovation that matters for our company and for the world and trust and personal responsibility in all relationships . 24 25 in 2005 the company sold its personal computer business to chinese technology company lenovo 26 and in 2009 it acquired software company spss inc. later in 2009 ibm s blue gene supercomputing program was awarded the national medal of technology and innovation by u.s. president barack obama . in 2011 ibm gained worldwide attention for its artificial intelligence program watson which was exhibited on jeopardy where it won against game show champions ken jennings and brad rutter . in 2012 ibm announced it has agreed to buy kenexa and a year later it also acquired softlayer technologies a web hosting service in a deal worth around 2 billion . 27 in 2014 ibm announced it would sell its x86 server division to lenovo for a fee of 2.1 billion . 28 also that year ibm began announcing several major partnerships with other companies including apple inc. 29 30 twitter 31 facebook 32 tencent 33 cisco 34 underarmour 35 box 36 microsoft 37 vmware 38 csc 39 macy s 40 and sesame workshop 41 the parent company of sesame street . in 2015 ibm announced two major acquisitions merge healthcare for 1 billion 42 and all digital assets from the weather company including weather.com and the weather channel mobile app . 43 44 also that year ibmers created the film a boy and his atom which was the first molecule movie to tell a story . in 2016 ibm acquired video conferencing service ustream and formed a new cloud video unit . 45 46 in april 2016 it posted a 14 year low in quarterly sales . 47 the following month groupon sued ibm accusing it of patent infringement two months after ibm accused groupon of patent infringement in a separate lawsuit . 48 headquarters and offices edit ibm chq in armonk new york in 2014 pangu plaza one of ibm s offices in beijing china ibm is headquartered in armonk new york . 49 its principal building referred to as chq is a 283 000 square foot 26 300 m2 glass and stone edifice on a 25 acre 10 ha parcel amid a 432 acre former apple orchard the company purchased in the mid 1950s . 50 there are two other ibm buildings within walking distance of chq the north castle office which previously served as ibm s headquarters ; and the ibm learning center ilc a resort hotel and training center which has 182 guest rooms 31 meeting rooms and various amenities . 51 ibm operates in 170 countries as of 2016 2 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 raleigh durham north carolina ; rochester minnesota ; and silicon valley california . ibm s real estate holdings are varied and globally diverse . towers occupied by ibm include 1250 ren l vesque montreal canada tour descartes paris france and one atlantic center atlanta usa . in beijing china ibm occupies pangu plaza which is the city s seventh tallest building and overlooks beijing national stadium bird s nest which was home to the 2008 summer olympics . other notable buildings include the ibm rome software lab rome italy the hursley house winchester uk 330 north wabash chicago usa the cambridge scientific center cambridge usa the ibm toronto software lab toronto canada the ibm building johannesburg johannesburg south africa the ibm building seattle seattle usa the ibm hakozaki facility tokyo japan the ibm yamato facility yamato japan and the ibm canada head office building ontario canada . defunct ibm campuses include the ibm somers office complex somers new york . the company s contributions to industrial architecture and design include works by eero saarinen ludwig mies van der rohe and i.m. pei . van der rohe s building in