International Business Machines

(I-B-M)

Arguably, the most powerful company in the computer industry. It started in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Corporation (CTR). One of the four companies that made up CTR was Herman Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company; usually called the parent company of IBM. IBM is often known as "Big Blue" due to the color of its logo. Because of the company's size, a number of pejorative expansions of its initials have come about. Included are:

• Inferior But Marketable
• It's Better Manually
• Insidious Black Magic
• It's Been Malfunctioning
• ...and others not so polite.

More Information

• IBM Home Page