International Business Machines Corporation - Essay Example

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) was incorporated on June 16, 1911, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. (C-T-R). At this period, C-T-R manufactured and sold a wide range of machinery from meat and cheese slicers to commercial scales and industrial time recorders to tabulators and punched cards (IBM Para 1). In 1924, C-T-R changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation. In 2011, the company celebrated its centenary anniversary. As at now, IBM is a large globally-integrated enterprise, which operates in more than 170 countries.

In the financial year ended December 2010, the company had made revenues of US$ 99.9 billion and had employed 426,751 employees worldwide. To enable it to offer each of these services competitively, IBM has divided its major operations into five major business segments: Global Technology Services, Global Business Services, Software, Systems and Technology and Global Financing. IBM’s business model is built to support two principal goals: first is to help its clients succeed in delivering business value by becoming more innovative, efficient and competitive through the use of business insight and IT solutions; and secondly, is to provide long-term value to its shareholders (IBM, “International Business Machines Corporation SEC Form 10-K” 2).