IBM was founded in 1896 as Tabulating Machine Company by Herman Hollerith in New York.

It was incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation on June 16, 1911, and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1916. It became IBM in 1924 when Thomas J Watson took over. Headquartered in Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York, the 283,000 square foot IBM building is located on a 25 acre site. With presence in more than 170 count ries, IBM Global Services is among the world's largest business services provide r. -----------The origin of the company's nickname, Big Blue, still hangs in mystery. Many exp erts say that simply derives from IBM's global order and the colour of its logo. -----------IBM helped make PC a mainstream product, but it quickly found itself outmatched in a market it helped create. It relied on Intel for chips and Microsoft for sof tware, leaving it vulnerable when the PC industry took off and rivals began usin g the same technology. IBM was unable to emulate its success with mainframe computers with personal com puters and the company struggled in the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to experts, Microsoft and Intel were the big winners in the personal c omputer space, which IBM defined but could not long dominate. -----------To shed the 'too-bureaucratic' style to compete in fast-changing times, IBM tapp ed an outsider as CEO in 1993 to help with a turnaround. Louis Gerstner, a forme r executive with American Express and RJR Nabisco, had little knowledge of techn ology or IBM culture. In his first meeting with top IBM executives, he was the o nly one in the room with a blue shirt -----------The new CEO broke up old fiefdoms, slashed prices and eliminated jobs. IBM, whic h had peaked at 406,000 employees in 1985, shed more than 150,000 in the 1990s a s the company lost nearly $16 billion over five years. Gerstner resisted pressure to break up the company and instead focused on servic es, such as data storage and technical support. sXervices could be sold as an ad d-on to companies that had already bought IBM computers. The shift allowed IBM to ride out two recessions: When times are tough, business es pay IBM to help them find ways to cut costs and handle technology chores that would be more expensive to perform in-house. -----------According to a recent online survey by PayScale, employees at IBM are the oldest , with a median age of 44 years. On salary front, IBM pays its workers a 5 per c ent premium according to PayScale research, Employees tend to stay at IBM with the average tenure at IBM at eight years, whi ch is about six years longer than the tenure at the other tech firms like HP, Ap ple, Microsoft and Dell. The research reveals, IBM has 26 per cent female and 74 per cent male employees.

-----------If you thought internet giant Google was the one who started the concept of free meals at work and employee-friendly activities like games and gymnasium. The an swer is No. Even before Google came into action, IBM ran country clubs for emplo yees. For much of the 20th century, IBM was the model of a dominant, paternalistic cor poration. It was among the first to give workers paid holidays and life insuranc e. -----------In the year 1969, IBM personnel and computers help NASA land the first men on th e Moon. -----------With around $100 billion in annual revenue, IBM is ranked 18th in the Fortune 50 0. It's three times the size of Google and almost twice as big as Apple. Its mar ket capitalization of around $200 billion beats Google and allowed IBM last mont h to briefly surpass software giant Microsoft. ------------IBM grabbed headlines earlier this year when an IBM computer called Watson handi ly defeated two human champions on the popular US television game show "Jeopardy !" in a triumph of artificial intelligence. Watson's triumph came 14 years after an IBM computer named Deep Blue defeated wo rld chess champion Garry Kasparov in a closely-watched, six-game match.