Feb
8th
2005
From
Economist.com
IBM
invented
the
personal
computer
(PC)
and
in
its
early
days
was
among
America's
model
companies.
But
harried
by a
government
antitrust
investigation,
IBM
failed
to
see
the
significance
of
the
PC—and
almost
went
bankrupt
in
the
1980s
as
the
margins
for
hardware
collapsed.
In
1993
it
hired
a new
chairman,
Lou
Gerstner,
who
helped
reinvent
the
company
as a
services
provider
and
worked
hard
to
fend
off
competition
from
Sun
Microsystems.
He
also
embraced
Linux,
an
open
source
Unix-based
operating
system,
which
embroiled
IBM
in a
copyright-infringement
suit
brought
by
SCO
Group,
an
obscure
Utah
software
company.
In
March
2002,
Mr
Gerstner
stepped
down
after
what
was
seen
as a
successful
run.
His
successor,
Sam
Palmisano,
had a
tough
start:
in
April
2002
IBM
issued
a
profit
warning.
Later
that
year,
the
company
agreed
to
buy
the
consulting
arm
of
PricewaterhouseCoopers,
a
deal
that
may
improve
IBM's
ability
to
manage
its
customers.
The
company's
fortunes
improved
along
with
the
technology
market,
but
late
in
2004
IBM
sold
off
its
PC
business
to a
Chinese
firm.
January
2005
saw
the
company
make
freely
available
a
slew
of
its
software
patents
in
the
hope
this
will
encourage
greater
innovation
and,
in
the
long
run,
earn
IBM
more
money
from
collaborating
with
other
programmers.
Around
that
time,
it
also
proposed
to
sell
its
PC
division
to a
Chinese
company,
thus
leaving
the
business
it
invented.
