IBM Turns 100 Years Old, Starts Planning for the Next Century

Posted 06/16/2011 at 6:54am | by Paul Lilly

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It was on this day in 1911 that a handful of technologies and companies merged to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording-Company (C-T-R), which would be renamed International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924. That makes IBM older than Apple, Intel, and Google combined. Big Blue has earned the right to celebrate living longer than most tech companies and humans alike, but you'll never guess what IBM has planned.

To celebrate the milestone, IBM is releasing a book, "Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company," debuting a new film, "Wild Ducks," and ringing the Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange. We'll be happy if we can get out of our walker and sit on the front porch for a spell, should we reach the century mark.

IBM's 100-year tenure is marked with milestones and notable achievements, one of the more recent (and cooler) ones being the creation of Watson, a computer that laid the smackdown on the two greatest Jeopardy contestants to ever play the game.

On very much a related note, Luis A. Lamassonne is one of the oldest living IBM alumni at 105 years old. Lamassonne started working for IBM in 1933 and stayed there for 38 years, where he eventually served as an executive in Latin America.

"IBM has always been one of the best companies," Lamassonne said. "The company is special because of the people. I have faith that IBM will survive for many more years, for another century."

Image Credit: IBM