International Business Machines - BingWiki

Summary

International Business Machines, commonly known as IBM, was founded in Endicott in 1911 and at the time was known as the Computing Tabulating Recording Company. The business was a merge of several other businesses, including punch cards, meat slicing products, and time keeping devices.

This business would be grown by Thomas J. Watson over the ensuing decades (until 1956) and by his son Thomas J. Watson Jr. until 1971. IBM, until the end of the 20th century, maintained significant facilities in the Greater Binghamton region including:

• Sales training school
• Research and development
• Large production facilities
• Global back-office operations
• Federal systems work

At it's peak, IBM employed more than 20,000 residents of Greater Binghamton at it's complexes in Endicott, federal systems division in Owego (now Lockheed Martin Owego), and Glendale Research Labs.

Legacy

Many of these businesses and facilities still exist in the region though IBM has divested a number of operations into different companies. Some of the companies that have pieces of IBM's operations in the area include:

• Endicott Interconnect - Microelectronics manufacturing
• Fidelity Investments - Global payroll operations
• Lockheed Martin - Federal\government systems work (Owego)
• Huron Campus - IBM's Endicott real estate asset

IBM still maintains a presence of approximately 1,200 employees in the region, making it one of the area's most significant employers.

Today, IBM's presence is less felt than it has been in the past. During the 1990's IBM began to significantly downsize their operations in the region. This involved a number of layoffs and divestiture of numerous business operations that the company had deemed to be non-core competencies. This downsizing led to a significant economic change in the region leading into the 21st century as the area's economy shifted significantly from fewer large employers to more numerous smaller or midsize ones.