International Business Machines Corp.

New Orchard Rd.

Year founded: 1911

Industry: information technology

Post 200 Category: Top Companies Headquartered Outside Region

Revenue: n/a

Net Income/Loss: n/a

Earnings per share: n/a

Dividend: n/a

Stockholder equity: n/a

Auditor: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Stock: IBM

Assets: n/a

Market capitalization: $138.69 Billion

52-week high: 99.1 1/3/2005

52-week low: 81.9 8/12/2004

Chairman and CEO: Samuel J. Palmisano

CFO: John R. Joyce

Employees: 329000

Local employees: 7818

Description: "Big Blue" is the world's top hardware maker, with sales of mainframes, servers, storage systems and the like, as well as the top provider of consulting services to corporate and government clients. IBM is also a major player in the software and semiconductor businesses.

Developments: IBM's reputation was built on hardware sales, so when it sold its personal-computer operations to China's Lenovo Group Inc. last year for $1.75 billion, the announcement made headlines. Some industry observers saw the move as both a turning point in technology, reflecting the PC's transition from a lucrative electronics business to a low-margin commodity, and the ascension of China as a major technology player. The deal faced an unexpected hurdle — members of Congress launched an investigation to see if the sale might pose national security problems — but in mid-March a Bush administration panel approved the sale. Government contracting remains one of IBM's biggest priorities, and it spent much of 2004 integrating the more than 3,000 workers it acquired from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP's federal practice. In October, the company announced its federal business consulting group in Fair Lakes, Va., would hire another 1,200 people. The company's federal contracts include a variety of projects, such as working on secure fingerprint access technology and updating the Defense Department's computer systems, considered one of the largest modernization and systems integration projects in history. IBM has continued its investment and promotion of so-called open source software and announced it is giving away rights to 500 of its software patents to help a growing community of developers who build software collaboratively and distribute it free of charge. The patents span a wide range of technologies, including data storage, networking and electronic commerce. As technology continues to permeate everyday life, IBM is also entering a number of markets for which it is not traditionally known, such as retail. For example, IBM is working on a system called Everywhere Displays, which can project product data onto any surface in the store, such as the walls or floor. Shoppers can scroll through the system's menu for selection and pricing information. The company is also planning to introduce a smart shopping cart equipped with a wireless touch screen computer that doubles as a product scanner.