from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
International Business Machines
big blue
IBM
<company> (IBM) The best known American computer manufacturer,
founded by Thomas J. Watson (born 1874-02-17), known as "Big
Blue" after the colour of its logo. IBM makes everything from
{mainframes} to {personal computers} (PCs) and has been
immensely successful in selling them, chiefly to business. It
has often been said that "Nobody has ever been sacked for
buying IBM".
The {IBM PC} in its various versions has been so successful
that unqualified reference to a "PC" almost certainly means a
PC from IBM, or one of the many brands of {clone} produced by
other manufacturers to cash in on IBM's original success.
Alternative expansions of "IBM" such as Inferior But
Marketable; It's Better Manually; Insidious Black Magic; It's
Been Malfunctioning; Incontinent Bowel Movement, illustrate
the considerable antipathy most hackers have long felt toward
the "industry leader" (see {fear and loathing}).
Quarterly sales $15351M, profits $689M (Aug 1994).
(http://ibm.com/).
(1999-04-07)