Wednesday, November 9, 2011

IBM's Former CEO Once Opened The PC Era

By Carl Black


IBM announced that John Opel, the company's CEO in the early development of the PC era in the 1980s died on November 3 at 86 years old. But IBM did not disclose the cause of his death.

John Opel served as IBM's CEO from January 1981 to January 1985. He led IBM to settle a long-term anti-monopoly investigation and compete with Apple and other companies in the PC field. The first IBM PC was born in the August of 1981.

IBM's former senior vice president Nicholas Donofrio said: "He challenged people's inherent thinking. He was always able to promote the cutting-edge development." In Opel's term, IBM settled the antitrust lawsuit began in 1969. IBM was accused of anti-competitive behavior in the general-purpose digital computer areas and with intent to split the Armonk. The case troubled IBM for 13 years until the U.S. Justice Department withdrew in January 1982l.

John Opel (http://www.textiles-leather.com/products/chemicals-c05000000.html) was published on the cover of the "Time" magazine on July 11, 1983. According to the reports, IBM achieved an annual profit of $ 4.4 billion and sales of $ 34.4 billion, becoming the nation's most profitable industrial enterprise in 1982. Under the leadership of John Opel, IBM continued to enter new areas, pursue-edge technology, streamline the organizational structure and actively expand sales operations.

In John Opel's four-year term (http://www.textiles-leather.com/serial_port_pc_card-manufacturers.html), IBM's stock returns reached 117%, five times of the S & P 500 index at the same period. According to the report in 1984, IBM also invested in Intel's minority stake and reorganized the company's sales team, making a sales representative can sell multiple products.

Opel at that time expressed optimism for the IT industry. His said: "I never once heard people say they can not use any more information. Therefore, the demand for information processing should be great, though not necessarily infinite." Opel was born January 5, 1925 Born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He graduated from Westminster College and got an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1949. At the beginning,h e joined IBM located in Jefferson City as a sales representative, and promoted a manager in the 1950s. He became IBM's president in 1974.




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