5 Of The World's Oldest Companies

IBM
IBM celebrated a big birthday as it completed 100 year mark a few days back. International Business Machines - or its forerunner, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company - was originated on June 16, 1911 by the financier Charles Ranlett Flint.

In these 100 years IBM acted as a pioneer in both the American "New Deal" on social security and in civil rights, yet also being charged of providing equipment to the Nazi regime during the Second World War. For decades it was the major technology company in the world, but the firm experienced a near disaster in the 1980s when it failed to keep up with others' innovations. Nonetheless, a new CEO, Louis V Gerstner, turned the company around during the 1990s, coinciding with the rise of the internet. Gerstner retired in 2002, leaving the company once again one of the top computing firms in the world. Its distinctive culture and product branding has given it the nickname Big Blue.