The First Computer War - IBM versus The UNIVAC | 3

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What’s a 16% market share when the public thinks you have more? A potential anti-trust suit, if you’re IBM. Watson Jr. sees a potential lawsuit as a way out from under his father’s control. Sr. sees his company rotting away in the hands of a kid who can’t handle it. But when the antitrust suit comes through in 1952, Jr’s in charge. Can he actually handle the business he desperately wanted?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars ad-free on Amazon music.
0:04.8	Download the app today.
0:06.9	It's January 1952, the final year of the Truman administration.
0:12.8	Inside the Department of Justice building in Washington, H. Graham Morrison watches an
0:17.6	old man step haltingly into his office.
0:21.8	His visitor is 77-year-old Thomas Watson Sr., who has been CEO of IBM for nearly 40
0:28.8	years.
0:30.2	With him is Tom Watson Jr., Watson's 37-year-old son, and the heir apparent at IBM.
0:38.6	Morrison runs the government's antitrust division and is known to aggressively punish monopolies.
0:45.2	The elder Watson takes in the scene with dismay.
0:49.6	He is used to calling on high-priced lawyers who wear tailored suits and work in spacious
0:53.7	offices decorated with oriental carpets and mahogany furniture.
0:59.6	Lawyers at the Justice Department get unimpressive paychecks by close off the rack and squeeze
1:04.2	into their cramped offices.
1:06.0	The bare floors and metal desks amplify the sharp sounds of typewriters clacking.
1:11.6	Morrison invites Watson and his son to sit.
1:15.4	They settled in on hard wooden chairs.
1:19.2	Watson and his lawyers believe IBM is a monopolizing anti-competitive company that dominates
1:24.3	the data processing industry.
1:26.9	They want to charge IBM with violating the Sherman antitrust act.
1:31.5	The Watson's business depends on convincing Morrison.
1:35.3	He is wrong.
	...

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