Word: rolmes
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...acquisition of Rolm is approved, as expected, by federal antitrust authorities, it will be the first time that IBM has bought 100% of a firm since its 1962 purchase of an educational publishing house. In 1969 the Justice Department sued IBM for trying to monopolize the computer business, and that marathon case inhibited the company from shopping for partners. The shackles came off in 1982 when the Government dropped the suit...
...Rolm's specialty is a type of electronic switching system known as a PBX (for private branch exchange). Used primarily in large offices, PBXs relay calls between telephones and data between computers. For more than a decade, IBM has tried unsuccessfully to develop a market-winning PBX. By buying Rolm, IBM is challenging the telecommunications supremacy of AT&T, the largest manufacturer of PBXs. This year AT&T invaded IBM's domain by introducing personal computers and minicomputers...
...telecommunications firm was logical and perhaps inevitable. Reason: the instant transfer of information between computers that may be thousands of miles apart is almost as important as the work that goes on inside the machines. As a result, the telecommunications and computer industries are converging. IBM and Rolm are believed to be preparing to unveil a desktop terminal, code-named Mesquite, that will function as both a telephone and a personal computer...
Some industry observers are dubious about the prospects of a happy marriage between IBM, a huge company that is famed for its buttoned-down, highly regimented managerial style, and Rolm, a 15-year-old firm nurtured in the free-spirited environs of California's Silicon Valley. Said Ulric Weil, an industry analyst for the Morgan Stanley investment firm: "History shows that acquisitions of this type, when you mix corporate cultures, don't work. IBM is taking a big risk." Rolm employees set their own work hours; a million-dollar recreation center at the firm's campus-like...
...memo last week, Rolm President Kenneth Oshman assured his employees that "our partners at IBM recognize the need to preserve Rolm's culture and informal style." Feelings within the company were mixed. Said a Rolm marketing manager: "There is a vague disquiet about the takeover and a feeling that something has been lost, but no great sense of panic...