Why the UK's IBM Failed

181121 Like and subscribe. This is an archive, check the link in the end if you are. In 1968, the British government arranged a shotgun marriage between three computer manufacturers to create International Computers Limited, or ICL.

The government envisioned ICL as the United Kingdom’s answer to IBM - a national champion in computers. But the company could not compete against American and East Asian competition and eventually sold to Fujitsu.

The United Kingdom pioneered computing technology. So why did ICL fail?

In this video, we are going to trace the history of the British computing giant from its punched-card days to its final demise in 2000. Sit back and relax. This is going to be a long one.

Hat tip to the National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) for some imagery

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