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International Computers Limited (ICL) was a large British computer hardware, computer software and computer services company that operated from 1968 until 2002. It was formed through a merger of International Computers and Tabulators (ICT), English Electric Leo Marconi (EELM) and Elliott Automation in 1968. The company's most successful product line was the ICL 2900 Series range of mainframe computers. In later years, ICL attempted to diversify its product line but the bulk of its profits always depended on the mainframe customer base. New ventures included marketing a range of powerful IBM clones made by Fujitsu, various minicomputer and personal computer ranges and (more successfully) a range of retail point-of-sale equipment and back-office software. Despite significant sales in overseas markets, ICL's mainframe base was dominated by large contracts from the UK public sector. Significant customers included Post Office Ltd, the Inland Revenue, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Defence. ICL also had a strong market share with UK local authorities and (at that time) nationalized utilities including the water, electricity, and gas boards. The company was eventually acquired by Fujitsu, and in April 2002 it was rebranded as Fujitsu. == Origins of ICL == International Computers Limited was formed in 1968 as a part of the Industrial Expansion Act of the Wilson Labour Government. ICL was an initiative of Tony Benn, the Minister of Technology, to create a British computer industry that could compete with major world manufacturers like IBM. ICL represented the last step in a series of mergers that had taken place in the industry since the late 1950s. The main portions of ICL were formed by merging International Computers and Tabulators (ICT) with English Electric Computers, the latter itself a recent merger of Elliott Automation with English Electric Leo Marconi computers. EELM was itself a merger of the computer divisions of English Electric, LEO and Marconi.〔(Oral history interview with Arthur L.C. Humphreys ), Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota〕 Upon its creation, the British government held a ten percent stake in the company and provided a $32.4 million research-and-development grant spread across four years.〔Lee, John M. ("Britain to Finance Computer Merger" ), ''The New York Times''. 12 June 1968. Page 61. Retrieved 16 March 2011.〕 On its formation the company inherited two main product lines: from ICT the 1900 Series of mainframes, and from English Electric Computers (EEC) the System 4, a range of IBM System/360-compatible mainframe clones, based on the RCA Spectra 70. When the companies were first merged the EEC order books were full, while ICT (who had twice as many employees) were struggling, perhaps because it was already obvious that the 1900 series was incompatible with the rest of the industry, with an architecture based on a 24 bit word and 6 bit character rather than the 8 bit byte that was becoming the industry norm. The new board decided that the 1900 should be phased out in favour of the System 4, but shortly afterwards reversed the decision. It is probable that this was due to union and political pressure from the Wilson government. In any event, most of the original EEC board resigned over the interference as they believed that the 1900 series was doomed from the outset, being incompatible with the rest of the market place. ICL initially thrived, but relied almost wholly on supplying the UK public sector with computers. The 1900s were sold in several countries worldwide, but the largest slice of the market was always in the UK, and the largest part of that in government, local authorities, and nationalised industries. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「International Computers Limited」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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