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This amazing sign was originally hanging in the infamous IBM Office Products Division office in Texas and is fresh out of the estate of the manager of that office who took it as a keepsake when the office closed. We are listing more of the 1970s 1980s IBM merch we found at his estate. Sign is in great shape and was originally hung with a French cleat the mount is still bolted on the back. This was a high dollar item back in the day! One of a kind now for sure!
IBM Office Products Division (OPD) manufactured and sold copier equipment and supplies from 1970 till IBM withdrew from the copier market in 1988. IBM's decision to compete in this market resulted in the first commercial use of an organic photoconductor now widely used in most photocopiers.[1] It is often held up as an example of a corporate u-turn, where a company rejects a technology and then adopts it.[2] It showed that despite the size of IBM's sales and engineering organisations, this did not guarantee success in every market it chose to compete in.[3] The development effort that resulted in the IBM Copier helped in the development of IBMs first laser printer, the IBM 3800.[4]`.
The IBM Office Products Division was formed from the IBM Electric Typewriter Division in August 1964.[62] It marketed products such as the Selectric Typewriter, the MagCard Selectric Typewriter, the Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer, Dictation Equipment and the IBM Copier Family until 1981,[63] when it was merged with the data processing and general systems divisions into two new divisions: National Accounts and National Marketing. This was reportedly done to prevent the client from needing to deal with multiple sales representatives.[64] The Boulder and Lexington plant/lab sites became part of the new Information Products Division.[10]
The IBM line of Copier/Duplicators, and their associated service contracts, were sold to Eastman Kodak in 1988. At the time of sale it was reported there were approximately 61,500 IBM copiers still in service. IBM indicated that the models 50, 70 and 85 of the Series III would be manufactured by IBM in Charlotte and sold by Kodak with the Kodak logo.[65] It is unclear how many IBM manufactured copiers Kodak sold, however by 1996 Kodak also announced they were also withdrawing from the copier market, selling their copier division to Danka for $684m USD.[66] Danka was then eventually bought by Konica Minolta in 2008.[67]
