Word: univacs
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Sperry Rand Corp. produces a range of goods from hay balers and electric shavers to gyroscopes and Univac computers, but lately it seems to be turning out people faster than anything else. The first notable exit was staged last fall by George M. Bunker, whose Martin Marietta Corp. had bought 800,000 Sperry shares with a view toward a merger that both companies appeared to want. Soon discovering that he could not get along with Sperry's top management, Bunker resigned as a director and sold off Martin's shares in what was the biggest single liquidation...
Sperry has often been edged out by the superior selling drive of IBM, which has 75% of the market, and has paid Sperry $9,000,000 since 1956 for patent infringements. Though its late-model Univac IIIs and 1004s are rated among the best computers in the field, Sperry's Univac division trails in some key areas; General Electric, for example, is well ahead in the promising "process control" computers that can run pipeline systems or steel mills. Under Rader, Univac had made great progress toward closing the gaps, and thus his move to G.E. is a double blow...
...Drop. On the plus side, Sperry has made remarkable gains in its earnings by improving the servicing of its products and increasing business overseas. Vickers says that the company is now making money everywhere except in the brutally competitive typewriter and computer fields-but that Univac will be in the black by year's end. Recently the company announced that while last year's sales rose only fractionally to $1.28 billion, profits almost doubled to $26 million. That is still a lower rate of profit than competitors have, but the improvement might seem sufficient to please investors...
...greatest promise offered by microcircuitry, apart from smallness, is reliability. Using 1,243 microcircuits, Sperry Rand has compressed a big Univac computer into a 6-in. box; it is expected to run continuously for two years. Since microcircuits are so tiny, several backup circuits can be installed to take over automatically when one fails, thus extending the life of electronic equipment almost indefinitely. Best of all, the microcircuits will eventually be cheaper than conventional circuits because they will combine the production of a welter of separate components into a single manufacturing process, are easier to install and can be produced...
...lawyer who wants to find out what New York state courts have ruled on a particular point will no longer have to plow through shelfloads of books -he can simply ask Sperry Rand's Univac III. A Law Research Service law yer translates the inquiry into a few index words or phrases, puts the information on a punched card and feeds it into the computer. Univac III then scans reels of magnetic tape at the rate of 120,000 cases a minute, swiftly types out the titles of the applicable rulings...