ICL: A Business and Technical History: The Official History of Britain's Leading Information Systems Company

The history of ICL is synonymous with the history of the British computer industry. ICL was formed by a series of mergers in response to the increasing market dominance of the large American corporations, particularly IBM. The struggles between these two giants and the inherent problems and implications of competing with US multi-nationals are examined in detail in Campbell Kelly's wide ranging study. At the time of writing in the late 1980s, the author was given unrestricted access to ICL archives and his lucid account of the company, its set-backs and successes makes for a compelling and informative read. This book, which was Winner of the Wadsworth Prize for Business History (1989), will be of great interest to anyone involved in business or the computing industry.