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Electronic Data Systems EDS

February 3, 2012 by · Comments Off on Electronic Data Systems EDS 

Electronic Data Systems EDS, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), headquartered in Plano, Texas, was established in 1962 by H. Ross Perot. Perot’s goal was to start a company that offered skilled electronic data processing management personnel along with the computer equipment.

He targeted large corporations and offered long-term contracts at a time when short-term contracts were the norm. In 1984, General Motors agreed to buy EDS for $2.5 billion. In 1996, GM spun off EDS as an independent company and became one of its largest clients.

On May 13, 2008, Hewlett-Packard Co. confirmed that it had reached a deal with Electronic Data Systems to acquire the company for $13.9 billion. The deal was completed on August 26, 2008. EDS became an HP business unit and was temporarily renamed “EDS, an HP company”. Ronald A. Rittenmeyer, EDS Chairman, President, and CEO, remained at the helm and reported to HP CEO Mark Hurd until his retirement.

As of 2008, EDS employed 139,000 people in 64 countries, the largest locations being the United States, India and the UK. It was ranked as one of the largest service companies on the Fortune 500 list with around 2,000 clients.

As of 23 September 2009, EDS began going to market as HP Enterprise Services, a name change which came one year after HP announced the acquisition of EDS and was a critical milestone as the integration of EDS into HP neared completion.

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