Electronic Data Systems (EDS) was founded in 1962 by
H. Ross Perot, a graduate of the
United States Naval Academy and a successful
IBM salesman who made first-hand observations of how inefficiently IBM's customers typically were using their expensive systems. Somewhat to IBM's chagrin, since the company wanted to sell as many computers as possible, Perot made a fortune changing this. An early success was in matching the unused computer time at Southwestern Life Insurance Company with the computing needs of rapidly expanding
Collins Radio, both located in Dallas, Texas. Perot knew the inside details of both companies. In its early years, EDS was a pioneer in
facilities management – becoming the IT department for many companies – as well as beginning to service banks and provide early support for both
Medicaid and
Medicare in its home state of Texas. Leading the effort internally was
Morton H. Meyerson, who joined the company in 1966 as the company's 54th employee. In 1967, he proposed the business model that eventually became known as "
outsourcing" and which led to exponential growth for EDS. In the 1970s, EDS expanded initially into more insurance services and later
credit unions, and by 1975 revenue topped $100 million (~$ in ) and the company began bidding for work internationally. In 1978 EDS expanded into financial markets with the arrival of
automated teller machines,
electronic funds transfer and real-time point-of-sale terminals. Meyerson was named president in 1979, at which point EDS had revenue of $270 million (~$ in ), was free of debt, and had 8,000 employees. In the 1980s, they expanded into travel services supporting payment services between travel agents and airlines represented by the
Air Transport Association of America, and provided large scale contracts for the US military. In January 1981 EDS purchased
Centurion Computer Corporation, founded as Warrex Computer Corporation in 1972, a manufacturer of small business minicomputers.
General Motors acquisition In 1984, the company was acquired by
General Motors (GM) for $2.6 billion (~$ in ), with EDS becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of GM. Meyerson remained president and in 1985, the company had a presence in 21 countries with 40,000 employees. Meyerson retired in 1987. During his years of executive leadership, EDS revenue grew to $4 billion a year, and the company grew to 45,000 employees. By the end of the decade, revenue was $5 billion. In 1985, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) began moving into its new headquarters in the Legacy development in Plano, Texas, with the campus opening in stages, and the main move completed by 1993, establishing a major corporate presence that spurred significant development in the area. The relocation of Electronic Data Systems from its Forest Lane location to the Legacy development in Plano in the year 1985 was initially driven by the company's growth in the late 1970s.
Regained independence In 1996, GM spun off EDS as an independent company. In the 1990s, in addition to its existing markets, EDS was entering the telecommunications industry and was providing IT systems in many foreign countries. They were providing information systems for global sporting events including the
1992 Barcelona Olympics, the
1994 FIFA World Cup, and the
1998 FIFA World Cup. In 1994, they signed what was at the time the largest information technology contract with
Xerox for $3.2 billion (~$ in ) and also bought the New Zealand banking processing company
Databank Systems. In 1995 they purchased
A.T. Kearney, the world's 4th largest private
management consulting firm. In 1996, they became an independent company again and relisted on the
New York Stock Exchange. Before the turn of the century they took part in over 1,300
Year 2000 projects. As a part of the move towards being an independent company, EDS asked its employees to assist in the re-branding effort by submitting designs for a new logo. While a design (a square with the "E" in it) was selected and used for several years, it was the design of Shawn Downs, an employee in the Charlotte IPC, that was ultimately selected and utilized in the 2000 launch. In 2000, EDS launched a new logo with an award-winning
Super Bowl commercial about
herding cats. Post-2000, they continued to sign long term, billion dollar contracts with organizations such as
Bank of America,
American Airlines,
General Motors,
Kraft Foods and the
United States Navy. In 2006 they sold A.T. Kearney in a management buyout.
HP acquisition In May 2008,
Hewlett-Packard (HP) confirmed that it had reached a deal with EDS to acquire the company for $13.9 billion (~$ in ). The deal was completed on August 26, 2008 and EDS became an HP business unit. 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 300,000 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. In September 2009, EDS began going to market as HP Enterprise Services (HPES), a name change which came one year after HP announced the acquisition of EDS, and which was a critical milestone as the integration of EDS into HP neared completion. In 2015, after the
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) spun-off from HP, HP Enterprise Services rebranded as Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services (HPES).
Merger with CSC into DXC On April 3, 2017, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services merged with
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) to form
DXC Technology, retaining significant operations from Plano, Texas, and many aspects of EDS. On June 1, 2018, DXC spun off the U.S. public services sector of the business through a
Reverse Morris Trust, combining with
Vencore and KeyPoint Government Solutions to create a new independent and publicly traded government contractor,
Perspecta Inc. == Company structure ==