IBM

International Business Machines was not the first company to design computers, but it was the first one to apply its strength and its capital to the project seriously. In the 1950s they made a definite decision to risk the company on computing, and were highly rewarded in the 1960s with the success of System/360. As dinosaur-like as IBM may seem today, that success was the result of massive work and willingness to absorb risk. As they grew fatter, however, the executives of Armonk seemed to lose their touch. They created the IBM PC, then lost control of systems design. Today they are struggling, allied with unlikely partners Apple and Motorola to regain their edge. Even as a weakened giant, they still have muscles to flex, supporting an immense amount of basic research and a wide variety of projects across the world. It's hard to kill something this big.