A few years back, the whole idea of joint ventures was anathema to IBM Corp, but today, anything goes, and yesterday the company announced that it would put its automatic teller machine operations into a joint venture with the gran’daddy of the teller machine business, Canton, Ohio-based Diebold Inc: the new venture will make and sell the banking machines worldwide. Terms weren’t disclosed. The new company, which will be located in Canton, Ohio, is to begin operations later this year. Diebold is buying IBM’s teller machine maintenance agreements and service parts inventories for the IBM machines in the US and terms of that purchase weren’t disclosed either. Diebold will hold a majority stake in the IBM-Diebold joint venture and the product line will include application systems and hardware for teller machines and information stations that provide customers with financial information on their accounts. The move seems to mirror IBM’s exit from the copier-making business over the past two years: that went to Eastman Kodak Co.
