The Merger
The key person behind the merger was financier Charles Ranlett Flint, who brought together the founders of the three companies to propose a merger, and who remained a member of the board of CTR, later IBM, until his retirement in 1930. It had a bonded indebtedness of $6.5 million, 25 times its current assets, of which $4 million was borrowed from the Guaranty Trust Company. Flint assigned it a value of $17.5 million, though in reality its tangible assets only added up to $1 million. The product lines were very different; Flint stated that the consolidation
... instead of being dependent for earnings upon a single industry, would own three separate and distinct lines of business, so that in normal times the interest and sinking funds on its bonds could be earned by any one of these independent lines, while in abnormal times the consolidation would have three chances instead of one to meet its obligations and pay dividends.
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