In a sense Gerald Probst, the chairman of Sperry, was like a general on the wrong side of a surrender ceremony as he sat with Burroughs Chairman W. Michael Blumenthal last week at a press conference in Manhattan's St. Regis Hotel. For a year Probst had resisted a determined drive by Burroughs to take over his company and thereby form the world's second-largest computer manufacturer, after IBM. In the end, though, the advance was irresistible. New York City-based Sperry agreed to be acquired by its Detroit rival for $4.8 billion. A triumphant Blumenthal said he hoped that this "major new force"...
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