International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. More than 1000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 47 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to help them achieve their key business objectives.
For more than 20 years, IDC has been analyzing the ICT markets of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMA).
With a coordinated network of regional centers and local offices in 21 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, IDC delivers practical advice and insight based on first-hand knowledge of emerging markets and local expertise in a unique combination with regional context and global technology background.
IDC was founded by Patrick Joseph McGovern in Massachusetts, in 1964. At the outset, the company produced a computer installation data base (based on a customer list purloined from IBM), and published a newsletter, "EDP Industry and Market Report" (modeled on "ADP Newsletter", which was published by The Diebold Group). Companies such as RCA, Univac, Xerox, and Burroughs paid IDC for use of the data base. During this time, Mcgovern continued to work as a writer for "Computers and Automation" magazine, the first computer magazine, published by Edmund Berkeley.
McGovern frequently described his having sold his old car for $5,000, to fund the startup of IDC, which is apocryphal. At the time, $5,000 was the purchase price of a new Cadillac.
Contrary to a published report in 1999, that the company had grossed $600,000 by its third year, it did in fact, have an income of $154,996. with a modest net profit of $2,961. McGovern was considering liquidating the company when he hit on the idea of launching Computerworld in 1967, which was a continuation of the monthly newsletter, published weekly instead of monthly, in a different format, with advertising, which became a cornerstone of IDG's subsequent publishing arm.
