BULL Sales & Maintenance Network
The list is organized alphabetically by
country. the actual organization was usually by Areas. The profile of
Areas depended of the relations between Bull and its American partners. In
the 1960s, Italy and UK were managed directly by General Electric. Mexico and
Eastern Asia was added to Honeywell's control. In the late 1980s, North America,
Italy and UK became dependent of the Paris management.
Significant divestitures occurred in the 1990s and the early 2000s. North
American operations were sold in part to Wang Corporation and some European
service operations sold to the French service company STERIA.
Algeria
Before the independence obtained in 1962, Bull had a few punched cards installations in Algeria. Later, with the socialist orientation of the Algerian government, CII was, prior the CII-HB merger, a privileged supplier for administrations and university.Argentina
In 1933, Bull established an agent Sociedad Guillermo
Kraft. Around 1948, it became Bull Kraft Argentina. It was replaced by a Bull-General Electric
subsidiary in 1965.
Austria
Bull, which had an agent in 1933, established a sales
subsidiary Bull Datenverarbeitungsmaschinen in 1962
Australia
Belgium
A subsidiary of CMB was established in 1939 as Société Belge des
Machines Bull (SBMB). On May 29th 1960, SBMB was renamed Bull-Belgique. Bull Belgique
secured a large order from RTT Régie des Téléphone set Télégraphes for a
Gamma 60.
Brazil
a subsidiary Maquinas Bull do Brasil was established in
Brazil in
1960. Later (in the 1980s), this subsidiary established a partnership with ABC
and eventually produced DPS-7 and DPS-7000 computers under the umbrella of
government "buy Brazilian act".
Canada
Canada has always been integrated with the North American organization, eventually
in NAP (North America and Pacific).
China
The People's Republic of China Beijing Representative Office was open in 1984 by Bull S.A (Area IV) and was then reporting to Bull Far East in Singapore til 1991.
Bull and Honeywell Bull operations merged in 1991 and Greater China operations (PRC Hong Kong Taiwan) were managed from Beijing HQ.
Congo
Bull had at some time (in the early 1980s a complete
de facto monopoly on the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) in the administration
and the oil industry.
Denmark
A representative agent Jörgen Koenig Petersen was established on 26 January 1948, replaced by a
Bull-GE subsidiary in 1965.
Finland
The distribution of GE, Honeywell and Bull products in Finland was done
since 6 June1962 through an
agent: Finska Kabelfabriken AB, later renamed Nokia Oy. Around 1990, the data processing division of Nokia was
sold to ICL of UK, a company owned by Fujitsu.
Gabon
Among the countries of the former French Africa, Gabon was one of richest
thanks to oil. Bull acquired in this country an important position by securing
the contracts of Elf-Gabon and of government agencies.
Germany
The history of the German subsidiary of Bull may be traced
back to the World War II situation where the German company Wanderer Werke was
appointed by Third Reich as the supervisor of Machines Bull and
"imported" a substantial amount of Bull's equipment in Germany.
After the war, Bull was able to "recuperate" some of those equipments.
Bull was represented by an agent Exacta Büromaschinen GmbH, renamed later
Exacta Continental in 1953.
On 4 July 1960, CMB established in Köln a fully-owned sales subsidiary Bull
Deutschland Lochkartenmaschinen that hired some personal of Wanderer
Werke.
Bull Deutschland became one of the most important sales subsidiary of Bull (and
of its subsequent avatars) in Europe.
However, market's share of Bull in Germany never reached a critical size since
the dawn of computers (it had reached 9% at the Series 150 time). It
never set up a laboratory or a manufacturing exceeding repairing capabilities in
a country where Siemens, Telefunken and Nixdorf as well as IBM Germany were
considered native EDP producers.
In the late 1950s Bull started to have an association with Nixdorf that
designed electronic calculators for Bull punched card equipments. But this
relations stopped in the 1960s.
CII was a Siemens partner in Unidata in the 1970s and acquired Siemens
France sales network while divesting to Siemens its embryonic sales network in
Germany.
Greece
In 1959, Bull establishes as agent Denxas and Trakas. A sales subsidiary was
established on 24 February 1961. It was also covering Turkey.
Hungary
In 1939, a sales unit was created in Budapest under L. Kerner for
South-East Europe. L Kerner had been previously responsible for USSR.
India
Bull established a partnership in the 1980s with PSI
Computers of Bangalore in India. This partnership included manufacturing
under license Bull DPS-7000 and subcontracting engineering and software
maintenance to Indian engineers working in Les Clayes and Bangalore. PSI was
plagued by financial difficulties that caused Bull increasing its stake in the common
subsidiary. But eventually, Bull resold its participation to Indian
interests.
Iraq
Iran
Iran was before the Islamic Revolution an important customer for Honeywell. Honeywell had
sold H-6000s for the Iran Imperial Air Force and other military institutions.
Israel
The Group representative in Israel, in the 1970s and the 1980s, was Honeywell through HIS
Italia.
Italy
Bull had established a common subsidiary with Olivetti on
Dec 7th 1949, as a distributor of Compagnie des Machines Bull card punch equipments. Olivetti-Bull
also distributed Gamma 3 and Gamma ET first generation computers. In
1961, Olivetti-Bull sold to the large Milanese bank Credito Italiano one
Gamma 60 large computer.
In April 27th 1962, Bull sold his 45% shares of Olivetti-Bull to its Italian partner which
became Bull's exclusive distributor in Italy.
In 1964, both Olivetti computers and Bull were acquired by General Electric.
GEISI the Italian subsidiary of GE became provider of the GE-115 small computer,
sold worldwide. The sales arm of GEISI , inherited from Olivetti-Bull,
distributed also US produced GE-400 and GE-600 as well as GE-55/58 produced by
Bull-GE.
After the acquisition of GE computer interests by Honeywell, the situation
stayed unchanged and Honeywell Information Systems Italia sold also Level-64
(and later DPS-7) manufactured in France and Level-62 (later DPS-4) designed and
manufactured in Italy.
When Bull acquired Honeywell, the Italian sales network became more integrated
with the Bull's European network.
Ivory Coast
Japan
Bull first involvement in Japan started on May 8th 1962, when Bull concludes a
distribution agreement with Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha. The main achievement of that
relation was the installation of a Gamma 60 computer by Mitsubishi in 1963.
General Electric had a license agreement with Toshiba, but the
sales were limited to process control computer licensing. In the mid-1960s,
under MITI umbrella, Toshiba bought licenses for the GE-600, it import a few models
and started to design derivatives (initially versions adapted to Japanese standards, later
technical improvements) from that product.
Around 1965, Nippon Electric Company (NEC) had concluded with
Honeywell the same type of licensing on the H-200 series, that were extended in 1973 to
the Series 60. NEC commit itself heavily on Level 64, by dispatching engineers in France
and developing more powerful models.
IN the early 1975, MITI strongly recommend that a merge take place between Toshiba
and NEC mainframe computer divisions what made sense because the owner of their respective
licenses was Honeywell. A joint company NECTIS was established, but for all practical
purpose Toshiba was absorbed by NEC.
However, Honeywell sold also directly computers by its Japan subsidiary. The sales
were mainly to customers rival of NEC (Sumitomo group) and Toshiba, and not themselves
computers producers (Oki, Fuji groups). Theoretically, Honeywell Japan had
distribution rights for all Honeywell and Bull products. In fact, it focus essentially on
Level 66.
Honeywell Japan was sold to NEC circa 1985, forming NEC Systems subsidiary company,
that is focalized on the maintenance of GCOS8 systems in Japan (ACOS6 the NEC operating
system having somewhat diverged from Honeywell version.
Since 1986, Bull has a local representative named Bull K.K. that does OEM sales of
software and smart cards licenses and products while also handling Bull-NEC relations.
In 1984, Bull and NEC concluded an agreement to attribute to Bull (combination of
Paris and Phoenix labs) the design of a CMOS processor for the ACOS6 systems for NEC.
Lebanon
The Bull representation in Beyrouth Derviche
y Haddad was also
responsible in 1962 of dealing with Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen and Syria.
Mexico
In 1953, an agent was established in Mexico, Sociedad Equipos Contables Europeos
SA. On April 10th 1963 French subsidiary of Bull-General Electric, Bull de
Mexico, was established in Mexico. To satisfy Mexican
interests a card equipment repair and refurbish facility was established as a
manufacturing plant.
Mexico was part of Latin America Area and was steered by French executives.
After the Honeywell merger, Mexico was let to Honeywell and joined into North American
Operations.
Morocco
Société Marocaine des Machines Bull was established in
1950
Netherlands
Bull was associated in Netherands with
Kamatec a small manufacturer, creating in July 1948, Bullatec that becomes a
manufacturer of card sorters in Amsterdam for Bull. Eventually, when the Lion
plant was closed all sorters were manufactured in Amsterdam. In 1958, Bullatec
was renamed Bull Netherlands.
Norway
Norway was the cradle of Machines Bull. A subsidiary of CMB Bull Norsk A.S. was established in
1958.
It has to be remembered that the first transactional system (TDS under GCOS3) was
implemented for Norwegian Post Office by a Bull Special Systems team.
Poland
Portugal
On March 23rd 1955 Compagnie des machines Bull created a sales
subsidiary Sociedade Portuguesa de
Maquinas Bull.
Romania
Russia
Bull, until the 1980s did not have a representative in the capital of USSR, and did
sell in that country from the Paris headquarters. Systems maintenance was done by the
"customer",, that sent people for training in Paris. Important contracts were
concluded: Gosbank in Moscow and Leningrad, Tass Agency in Moscow, Togliatti car plant.
All contracts were scrutinized by COCOM.
During the last years of USSR, a Moscow bureau opened by Bull.
South Africa
Spain
Bull was represented in 1951 by an agent Guillermo
Truniger. a subsidiary Sociedad Guillermo Truniger. In July 1962, a subsidiary
was established Sociedad Anonimo Bull de España (SABE).
Sweden
Bull established an agent (Hadar Scmidt) on February 1st 1950.
A subsidiary Svenska
Bull Maskin A.B. was created on October 17th 1959.
This subsidiary was consolidated with the subsidiary of RCA on July 12th 1962
and inherited of a RCA501 in its computation center.
Shortly before the acquisition by Genera Electric, in 1964, ASEA ordered a
GE-635 that was the first delivery of that line in Europe.
Switzerland
Bull was represented initially by Egli. In 1947, a
subsidiary Bull Lochkarten Maschinen was created in Zürich.
Tunisia
United Kingdom
Compagnie des Machines Bull started to sell card equipment in UK by selling, in
OEM, some machines to British Tabulating Machines, an heir of Hollerith Company. In
June 1959, it establish a joint venture (50%-50%) with the printing company De La Rue, named De
La Rue Bull Machines Ltd that sold Series 150 equipments. In 1963, Bull reduced its equity in
that company.
In 1964, General Electric had established a subsidiary in London and sold a sizeable
amount of GE-200, and GE-400 computers as well as French produced Gamma 10 and
GE-58. GEIS, Ltd was one of the first GE units to manage to resell the
leased park to achieve better book value.
When Honeywell took over in 1970, its British subsidiary, HIS Ltd,
took over the GE sales. It succeeded to sign many contracts for the Level 66,
including in the British public sector. It also install a reasonable number of Level 64
(later DPS-7) and Level 62.
HIS-UK came under Paris umbrella in 1987 after the take over of the Honeywell
business by Bull.
United States
Bull products were not distributed in USA before 1948, when Remington Rand
acquired distribution rights for Bull punched card equipments. A New-York bureau Bull
Corporation of America established in 1960, was a liaison office and
manages OEM sales of card equipments.
General Electric, Bull becoming part of, sold GE-58 business
minicomputers.
Honeywell Information Systems (North American
Organization) distributed Level 64 from France and Level 62 from Italy. In
1985, Bull acquired HIS : HIS NAO became Honeywell-Bull but
sales of overseas products actually decreased. Eventually, the USA sales network
was sold to Wang that continued to sell a few Bull products.
Uruguay
In 1948, Bull established Sociedad Guillermo Katz del
Uruguay as a sales agent; in 1963, Compagnie des machines Bull established a
direct subsidiary.
Yugoslavia
The former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a geographical area
allocated to the Italian subsidiary of Bull, so there were representatives of
Olivetti-Bull, GEISI and HIS Italy staying in Beograd. In the 1960s a disc based
Gamma 30 was installed in Elektroinvest, the electric components manufacturer at
Sarajevo (presently Bosnia).
There are some countries where direct sales of GE, Honeywell and Bull products have been inexistent.
Revision : 17 février 2015.