Brand: Bull
Founded: 1931
By: Fredrik Rosing Bull
In: Les Clayes-sous-Bois France
Defunct: 2014

Bull is the pioneering French company specializing in professional computing, founded in 1931 to develop and market statistical machines conceived by Norwegian engineer Fredrik Rosing Bull.

Its milestone is the development of the first multitasking computer, the Gamma 60 (1958).
This machine was, in terms of hardware, the cutting-edge of the era's progress (particularly with regard to multitasking), but was hampered by a lack of software.

Bull, having acquired RCA's Swedish subsidiary, found itself short of funds and was acquired by General Electric.

In 1964, the company was renamed Bull General Electric, shortly after its integration into the General Electric group; the latter retained its high-end products, entrusting Bull with its mid-range products, and Olivetti with its low-end products.

In 1975, the French government terminated the Unidata consortium (formed by CII + Siemens + Philips), created to compete with IBM and which could have been the Airbus of computing, unilaterally terminating the agreement and selling Compagnie Internationale d'Informatique (CII) to Honeywell-Bull.

The Ichbiah team moved from CII to the new structure and, on behalf of Honeywell, proposed the definition of the Ada programming language, which was accepted by the Pentagon (1983).

The company was nationalized in 1982, and Groupe Bull was created by the regrouping of CII-Honeywell-Bull, SEMS, and Transac. The French state became a majority shareholder.
In October 1989, Bull purchased Zenith Data Systems, an American manufacturer of PC microcomputers. This operation was intended to capture the federal government market, but resulted in heavy losses due to the clauses of those contracts, particularly the US Air Force Desktop IV contract. ZDS manufactured very inexpensive computers, but its motherboards often proved defective once in use, requiring on-site technical support, so ZDS had to hire another firm to provide the service. Furthermore, under a clause requiring it to provide free software updates, it was forced to assume the cost of upgrading 200,000 computers to Windows 95. This strategic error led to the resale of ZDS to Packard Bell NEC in 1996 (in which ZDS, curiously, was the majority shareholder with 80%).
In 1991-1992, Bull focused on mid- and high-end server operations, customer service, and software development and integration services.

The years 1994 to 1997 saw the gradual privatization of the Bull group, led by Jean-Marie Descarpentries, with the creation of a shareholder base (including France Télécom and NEC) and the opening of the capital to the public. This phase allowed the French state to increase its stake to 17.3%. The group was fully reprivatized in 2004.

Bull manufactured personal computers with the microprocessors that transitioned from the Intel 8080, through the Zilog Z80, and eventually into the x86 family.

Bull advertising from the time.

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