How NCR Reinvented Itself to Survive

The best companies for long-term investors are able to reinvent themselves in order to keep up with the times. NCR (NYSE: NCR), which began its history more than 130 years ago as the National Cash Register Company, revolutionized the way sales clerks accepted payment with the first mechanical cash registers. Yet NCR never saw itself as solely a cash register manufacturer, and the company has evolved into a global leader in consumer transaction technology, seeking to offer not only hardware but also software and integrated solutions to make the billions of daily interactions between consumers and businesses run more smoothly and efficiently.

NCR has a long history of expansion beyond its namesake niche. In the 1950s, the company began to pursue electronic applications for business machines, creating the first fully transistorized business computer. Later, advances in liquid crystal displays began the evolution away from fully mechanical hardware toward digital cash registers and other equipment.

In 1974, NCR adopted its current name, recognizing that it needed an identity beyond its cash register roots. Innovations ranging from bar-code scanners to data warehousing products expanded NCR's reach, and AT&T (NYSE: T) bought the company in the early 1990s before spinning off what had become its global information systems unit into an independent company in 1997.

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Source: Fool.com