📅 On This Day
IBM's Fateful 1981 PC Launch Accidentally Crowned Microsoft King
On August 12, 1981, IBM introduced the Model 5150 — the IBM Personal Computer — and made 'PC' a household term almost overnight. But the decision to license its operating system from a small company called Microsoft, rather than build one in-house, quietly handed that firm the keys to the software kingdom. Decades later, Microsoft stands among the world's largest dividend payers, a dynasty born from IBM's boardroom pragmatism.
IBM sparked the PC revolution; Microsoft collected most of the financial rewards that followed.
IBM — International Business Machines
🇺🇸 US
Source: Carleton University; IBM Archives
📅 On This Day
IBM's Fateful 1981 PC Launch Accidentally Crowned Microsoft King
On August 12, 1981, IBM introduced the Model 5150 — the IBM Personal Computer — and made 'PC' a household term almost overnight. But the decision to license its operating system from a small company called Microsoft, rather than build one in-house, quietly handed that firm the keys to the software kingdom. Decades later, Microsoft stands among the world's largest dividend payers, a dynasty born from IBM's boardroom pragmatism.
IBM sparked the PC revolution; Microsoft collected most of the financial rewards that followed.
IBM — International Business Machines
🇺🇸 US
Source: Carleton University; IBM Archives
🌍 Around the World
Trinidad and Tobago Dividends Reward Patient Investors With Energy Ties
Trinidad and Tobago levies a 10% withholding tax on dividends paid to non-residents — dropping to 5% for parent companies holding 50% or more. Marquee names like Republic Bank and Massy Holdings offer yields in the 5–8% range, concentrated in energy and financial services. The catch is liquidity: trading volumes on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange are extremely thin, wide bid-ask spreads are common, and exiting a position quickly may simply be impossible.
T&T dividends suit long-horizon investors with a specific thesis on Caribbean energy or banking.
🇹🇹 TT
Source: PwC Trinidad and Tobago withholding tax summary; Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange
🔥 Dividend Streak
ADP's 'Automatic' Name Was Aspirational — the Work Started by Hand
Henry Taub founded Automatic Payrolls, Inc. in 1949 with his brother Joe, serving a single client and running the whole operation with little more than an adding machine. The name was a vision, not a description. One early salesman, Frank Lautenberg, would go on to become a longtime U.S. senator from New Jersey — a reminder that humble beginnings can launch remarkable trajectories. Today, ADP does over $20 billion in revenue and carries 50 consecutive years of dividend increases dating back to 1976.
A company named for automation that once did everything by hand has earned its title many times over.
ADP — Aeroports de Paris SA
Source: Wikipedia – ADP (company); FundingUniverse – Automatic Data Processing, Inc. history
🔥 Dividend Streak
ADP's 'Automatic' Name Was Aspirational — the Work Started by Hand
Henry Taub founded Automatic Payrolls, Inc. in 1949 with his brother Joe, serving a single client and running the whole operation with little more than an adding machine. The name was a vision, not a description. One early salesman, Frank Lautenberg, would go on to become a longtime U.S. senator from New Jersey — a reminder that humble beginnings can launch remarkable trajectories. Today, ADP does over $20 billion in revenue and carries 50 consecutive years of dividend increases dating back to 1976.
A company named for automation that once did everything by hand has earned its title many times over.
ADP — Automatic Data Processing Inc
Source: Wikipedia – ADP (company); FundingUniverse – Automatic Data Processing, Inc. history
💡 Did You Know
Dividend Streaks Follow the CUSIP, Not the Business Behind It
Under S&P's Dividend Aristocrats methodology, the streak belongs to the legal successor entity — the corporate shell that retains the original ticker and CUSIP number. Spun-off children start their streak clock at zero. DuPont discovered this painfully: after merging with Dow Chemical and splitting three ways in 2019, none of the resulting fragments inherited its century-long payment history. Abbott Labs and AbbVie, however, both kept Aristocrat status after their 2013 split — a rare and notable exception to the rule.
The streak lives in the corporate identity, not the factories and workers that actually earn the cash.
🇺🇸 US
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices methodology; DuPont investor relations; Abbott Labs investor relations