A US corporation formed from Sperry and Burroughs in 1986. The merger was intended to create a computer company large enough to compete head-on with IBM. It was not a success, partly because the merger was mishandled and partly because IBM was in the course of reinventing itself. In 1997 Unisys made a loss of more than $850 million. Following the appointment of a new chief executive, the company’s performance has steadily improved. Its computer manufacturing operations are very profitable and it is steadily developing its business in providing services. It is, however, a comparatively small player in these fields.