The problem in all this started with your statement
that "IBM started out
as a German company". That flies in the face of all the well-known
history.
If you go by this thread the "well-known" history isn't.
IBM didn't exist before they bought the company that turned out to be their
main business and source of income over the next 2 decades. They weren't
IBM before they bought Dehomag, the next year they became IBM. There, does
that mean we can all be friends again?