John R. Opel | Former IBM chief, 86

John R. Opel, 86, who led International Business Machines Corp. in the 1980s as it introduced its first personal computer, died Wednesday, IBM said.

As CEO from January 1981 to January 1985, Mr. Opel led IBM into a new era as it put a long-running antitrust investigation behind it and dived into competition with Apple Computer Inc. and others in the home-computer market. The first IBM personal computer, or IBM PC, was introduced in August 1981.

Mr. Opel made the cover of Time magazine on July 11, 1983, for a story titled, "The Colossus That Works: Big Is Bountiful at IBM." The company's earnings of $4.4 billion on sales of $34.4 billion made it the most profitable U.S. industrial company in 1982, according to Time.

IBM shares returned 117 percent during Mr. Opel's tenure as chief, more than five times that of the Standard & Poor's 500 index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

The company bought a minority stake in chipmaker Intel Corp. during Mr. Opel's time as CEO and reorganized its sales force so that a single representative could sell a wide range of products, the New York Times reported in 1984.

Mr. Opel told Time he was bullish on the future for information technology. "I have yet to hear somebody say they could not use more information," he said.

After ceding the CEO role to John F. Akers in 1985, Mr. Opel remained as chairman through May 1986 and as a member of IBM's board and chairman of its executive committee until 1993.

- Bloomberg News